Sermon Central
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Between A Rock Ad A Hard Place Series
Contributed by John L Jefferson on Sep 22, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: My brothers and sisters, the story of Israel at the Red Sea is not just their story — it is our story. They were a people who had been in bondage for over 400 years, crying out to God for deliverance. And God raised up a leader, Moses, who stood toe to toe with Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go.”
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Text: Exodus 14:1–14
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Introduction
Isn’t it funny how we are constantly living in the past...? Isn’t it funny how we concentrate on how things used to be, what we used to have… What we used to do…? Memories are good to have… It’s good to reminisce, but I want to let you know that you can’t progress by living in the past…? We can never move forward, if we keep looking backwards...The Lord has been constantly proving Himself to us, taking us through dangers seen and unseen. Yet every time He tries to take us to the next level, we stand there looking over our shoulder in retrospect, contemplating the past!
My brothers and sisters, the story of Israel at the Red Sea is not just their story — it is our story. They were a people who had been in bondage for over 400 years, crying out to God for deliverance. And God raised up a leader, Moses, who stood toe to toe with Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go.”
Now, if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the chains rattling on our own people. For our ancestors, Pharaoh looked like the slave master with the whip in his hand. Pharaoh looked like Jim Crow laws that tried to choke the dignity out of our communities. Pharaoh looked like economic systems that told us we were “less than” and “not enough.”
And just like Israel, when freedom finally came into view, there was still a Red Sea in front of us, an army behind us, and mountains on both sides.
And that’s where some of us are living right now. You’re free — but you’re still facing impossibilities. You’ve been saved, but you still see Pharaoh’s dust rising behind you. You’ve been delivered, but you still feel hemmed in with no way out.
Let me tell you what the Lord told me to tell you: when you’re between a rock and a hard place, that’s the perfect place for God to show up and show out.
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Point 1 – God Sometimes Leads Us Into Tight Places (vv. 1–4)
The text says God didn’t take Israel the easy way. He didn’t send them by the shortcut through Philistine country. Instead, He led them into the wilderness. And then He boxed them in at the Red Sea. Pharaoh behind them. Mountains on both sides. The sea in front. Nowhere to go.
Why would God do that? Why would God lead His people into a trap?
Because God wanted Pharaoh to know, and Israel to know, and the whole world to know that the battle does not belong to us — the battle belongs to the Lord.
Today many of us would rather go back into bandaged than to pay the price of victory. There are so many times in our walk of faith we act like those wilderness wanderers. We would rather go back into the bondage of the enemy than to fight for the victory. There are times we’d rather settle for the mire of mediocrity, than to strive for the pursuit and possession of the Promised Land
Come here, church — isn’t that our story?
• When our ancestors were chained in slave ships, God showed up in the midnight moans and the hush-harbor prayers.
• When the marchers at Selma had dogs and hoses turned on them, God showed up on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
• When mothers cried over sons lost to the streets, somehow God still kept the family together.
God puts us in situations where we can’t fix it, so that when the victory comes, we’ll know it was nobody but the Lord.
Somebody shout: Nobody but the Lord!
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Point 2 – Fear Makes Us Want to Go Back (vv. 10–12)
Now, when Israel saw Pharaoh coming, the Bible says they were terrified. They cried out to the Lord — but then they turned on Moses. Listen to what they said: “Why did you bring us out here? Was it because there were no graves in Egypt? It would have been better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
Do you see what fear does? Fear has a funny way of making us romanticize our chains. Israel said, “At least in Egypt we had food.” But Egypt was still slavery!
And we do the same thing. Fear whispers, “Go back.”
• Go back to that toxic relationship.
• Go back to the corner.
• Go back to the bottle.
• Go back to the streets.
• Go back to living small when God has called you to live free.
Why? Because freedom is frightening. The wilderness is frightening. The unknown is frightening. But child of God, let me announce this loud and clear: going back is not an option!
