When All Is Lost

Exodus 14:10-15:1

¹⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. ³ For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so. ⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” ⁶ So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, ⁷ and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. ⁸ And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. ⁹ The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. ¹⁰ When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” ¹³ And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” ¹⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. ¹⁶ Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. ¹⁸ And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” ¹⁹ Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. ²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. ²² And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ²³ The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. ²⁴ And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, ²⁵ clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.” ²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” ²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸ The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. ²⁹ But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ³⁰ Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹ Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. ^15:1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

One of the surprising readings that accompany Holy Week is the story of the Crossing of the Red Sea as the Children of Israel escape slavery in Egypt. At first blush it seems like a strange tie to the death and resurrection of Jesus. But upon further meditation, maybe it is the perfect story to shine light on God’s miraculous ability to save His people.

This story stands as a background for most of the Old Testament. When God miraculously brings His people out of Egypt, it is to give them The Promised Land. This promise was first shared with Abraham centuries earlier and now the time is right for God to keep that covenant. But after spending 400 years in Egypt Abraham’s descendants had largely forgotten God. They knew Him well enough to do as God commanded (through Moses) to survive the 10 Plagues, the deadliest of which was The Passover. But the people who stood on the banks of the Red Sea with the Egyptian army behind them didn’t truly know Yahweh at this point. His power and ability to care for them was still somewhat unknown. Of course, they panicked as they feared for their lives. In human terms, they were trapped.

The Crossing of the Red Sea is the first story in the Bible where God saves an entire people from destruction. As the story unfolds, we find God acting in accordance with His character and His great love. First, God doesn’t allow the Hebrews to take the short route. That would be unwise because they will immediately face massive problems and probably war because the “short route” would take them right into Philistine territory and they are in no way prepared to face a war. So, God leads them into the Sinai where they would not run into immediate battles. The second thing that God does for them is provide a visual presence for them so that they would know with certainty God was with them. He appeared to them in a pillar of cloud and fire, thus making Him visible by day or by night.  You must admit, that would be pretty cool. For these people who are really in their spiritual infancy, this was perfect. They are still getting to know their God and He is proving to be amazing. That God would stay with His people and not capriciously leave them was also not a part of the pagan beliefs of the people groups in the area at that time. They believed the gods would come and go at will. You couldn’t ever truly trust that they would be there for you. Yahweh is proving Himself to be completely different from what the Hebrews had learned of the Egyptian gods.

The Children of Israel run into their first truly terrifying problem as they flee their slavery and oppression by the Egyptians. They are caught between the approaching army of Pharaoh, who has decided the deaths of all of the firstborn in Egypt isn’t bad enough and is coming back for more, and the Red Sea. It would appear they are out of options. Those are the situations where God shines the brightest. Of course, attitudes and internal thoughts are critical to the entire story. The Pharaoh returns to his hard-heartedness and the Children of Israel choose fear over faith. These two things together make for an amazing story of God’s power and mercy.

Verses 13 and 14 needs to become foundational for all of us. ¹³And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today… ¹⁴The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” The goal might be to learn how to lean into this verse when we are not faced with the Red Sea at our front and the Pharaoh at our back. It’s tough to just stand there in the face of overwhelming trouble. But if you think about it, we aren’t “doing nothing”. God gives us four things to do in those moments but we are so self-sufficient that we don’t think those four things are enough. But they are enough because God is enough.

1. Fear not – Fear is one of Satan’s best tools. When we are afraid we cease to think clearly and begin to react rather than to trust in God. We immediately begin to exhaust our own resources in order to escape the fear. But God gives us further action to take in those moments.
2. Stand firm – And here’s the tough one! Standing still goes against the grain of our self-centered lifestyle. I, as the master of my own destiny, seem to be what comes out first. God gives counter-intuitive counsel. STAND STILL! We receive the same instruction in Ephesians 6 where Paul talks with us about how to defeat evil in our lives. He helps us see that we have an entire spiritual outfit that brings protection against evil. And over and over in that passage we are told to simply “stand.”
3. See the salvation of the Lord – Pay attention! Watch and see what the Lord will do. We’re so busy tending to what we will do that we don’t pay attention to the mighty hand of God doing what He will. And don’t get me wrong – it is really difficult to stand still when we are struggling. And I don’t mean that aren’t doing anything, because we are – we are paying attention to the Lord. We are looking at Him with a laser focus. That can be hard and effective work.
4. Be silent – We’ve heard it before and we’ll hear it again. Shut your mouth so that you can focus on the Lord.

We too, are caught by the ravages of sin in our lives. We have nowhere to turn for salvation if we are trusting in our own powers to save us. Jesus comes along and presents a path that we would have never dreamed of by ourselves. He parts the waters of baptism and we are saved. We did nothing to make it happen. We didn’t come up with a plan. God moved without our permission or help.

“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, be silent.”

The text is clear about one thing – God is in control of this entire event from start to finish. He is the one who leads the Children of Israel to the shores of the Red Sea. He is the one who places a barrier between His people and the coming army. He is the one who opens the path between the waters of the sea so that His people may cross. He is the one who slams that water back together when His people have reached the opposite shore, entrapping the Egyptians. He is the one who moves the Egyptians to make a very bad choice and pursue the Hebrews. This is such a clear example of the sovereignty of the Lord. He determined all the events that took place. He even controlled the emotions of the Egyptians, prompting them to make the foolish and arrogant decision to follow the Hebrews into the sea. God clearly had a plan in mind that finally ended the contentious relationship the Hebrews had with their former captors.

I pray that you are able to see the hand of God moving with sovereignty over your own life. If we believe His Word there is nothing left to chance. Just as He saved the Hebrews from death and enslavement, so too has He worked His plan to save all of us from sin, death, and the devil. Who would have ever thought that God would come to earth as human only to be killed by us to pay for the sins of the world? But that was His plan all along and He worked it out because of His great love for us. The story of the crossing of the Red Sea captures our imagination, as well it should. So too should the story of Jesus grab our hearts and minds with wonder and awe as we recognize what God has done and continues to do every single day.