Exodus 14:9 – 15 reads, “So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.
Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians that that we should die in the wilderness.”
And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” Blessed be the reading of God’s Word this morning.
But now in chapter 14 we see a different Pharaoh. Pharaoh has changed his mind. He and his advisors have all second-guessed the release of the Israelite slaves. In verse 5 Pharaoh says, “Why have we done this, letting Israel go from serving us?” Pharaoh still wanted the Israelites as slaves. He wasn’t about to let them go on their merry way. He wanted the Israelites back doing whatever he commanded them to do.
So Pharaoh took 600 chariots and his army with him, hunting for Israelites. Pharaoh wasn’t only in the mood to recapture slaves. He was in the mood for revenge. Because of the plagues and his first-born son he was also in the mood for slaughter. And it didn’t take long for Pharaoh and his horse-drawn chariots to catch up with the Israelites who were traveling on foot.
Let’s try to put ourselves in the sandals of the Israelites. They were just released from slavery and now were looking for the Promised Land. The Egyptians were pretty happy to see you go. Even Pharaoh sent you off with a blessing. So now you and your 60,000 closest friends and family are camped near the Red Sea. It’s like one big Thanksgiving. Today you don’t have to work in the clay pits making bricks. Today you don’t have to be a servant girl for any Egyptian man. Today you don’t get whipped.
In fact you’re thinking that you’ll never get whipped like a slave again. You start thinking about the Promised Land. What did that Moses guy mean when he said, “a land of milk and honey?” It sounds pretty good. A smile creeps across your face as you think of the family you’ll be able to start without being afraid of your spouse being taken away, let alone your children. Yes sir, life is looking good. “The future so bright you’ve got to wear shades.”
Of course you were thinking that 5 seconds ago. You were thinking that before you saw a dust cloud full of chariots come over the hill. Terrified, you look around for a hiding place. To the left is Pi-Hahiroth a range of impassable rocks and cliffs. To the right is Baal Zephon, outpost of the Egyptian army. Behind you is you-know-who chasing you down and in front of you is the Red Sea. You don’t even have a chicken-wire canoe to start paddling.
You look back again. It’s like they’re almost on top of you. You feel the thundering hooves on of the chariot horses and you can hear a faint battle cry of Pharaoh’s army. Now your dreams of settling down and raising a family are gone. Your dreams are replaced by the nightmare of being crushed by one of Pharaoh’s iron chariots or being speared in the back as you run for cover.
So where do you run? Wait a minute, it was that Moses guy that got us here in the first place. And in the distance towards the beach you see a large crowd gathering. “Are they getting ready to defend the camp?” you ask yourself. But instead, you hear people yelling and cursing and shaking their fists towards Moses. It looks like people want to kill Moses before they fight the Egyptians.
You don’t blame them. It was him that got you in this mess in the first place. What was he thinking? Did he just want to lead you to your personal tombstone here in the desert? Didn’t your leaders tell him that he was asking way too much when he asked Pharaoh for freedom? The brick-making wasn’t that bad. Sure you got dirty all day long but at least you could live. You didn’t mind the whippings, it didn’t happen ever day. Pharaoh’s really not that bad. Maybe if you beg for mercy he’ll spare your life.
Then Moses speaks. His voice hushes the crowd. It’s as if someone just stopped time. All eyes are on Moses and he says something that stops the chaos and confusion. He says, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. Because the Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you only have to hold still.” And it happened. God told Moses to stretch out his hand over the water and the Sea split in two. You could walk straight through the sea without getting wet!
You and I know the “rest of the story.” God protects His people as they go through the middle of the Sea on dry land. Pharaoh and his army follow the ex-slaves and God brings the Sea crashing down on them, drowning them all. The Israelites are safe and God proves that He does, “fight the battle” for His people.
But what is interesting about this passage is Scripture is the people. You see what the people did and said is an interesting example of what people do when they are afraid. That’s what we’re going to look at today – fear. Its’ effects and our responses.
Now instead of Pharaoh, chariots, and being cornered between the desert and the Red Sea I would like for us to exchange those things with something many churches are afraid of. In fact, all of us have faced this thing some time or the other. This thing is CHANGE. Changes in work, changes in friends and family, changes in the church, and changes within ourselves.
Were the Israelites facing changes? You bet they were. No longer slaves, but free. No longer in one place but looking for the Promised Land. No longer without God but now they had Him in 3D, up close and personal. They were experiencing changes left and right. And now in the middle of those changes it seemed their very existence was being threatened.
Change is inevitable and how we handle it determines what type of person we’ll be. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: It would be a lot harder for it to learn how to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at this moment. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg minding your own business. We must be hatched or go bad. It can be scary and alarming when there is change but God is already there.
The Israelites were faced with fear from all sides and all kinds. Let’s look at the types of fear and how they handled it:
First, Pharaoh and his army overtook or caught up with the Israelites when they were very vulnerable – out in the open and pinned down. They didn’t expect Pharaoh to come roaring over the hill as they camped peacefully. So the Israelites saw Pharaoh’s army and their blood ran cold. You see, it was their past that was catching up with them. They were afraid because their past meant certain slavery and possible death. And now that oppressive power that kept them down is right in their face, breathing down their necks. And all they can manage is a, “God help us!” prayer.
Has that ever happened to you? Have your past struggles and temptations come roaring down at you out of the blue? You thought you had dealt with that issue, you thought you had conquered that sin? And before you know it you’re running for cover. The past can overwhelm you, sucker-punch you and leave you running for the rest of your life.
Secondly, now that they were good and terrified they looked for someone to blame. Let’s blame this Moses guy who took us out here! Who put this guy in charge anyways?! You see instead of dealing with their fear they looked for a scapegoat. How their song changed when they saw Pharaoh’s army. Instead of joy in being free from the Egyptians slavery, they now blame Moses for taking them out of Egypt.
The only thing that blame does is keep the focus off of you and shift it to looking for something or somebody else to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You might succeed in making another person feel guilty by blaming them, but you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy. It’s like the old saying, “People who are out to find fault seldom find anything else.”
Thirdly, the Israelites didn’t stop blaming Moses for misleading them. They attack the very reason why they are free. They basically tell him, “I told you so. Now look what you did!” They are out in the wilderness because God has released them from slavery. They are supposed to be finding the Promised Land but instead they are wishing they were ‘serving’ in Egypt.
It’s funny how they changed the story. Before, they were suffering under the cruel oppression and slavery of Pharaoh. Now they want to go back to ‘serving’ him like a host of a dinner party serves their guests. They have lost faith in the God who has brought them Moses and set them free. They have forgotten His promises. They are now afraid of the future and what could happen.
You’ve heard that saying, “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.” We are all probably guilty of looking back at times and wishing we were back in our own kind of Egypt. Why do we have to be where we are now? Can’t we have it like it was? Sure we had struggles but at least we weren’t dealing with what we’re dealing with right this minute.
Instead of living today where God has us, we spend more and more time looking back to what we thought was the good life. But in reality that so-called ‘good life’ kept us in chains. This is true especially with sin in our past. Like the Israelites we can look back at our sinful life and think, ‘that wasn’t so bad.’ Lord knows where some of us might be if we didn’t have Jesus come and take that sin away. Thank God for His promise of salvation.
So we’ve looked at 3 ways the Israelites and ourselves react to fear and change. By running away from the past, by running to blame someone, and by running away from God and His promises. We are all on our journey towards the Promised Land. We have all encountered changes and fears. We will continue to wrestle with changes and our fears. At times we are like a small boat all alone in the calm eye of a hurricane. How will we deal with all of the problems, changes and fears that swirl around us? We may feel like we are standing in the eye of the hurricane watching the storm get dangerously close. Listen to this poem and ask yourself the question at its end:
My friend called me from the hurricane’s eye.
Perhaps she phoned to say good-bye;
Or maybe tell me she’s still alive.
I do not know but I wonder why.
And what type of beast is her hurricane
The storms that rage inside her brain?
It’s dark and cold, it has no name.
It took it all from her, except her shame.
It took from her, her sanity.
It took from her, her family.
It took from her, a heart sweet and true.
It took from her, her Master too.
So here’s to her, and hard cold rain.
A poor windswept thing, amidst such pain.
I sense what was, might never be.
Unless from this storm, can you be set free?
And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace.”
In the middle of fears and changes God wants us to keep moving forward like He told the Israelites. He’ll fight the battles, just keep going toward the Promise that He’s given you. Helen Mallicoat writes,
I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking: “MY NAME IS I AM”
He paused. I waited. He continued.
When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard.
My name is not I WAS.
When you live in the future, with its problems and fears,
it is hard.
I am not there. My name is not I WILL BE.
When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I AM.
God will be with you in your hurricane of change, fear, and worry. He is there. Let Him guide you and fights your battles. Let Him show you the salvation He’s promised. Amen
