SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). God’s leading (vs 1-4)
(2). Israel's panic (vs 10-13).
(3). God's power (vs 13-31).
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
• The Black Hole – YouTube video clip -
• Download the film here: http://tinyurl.com/futureshorts-com-blackhole
Transition:
• Have you ever found yourself trapped?
• In a predicament?
• We actually have a lot of word pictures in the English language;
• That we use to describe being in a difficult situation.
• We hear phrases such as “you sure have painted yourself into a corner,”
• We are “up against the wall”.
• Or “in a pickle” or “in a jam.”, a “Catch 22” situation.
• “Between a rock and a hard place?”
• They are all word pictures to describe being trapped;
• To describe being in a situation where there is “No way out?”
Well in Exodus chapter 14 that this is the case with the Hebrew people.
• They find themselves in a desperate situation.
• They are imprisoned, trapped with nowhere to turn.
• There seems to be no way out;
• They’re caught... Between the Pharaoh and the deep Red Sea!
Application: It may be this morning that you find yourself in a predicament:
• You might be in that situation;
• Because of an unwise series of decisions you have made i.e. it’s your own fault!
• Or maybe you find yourself in a predicament through no fault of your own;
• i.e. It occurred because of circumstances beyond your control.
• Well this ancient story has some up to date help;
• This chapter contains the most involved predicament Israel ever faced;
• And remember they lived to tell the story!
(1). God’s leading (vs 1-4)
“Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon”
• Remember that for 400 years these Hebrew people had been in slavery to Egypt.
• Not only had they lost their freedom, but also their culture.
• Their pattern of lifestyle – without realising it they were Egyptian to the core.
• They had picked up the habits, the earmarks, the style,
• They even the very smell of Egypt (leeks & garlic!) came from them.
• That is why God brought them to the Red Sea;
• He wanted to get their attention;
• So he put them in an impossible situation so that all they could do was to look to him.
Note:
• Glance back for a moment to the previous chapter (13 verse 18) note the words:
• “So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea”.
• Again note in chapter 13 verse 21:
• God led them by a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night;
• And again at the start of chapter 14:
• We read God is leading his people through Moses his servant.
Now the point I want to make is this:
• The Hebrew peoples predicament was not an accident.
• It wasn’t a wrong turn. It wasn’t a miscalculation.
• God led, Go put, God guided these Hebrew people in an impossible situation;
• Because he knew these people needed this Red Sea experience;
• They needed to see him in a tangible way;
• And discover him as the God they could trust and depend upon.
Application:
• If you are in a predicament this morning;
• You can moan about it, feel sorry for yourself because of it;
• Or like the Hebrew people;
• You can use this situation to help you discover God in a real and fresh way.
• This morning you can experience God as some you can trust and depend upon.
Notice:
• In verse 2 that God ordered Moses to change direction;
• To the horror of the people he told them to backtack;
• To retrace their footsteps all the way back to Baal Zephon.
• Now you did not need a Satnav to know this new route was not actually the best.
• Many if not all the of the Hebrew people realised this;
• And they must have thought this was madness;
• They were being taken back into a geographical cul-de-sac!
Ill:
• Very soon they would find themselves trapped,
• With the Red Sea on one side, which was un-crossable by human standards.
• (The Red Sea is some 5 to 8 miles across & 250’ - 300’ deep).
• On the other side trackless wilderness;
• And in front an overwhelming barrier of mountains.
• In other words they were being boxed in by their own God;
• And by their leader Moses.
• And the people knew it was only a matter of time;
• Before Pharaoh would decide to pursue them;
• And when he did they knew that they had no escape – they were trapped.
But God’s ways are not our ways:
• Verses 3:
• Gives us another reason why the Lord selected this route.
“Then Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are confused. They are trapped in the wilderness!’ 4 And once again I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after you I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. After this the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD!” So the Israelites camped there as they were told.”
• God knew that as soon as Pharaoh was informed of the Hebrew peoples wandering:
• He would chuckle to himself and his advisers;
• And assume that the Hebrew people were lost.
• The reports would convince Pharaoh that the Hebrew people;
• Where wandering like lost sheep in the desert,
• And therefore were fair game for his army to pursue and capture.
Unlike the Hebrew people & Pharaoh and his army we know that God had a plan:
• We know that the Lord was drawing the Egyptians into His trap.
• What seemed like it would be an easy victory to Egypt;
• Would actually turn out to be a humiliating and embarrassing defeat,
• And once again the one true God of the Hebrews would get all the glory.
• And once again this narrative shows us that God is always one step ahead of his enemies.
ill:
• A painter once painted the devil playing a game of chess with a young man.
• They were gambling for high stakes.
• If he lost then the young man’s eternal soul would belong to the devil.
• But if he won then he would have as much riches and fame as he wanted.
• Dodgy theology I know;
• But it does make for an interesting scenario.
• As you studied the painting you immediately noticed;
• That devil had a look of delight on his face;
• And the young man a look of fright and horror.
• It was checkmate to the devil;
• The young man was trapped, defeated, all that was left was to admit defeat.
• The story goes that one day a great chess player came into the museum:
• Naturally he was attracted to this piece of art.
• And stood staring at it for several hours.
• When the chess player went home he decided to set out the pieces on his chess board,
• Exactly as they were in the picture.
• And after he had studying it for a while:
• He realised that the painter was a great artist but a lousy chess player
• By moving just one piece,
• The expert chess player was able to turn certain defeat into certain victory!
Application:
• That is what will happen here in Exodus chapter 14;
• God was able to turn certain defeat into certain victory!
• And of course on another occasion – outside of Jerusalem, on the side of the road:
• God was again able to turn certain defeat into certain victory!
• As people looked at Jesus Christ and said unanimously: “he is finished – there is no hope”;
• Little did they realise that this part of God’s master plan for his world.
• And from the defeat of the cross;
• God would bring the world’s greatest victory through the resurrection of his son!
(2). Israel's panic (verses 10-13).
“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?”
Verse 10 is the first time that these Hebrew people cried out to God en masse;
• Actually what we see here is a typical human response to a predicament:
• They follow the pattern most people run-through in a difficulty.
• First (verse 10) they pray.
• ill: They used God like we would use the A.A. or R.A.C. when our cars break down!
• Second (verse 11) when relief is not instant;
• They look for someone to blame - in this case Moses.
• They say to Moses- we would rather be slaves and safe back in Egypt;
• Then free men and in danger here in the desert.
Notice Moses response in verse 13: “Do not fear”
• You can just imagine the Hebrew people saying; “Moses get real!”
• “Moses, look around you, we are in trouble with a capitol T’
But Moses is not finished, he has a second piece of advice for the people:
• N.I.V.:
• “Do not be afraid. Stand firm & you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today”
• N.L.T:
• “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today
• K.J.B.:
• Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord
Ill:
• A boy and his father were riding in their car one summer day;
• The windows were rolled down.
• And into the car flew a bee.
• The boy, who was very allergic to the bee’s sting, panicked.
• The father reached out as the bee flew around the boy and caught the bee in his hand.
• A few seconds later,
• The father released the bee and it again started flying around the panicked boy.
• The father told the boy there was no need to panic,
• As the father had taken the sting from the bee;
• And he told his son the bee could no longer hurt him.
Application:
• That is the lesson that God wants these Hebrew people to learn;
• Their enemies can no longer hurt them - God has removed their sting!
• So keep looking to him in faith!
• Look to him to ‘deliver’, to ‘rescue’, to bring ‘salvation’.
Have you realised that? The Bible teaches we have three main enemies:
• Sin,
• Devil,
• Death.
• On the cross all three were defeated!
• We too can know victory!
• Look to him to ‘deliver’, to ‘rescue’, to bring you ‘salvation’ this morning!
(3). God's power (vs 13-31).
Ill:
• Nine year old Joey was asked by his mother;
• What he had learned in Sunday School that day:
• ‘Well, Mom, our teacher told us;
• How God sent Moses behind the enemy lines on a rescue mission;
• To lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
• When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge,
• And all the people walked across safely.
• He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike.
• They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.’
• His mother replied:
• ‘Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?’
• Joey answered:
• ‘Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher said, you’d never believe it!’”
Well, what really happened in this narrative was a miraculous delivery
• Although this story actually contains not one but three miracles;
• They are all there in the text.
• Notice: God told Moses and the people to go forward (vs 15).
• “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me?
• Tell the Israelites to move on”
• Isn’t that great! An un-crossable ocean in front of you and God says,
• “Go on walk! What are you waiting for?”
• In other words if they wanted to see God at work it would require a step of faith.
• God always works on the basis of faith!
• Moses was a man of faith:
• He knew that Pharaoh's army was no threat to the true God.
FIRST MIRACLE: GOD MOVED THE CLOUD BEHIND THEM (VS 19-20).
“Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long”.
This achieved two things:
• First it obviously stopped the Egyptians from getting to the Hebrew people;
• So it brought protection.
• Secondly: It blocked out the enemy from the Hebrew peoples view;
• It helped reduce their anxiety and panic because the problem was hid from view.
Ill:
• Felix Noalla was a persecuted follower of Christ;
• And once while fleeing his enemies he crawled into a cave to hide;
• Where he prayed for safety.
• And a spider came and spun a web over the small entrance to that cave.
• And when his attackers came looking for him;
• They came right up to the cave;
• But when they saw the spiders web they reasoned that no one had been there.
• Later Noalla wrote:
• "Where God is, a web is like a wall. Where God is not, a wall is like a web."
• And God spun a wall between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
• He relieved their fears and gave them protection.
SECOND MIRACLE: HE OPENED THE PATH THROUGH THE SEA (VS 21)
“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.”
• Wow! What an incredible experience this must have been;
• With a massive, vertical wall of water on either side;
• The Hebrew people were able to walk through a path to the other side!
Ill:
• Gladys Aylward, was a missionary to China;
• In 1938 she was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yangcheng.
• But she could not leave her work behind.
• With only one assistant, she led more than a hundred orphan children;
• Over the mountains towards Free China.
• In their book "The Hidden Price of Greatness,"
• Ray Besson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker tell what happened:
• "During Glady’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng;
• She grappled with despair as never before.
• After passing a sleepless night, she faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety.
• A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded her of their much-loved story;
• The story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.
• "But I am not Moses," Gladys cried in desperation.
• "Of course you aren’t," the girl said, "but Jehovah is still God."
• When Gladys and the orphans made it through,
• They proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel,
• God is still God, and we can trust in him.
Ill:
• 1957, Alan Burgess wrote a book about Gladys Aylward,
• Called ‘The Small Woman’.
• It was condensed in The Reader's Digest,
• And made into a movie called ‘The Inn of the Sixth Happiness’, starring Ingrid Bergman.
• When the magazine Newsweek magazine reviewed the movie,
• And summarized the plot,
• A reader, supposing the story to be fiction, wrote in to say,
• "In order for a movie to be good, the story should be believable!"
Application:
• Gladys Aylward, Moses and every Christian (EVERY Christian):
• Has a God who can do the impossible – he specialises in miracles!
• The greatest miracle of all is salvation!
THIRD MIRACLE: GOD DESTROYED THE EGYPTIANS (VS 24-31)
“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. 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.
• When the Egyptian soldiers tried to follow,
• The mud disabled their chariots and impeded their progress;
• And when the waters returned, all the Egyptian soldiers were drowned.
• Not a single Egyptian survived the waters;
• And yet not a single Hebrew was hurt!
• God had kept his word;
• These Hebrew people would not see their enemy the Egyptians again!
Ill:
• Bishop Philip Brooks, was the author of the Christmas carol:
• “O, Little Town of Bethlehem,”
• When he became seriously ill,
• He requested no friends come to see him.
• But one day an acquaintance of his named Robert Ingersoll,
• He was well known for being an anti-Christian propagandist.
• Strangely when he came to see Bishop Brooks;
• He allowed him to come in right away.
• Ingersoll said to the Bishop: “I appreciate this very much.
• Especially when you aren’t letting any of your close friends see you.”
• Bishop Brooks responded, “Oh, I’m confident of seeing them in the next world,
• But this may be my last chance to see you.”
In Summary: This story teaches us several things:
• You have no problem God cannot solve.
• He may not solve it the way you want;
• But there is no problem that God cannot solve!
• You have no enemy God cannot defeat.
• He has defeated your biggest – sin – death – devil!
• You have no enemy God cannot defeat.
• You have no ability to save yourself but must depend upon God to save you.
• “Salvation is of the Lord”.
• You have no ability to save yourself but must depend upon God to save you.
