No Where to Turn
(Ex. 14:5-31)
Intro: This is my 1st Bible (Hold up 1st Bible).
Do you know that difference between this Bible and yours is…well…it says the same thing; it’s the word of God…however this Bible is really special to me.
Before I was a Christian – years before, my grandfather gave me this Bible.
My grandpa was a very special guy to me…
He prayed all my life that I would become a Christian. He never would get off the phone without saying, “Scott, I wish you’d start going to church.”
I would dismiss it and say, “OK, grandpa, I’ll think about it.”
I’d go back to my business and not even think about it.
I could have cared less about God.
I re-found it in my office the other day, and I begin to flip through it…and I was blown away.
I am what some will call and “active reader” meaning I highlight everything, I write notes in the margins, I write questions, I don’t know why – I just do.
That’s what makes this Bible so incredible to me…the things I highlighted are from a time when I had NO idea about the Bible…I had no clue about church, I had no clue about anything…but these highlights represent my first glimpses into the amazing, incredible, and all-sufficient heart of our God.
This was the Bible I read when I had no bias and it was a very rough time in my life.
It was literally the first time I read Scripture…how I miss those days…don’t you?
One of the 1st stories I ever highlighted was the story of Moses.
Even if you’re not a Christian or a Jew, everybody knows all about Moses.
It’s captivated people for millennia…it even captured the great director Cecil B. Demille in 1956 to direct the epic The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston…you know, the “Let my people go…” guy.
So the story of the Exodus is familiar to all of us.
However, just like everything, things can become so familiar that we forget about the little details that make the Scriptures so amazing and life-changing!
Before we get started we need to get an important point: In the Exodus the hero is not Moses, church.
The hero is God.
It is by His design and His power that the Jewish nation is set free from 400 years of slavery to Egypt.
God is the hero – God has the final say – and no matter what, our God is in control, church!
I want to fill you in a little on the background going on here.
This is paraphrasing btw, b/c for time’s sake we can’t read the whole book.
So a baby gets hidden in a basket in the reeds while there is a period of ethnic cleansing going on by Pharaoh’s order b/c the Hebrews are too prosperous.
They are having too many babies…can’t have an uprising, you know.
Pharaoh orders the death of all boys…
So a lady has a boy and puts him in a basket.
His name was Moses, who, because Pharaoh’s daughter picked him up was in line to possibly be the next Pharaoh, and then found out he was a Hebrew and killed a guy for mistreating the slaves, then didn’t want to be Egyptian anymore and ran out to the desert and became a shepherd with his father-in-law, Jethro…no he didn’t move to Kentucky.
He hangs out there for about forty years, and then God calls him by way of a burning bush. He tells Moses that He’s going to go back to Egypt and face down the Pharaoh, who btw is Ramses, who is basically a brother to Moses and demand the release of over 2 million people who sustain the Egyptian economy.
Obviously that didn’t sit too well with Ramses and he says no…a few times – then God sends the 10 plagues, and then the Hebrews are released after Pharaoh loses his only son to the plague of the first born.
During that time the Hebrews are told to get rid of the yeast and consecrate themselves for 7 days, paint the door posts with lamb’s blood so that the angel of death will “Pass Over” them and spare them…thus the Passover.
So, they are told something big is about to happen – something monumental – so big, that they will celebrate it year after year after year.
Think about this – you’ve seen the 10 plagues, you’re seeing the Passover, and you’re ready to let the Egyptians get some payback!
You are literally watching the miraculous hand of God at work…how incredible would that be?
Now we can get to chapter 14
So now, Pharaoh has changed his mind after some friends told him he was an idiot…he’s like “what did I just do?!?!” And so he rallies the army – witch, btw is the largest and most powerful military on the planet at this time, and chases them down.
Now the Hebrews, who were in the middle of this giant escape and have left Egypt start to get scared…why? Because they are trapped…not just like, “we can’t run fast enough because we don’t have chariots” trapped, but b/c they were literally at a dead end!
There was no way to go – there was no escape…Pharaoh on one side – the Red Sea on the other…
Amazing passage of Scripture isn’t it!
See, there are so many things going on in this story that it would take months to get through them all…so I hope your comfortable…totally kidding.
But what can we pull from this to apply our lives?
There are a couple questions we should ask ourselves here:
(SLIDE) What are you running from?
The Hebrews were running from Egypt – from slavery – from captivity: for their lives!
What’s chasing you?
A hopeless task? A looming deadline? Sickness? Death? Pain?
More money going out than coming in? Depression? Anxiety?
Bitterness? Envy? Fear of change? A Label? Family troubles?
We all have something chasing us – it’s making you nervous just sitting here thinking about it…makes me nervous thinking about mine as well…
It’s like a horror movie: We’re running and running and running so fast so we don’t get caught, so we don’t slip, so we don’t die…and then we run into a dead end…or fall down and get overtaken…or faint.
The Israelites are being cornered by the most powerful, brutal, and unrelenting military force on the globe…and they are literally at a dead end.
(SLIDE) The crazy thing, church, is this: God put them there on purpose: “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea (Ex. 14:2).
How many of you are going through something causing you worry, stress, pain, suffering?
Did you ever think that you’re going through what you’re going through because God has a purpose for it?
God doesn’t do anything arbitrarily or “just because.” He’s got a plan and He will bring it to pass, amen?
We get caught up in the “fairness” of God or the “Why would God…”
You know what I’m talking about, right?
How could a loving God…fill in the blank?
(SLIDE) That’s exactly what happens here: As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (10-12)
That’s a natural response in the face of trouble…but not for God’s people!
That leads us to the 2nd question we need to ask:
(SLIDE) Why are you doubting?
When our backs are against the wall, when we’re between a rock and a hard place – between Pharaoh and the Red Sea, why does doubt creep in?
We have all seen the mighty hand of God working in our lives!
Sometimes in our small problems we forget just how BIG God truly is and what He is able to do…let’s take a little side-trip to remember, OK?
Look at the Universe!
Let’s look at Canis Majoris for example:
(SLIDE) Show Picture
If the earth were a golf ball, then Canus Majoris is the height of Mt. Everest.
That’s 29,029 ft, or 6 & some odd miles high!
You can fit… 7 quadrillion earths inside of Canus Majoris.
A quadrillion is a number followed by 15 zeros, fyi.
That’s enough golf-balls to cover the entire state of Texas….22 inches deep.
(SLIDE) By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. (Ps. 33:6, NIV).
We have a God who created with the breath of His mouth! Talk about POWER!
So why do we think He can’t handle our problems?
Why do you doubt, brother? What is keeping you from believing, sister?
Lord, help our unbelief!
So what do we do when doubt creeps in? God tells us right here:
(SLIDE) “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. (14:13-14)
The first thing we need to do is Stand Firm
(SLIDE) Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (1 Cor. 15:1-2, NIV)
We are able to stand firm, knowing that God, who led us to this point in our lives, will also get us through it – even when it seems impossible!
BTW, the word ‘impossible’ doesn’t exist to our God.
Stand firm in your faith, church! Don’t forget the things you’ve seen God do among us (elaborate) and for you!
Then he says, “You need only be still.”
In the Hebrew this word means to “plow or engrave.” That’s weird…why would that be said here?
It means that God is telling the Israelites to dig in – hold on, MAKE YOURSELF SO THAT YOU CANNOT MOVE!
Church, when life is coming at you, sometimes the only thing... Yet the hardest thing…is to just hold on.
You’re being battered by the storm, hit with arrows from Satan, getting rocks chucked at you for doing right…You want to run, don’t you?
You want to throw up the white flag of surrender…but you can’t.
Just stand still…God is there…He will uphold you!
MAKE A STAND! HOLD THE LINE!
(SLIDE) It’s wise to remember psalm 46 - God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. (CLICK) 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.(CLICK) 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 8 Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.(CLICK) 10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
God’s purpose in suffering, in hardship, in trouble is to show you that if you just hold out a little longer, you WILL stand…b/c He is able to make you…you can’t on your own!
It’s not because God isn’t fair, or b/c God is mad at you, or God is punishing you – It’s because God loves you and He will be glorified in you…that’s why He created you to glorify Him – to Worship Him!
God is teaching us trust…so Be still and know that He is God! His name will be exalted among the nations, His name will be exalted in the earth! The LORD ALMIGHT IS WITH US!
Stand firm and be still, church!
God is in control!
Ronald Reagan said this about heroes, “Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver five minutes longer.”
Can you hold out just 5 more minutes?
I know discouragement can be a killer…believe me I know.
Church, God is fighting for us – He’s working for you, He’s glorifying His name through your life! Can’t you just hold on a little longer?
(SLIDE) Remember what God said through Isaiah to a discouraged Israel: “Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? (CLICK) 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. (CLICK) 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; (CLICK) 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Is. 40:27-31, NIV)
That brings us to the end of this part of God’s story.
(SLIDE) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. (Ex. 14:15-16).
Why do we stand here yelling @ God…God it’s not fair – it’s not right – how could you let this happen? Why am I here again? Why can’t I just get away?
God says, tell the people to MOVE ON – take the step forward….”but there’s a sea there, God.”
I know, my child…move forward.
Quiet yourself…don’t doubt…stand firm and take that step.
But…Father…There’s no step to take…I can’t move…
Move on, Child…I will make the step.
Then look what happens:
(SLIDE) Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.(CLICK) 23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. (CLICK) 25 He jammed[b] the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.” (CLICK) 26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward[c] it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. (CLICK) 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. (Ex. 14:21-28)
2 million people walked through a parted sea…on dry ground.
And then at the last second, as the last Hebrew crossed and Pharaoh’s army was about to overtake them, God pulled the sea back down…and not one of them survived…the problem that was chasing them was gone…the terror was gone…
Just like that.
Why? Because God is faithful.
My Savior, He can move the mountains – our God is mighty to save!
He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end – He existed before time, before anything, and He is mighty to save…not only to save, but to save COMPLETELY (Heb. 7:25).
Our God is able to make a pathway to safety out of a dead end – our God is able to make beauty from a life of brokenness, a life of pain….our God is able to make ALL THINGS NEW! (Rev. 21:5)
Discouragement doesn’t seem so bad in this light, does it, church?
Problems seem…well they seem kind of tiny when compared to our God, don’t they?
Stand firm – Hold fast…help is on the way…God has given you everything you need to hold out and be brave for just 5 minutes longer. (Eph 1:3)
God isn’t calling you to solve your problems; church…He’s calling you to be strong and courageous and to not be afraid…
That phrase appears 365 times in the Bible – did you know that?
He’s calling you to stand faithful and hold on to Him, even when the room is burning down…even to the point of death!
God is there…God is holding us…God has saved us.
When I call on Jesus, all things are possible!
He will move Heaven and Earth to come rescue me when I call!
You believe that, church?
I do!
Church, in Christ we are more than conquerors!
You know what that means? That means the war is already won!
The Risen Christ stands in victory and by doing that, sin and death’s curse have no grip on me!
“No power of Hell nor Scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand, for I am His, and He is Mine, Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.”
Till He returns, or calls me home – Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
Don’t’ give up – it’s not over…in fact, this can be the night it all begins again.
