On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline to begin the fight for regaining control of northern Europe from Nazi Germany. This event is called…“D-Day.” Do you know why it’s called that? Answers commonly offered are: Designated Day; Decision Day; Departed Date; Doomsday; and even Death Day because over 4,000 Allied troops were killed in this military offensive. Experts, however, don’t agree on the meaning of the word “D-Day.”
So let me offer this meaning—not as it applies to the 1944 offensive along the coast of Normandy—but as it applies to a divine rescue operation 3,500 years ago in Egypt. As we come to the half-way point of our sermon series “Moses: Made for More,” we’ll see that the Israelite crossing of the Red Sea was a D-Day, that is, it was a day of defiance, despair, and deliverance. As we study the events of this D-Day, we’ll learn how the true God is a warrior who fights in unconventional ways to bring his people safely through every challenge. (Read selected verses from text.)
Last week we heard how, with the Tenth Plague and the killing of the firstborns, God knocked the Israelites loose from Egypt, like an icicle you might tap free from an overhang. The Israelite exodus, however, wasn’t a chaotic affair, like an icicle falling to the pavement and shattering into hundreds of pieces. No, the sacred text tells us that Israel “left Egypt in battle formation.” (Ex. 13:18 – HCSB) The Israelites even took with them the bones of Joseph, who had died some 400 years earlier. This was in accordance with Joseph’s request which highlighted his faith that God would one day bring the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. When that happened, Joseph wanted to be along for the ride (Ex. 13:19). So this was no funeral procession for Joseph, it was a march of triumph—as is the trip to the cemetery for every person who dies believing in Jesus! God will not abandon us there to simply rot and decay. He will raise our bodies and bring us to the heavenly Promised Land, even if it takes 400 years or more.
At first, everything went smoothly for the newly-released Israelites. And why shouldn’t it? God himself was leading the way by appearing as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:21-22). He directed the Israelites away from the shortest route to the Promised Land because it would have taken them past Egyptian garrisons and later in conflict with the Philistines (Ex. 13:17). God’s people weren’t ready for that kind of military action. But the Israelites must have been puzzled when the pillar of cloud and fire had them retrace their steps, as if they were confused and lost in the wilderness, which is exactly what Pharaoh surmised (Ex. 14:3). But God was no absent-minded shopper who picks up a gallon of milk and gets all the way to the checkout before remembering that he was supposed to buy half-and-half as well and so has to retrace his steps. God was baiting Pharoah. He was enticing that tyrant to chase after the Israelites. God also had in mind a specific place for the final showdown with Pharaoh: directly opposite Baal Zephon (Ex. 14:2).
In the 40 years that Israel would tramp across the wilderness, this is the only time we know of that God specified in words where he wanted his people to camp (though God had prophesied that Moses would return to Mt. Sinai with the Israelites – Ex. 3:12). Why might that be? Do you remember how in a previous sermon we learned that with each one of the plagues God humiliated a different Egyptian deity? In the first plague, for example, God derided the Egyptian belief that the Nile River was the lifeblood of the fertility god Osiris. “You want blood?” God seemed to mock. “Here you go!” And with the flick of a wrist, the water of the Nile turned to real blood when Aaron slapped the river with his staff. Now, by having the Israelites camp directly opposite Baal Zephon, God was taking aim at the then-patron deity of Egypt. Pharaoh believed that Baal Zephon (Baal of the north) was a storm god who controlled all waterways, including the waters of the Red Sea over which the Baal Zephon temple complex looked. Rather than running away from Pharaoh’s power, God was having the Israelites run right to it and through it to prove once and for all who was boss. This indeed was a D-Day, a day of defiance on God’s part against Pharaoh’s arrogance.
But it was also a day of defiance by Pharoah. Sure, he had told the Israelites to leave Egypt, but he now decided that he would like to have those slaves back. So he called out his elite troops, the Egyptian version of the US Army Rangers, who were equipped with 600 iron chariots, the battle tanks of the day. Together with regular army units who were also equipped with chariots, Pharoah pursued the Israelites. Where did the Egyptians catch up with their former slaves? Directly opposite Baal Zephon. Things looked great for Pharoah. Not only had he trapped the Israelites on the lip of the Red Sea, he also enjoyed homecourt advantage with his patron god, Baal Zephon, looking on. “How could the god of the ghetto (the Israelite slaves’ god) thwart the god of the empire (Pharaoh’s god)?” (Justin Bailey) Rounding up the runaway slaves would be as easy as picking up shells along the beach!
We would like to read that when the Israelites saw the Egyptian troops closing in, they thumped their chests, and let out a defiant battle cry. Instead, they whimpered in despair: “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die, Moses? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 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!” (Ex. 14:11-12) Yes, we’re calling this rescue operation D-Day for another reason—because the Israelites fell into despair so quickly.
You can empathize with the Israelites, can’t you? How often hasn’t God said no to the shortcut? “Sorry, chemistry class won’t be so easy for you. You might even have to take the course twice to pass it. Sorry, that great business plan of yours is not going to net millions. Instead, you’re going to lose your house. Sorry, the beet juice and all the vitamin supplements you’ve been taking along with your intense workouts at the gym aren’t going to keep cancer away. Sorry, the person you married isn’t actually Prince Charming or Cinderella. They’re going to make your life miserable.”
Isn’t it confusing when God treats us this way? After all, the Bible says that God loves us, and that we are his children. But rather than being a wise and all-powerful leader, God often seems to be no better than an absent-minded shopper who forgets the half-and-half, and we suffer as a result! So, what exactly was God up to with the Israelites and the Egyptians? Although God hadn’t revealed operational details, he had made no secret about his mission objective. God had repeatedly said things like: “The Egyptians [and Israel!] will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh…” (Ex. 14:18)
Moses had grabbed on to this promise as to a safety bar on a roller coaster and refused to let go. Therefore, he remained defiant because he trusted that deliverance was sure to come. This faithful agent of the Lord said to God’s despairing people: “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. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Ex. 14:13-14) “Do nothing!” Oh, I love that. It’s what a flight attendant would say to an anxious passenger, “Sir, you don’t need to flap your arms to help this airplane take off. You can just sit back and relax. The plane will get in the air and bring you to your destination without your help, really.” (Reed Lessing – adapted)
“Do nothing!” It was also what God told the people on the Day of Atonement—the one time of year the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies in the temple and see the Ark of the Covenant. He went in there to sprinkle blood on the Ark, to remove from God’s sight the sins of the people—like what you scurry around doing when you learn that someone is coming over in 15 minutes. You pick up the living room and remove the empty pop cans and popcorn kernels. While the High Priest was busy doing his momentous work, the people were doing…nothing, for it was a Sabbath rest. The Day of Atonement foreshadowed how, on Good Friday, sinners would “do nothing” as the Son of God was beaten and then finally crucified for the sins of the world. The disciples offered Jesus no help and no encouragement even. They were simply spectators to the greatest salvation event in the world. And Jesus says to you this morning: “Do nothing! I have taken away your sins. I am carrying your burdens. And I will bring you to your heavenly home. Stop flapping your arms! Be still and know that I…am…your savior God.” (Ps. 46)
Please, don’t misunderstand me. “Do nothing!” does not mean sit around. No, God has given you talents and opportunities. Be faithful with these as you seek to provide for yourself and your family trusting that God will bless you in the way that is best for you. But neither does “Do nothing!” mean “Go ahead and keep sinning!” For to knowingly continuing to sin is to do something—to push away God’s grace even as Pharoah repeatedly did, and he finally suffered the consequences as we will see.
After Moses encouraged the people to be still, they were now ready to see what God would do—how he would fight for them and save them in a way none of them had imagined. First of all, in the guise of the pillar of cloud, God moved in between the Israelites and Egyptians. The cloud gave light to the Israelites during the night while it threw dark shadows across the Egyptian forces (Ex. 14:19-20). God also directed Moses: “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. 14:16) All night long, God sent a mighty wind that drove the water of the Red Sea back, splitting it in two the way you can split wood with your handy ax. Therefore, when God told the Israelites to “move on,” they wouldn’t stumble into water, but walk on dry ground to safety (though Jewish tradition says that it wasn’t until a prince from the tribe of Judah stepped into the water that it parted).
Has anyone noticed how God was repeating his acts from Creation week? On Day 1 he separated light from darkness. On Day 2 he separated the waters from the waters. On Day 3 he made dry ground appear. He did all this in preparation of introducing the crown of his creation: mankind. Now, in full view of Baal Zephon—the supposed god of the waterways, the Lord was re-enacting the events of Genesis 1 for the purpose of re-creating the Israelites as his redeemed people—no longer slaves but sons and daughters of the genuine God of the waterways, and earth, and sky (Lessing - adapted). The psalmist put it well when he wrote: “Your path [O God] led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” (Psalm 77:19-20)
We don’t see God’s footprints either, but he does lead and save us. Just as Moses had been drawn out of the water and rescued from death when he was an infant, God drew his people through and out of the water of the Red Sea to rescue them. The Apostle Paul makes this application for us New Testament believers: “…our ancestors were all under the cloud and…they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” (1 Cor. 10:1-2) As the Exodus Israelites experienced a real rescue, so we who are baptized have also experienced a real rescue. We have not been united to Moses through baptism but to Christ. Everything that he did and accomplished is ours—like what happens when you pour water into a bowl of salt and sugar: the two dissolve and become “one.” And so through baptism we receive Jesus’ righteousness, and we are given his power to confront temptation. Baptism is our D-Day when we went from despair to deliverance so that we now can live in defiance of Satan and his lies. We have indeed been made, or should I say, re-made for more.
The Red Sea Water Canyon wouldn’t last for more than 12 hours. But with defiance flashing in their eyes, the Egyptians plunged in after the Israelites only to experience a 600-car pile up (Paul Meitner) when in the early morning hours God caused their chariot wheels to spin like “all”-season tires on ice. Egyptian defiance turned to despair. “Let’s get away from the Israelites!” they cried. “The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” (Ex. 14:25) But not one of them escaped. As easily as a you can spread a blanket on a beach, God covered and buried the Egyptian soldiers and commanders with the waters of the Red Sea.
Standing safely on the opposite bank, Moses broke out into a song—the middle line of which, and therefore the most important line, goes like this: “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Ex. 15:11) Moses would experience God’s majestic holiness many more times in his life including 1500 years later. No, I didn’t just misspeak. As you heard in our Gospel Lesson this morning, Moses, together with the prophet Elijah, appeared with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration 1500 years after the Israelite exodus from Egypt. There, like the pillar of cloud and fire, Jesus shone with brilliance. And like the pillar of cloud and fire, Jesus was headed somewhere definite. Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus about his destination. Luke says that they were discussing his “departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” (Lk. 9:31) Do you know what word Luke actually used for “departure”? He used the word “exodus.” While in the first exodus, God made a way through the sea to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, in the second, more important exodus, Jesus, the Son of God, made a way through sin, death, and hell to rescue us!
And now here’s the big takeaway. While God has rescued us through Jesus, he has not promised to lead us away from or even around difficulties. Instead, he often leads us right to and through them (Lessing)! We stumble through grief, through financial difficulty, through sickness, and yes, even through death. But we share this confidence with King David: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your staff and your rod, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)
Yes, God’s continual presence comforts us because he’s never lost a battle—not to Pharaoh, not to Baal, not to Satan, not to sin, and not even to death (Lessing). That we may experience his power and grace firsthand, he often leads us right to and through challenges. Instead of despairing in the face of the challenges, we can sing with a holy defiance as did Moses: “The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation…The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is his name… In your mercy you will lead the people that you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy pastureland.” (Ex. 15:2-3, 13 – ESV) Yes. God did lead the Israelites to their holy pastureland, and he will do the same for us. So keep marching through life and all of its challenges with a holy defiance certain of divine deliverance. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(pre-service warm up) Due to the length of the sermon text, Pastor will not read it in its entirety before the sermon. Do so now. Underline passages you think would be worth putting on your fridge to see daily.
(pre-service warm up) List at least three things you know about D-Day. Then explain why it’s called “D-Day.”
When the Israelites finally left Egypt, they did so in an orderly manner—even taking with them the bones of Joseph who had died 400 years earlier. Why did they bother doing that?
(2 questions) God himself led the Israelites. How did he appear to them? Yet what was “strange” about the escape route God had the Israelites take?
God specified that the Israelites should camp opposite of Baal Zephon. How was this an act of defiance towards Pharaoh?
Israelite defiance quickly melted into despair when they saw the Egyptian army closing in. How can you empathize with the Israelites?
(2 questions) Moses remained defiant in the face of the Egyptians. What strange battle preparations did he tell the Israelites to take? Where else do we see God giving his people the same advice?
How is what God did for the Israelites at the Red Sea similar to what he did during Creation week in Genesis 1?
(2 questions) God saved Moses through the water of the Nile River when he was an infant. God now saved the Israelites through the water of the Red Sea. In what way has God also saved you through water? How does that event take you from despair to deliverance and then to defiance?
After the Egyptian army drowned, Moses broke out into song—the middle line of which, and therefore the most important line, goes like this: “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Ex. 15:11) What other surprising time would Moses get to experience God’s majestic holiness again?
The big takeaway from today’s sermon is:
(to do at home) In spite of their despair at seeing the Egyptian army approaching, God told the Israelites: “Don’t just stand there. Move on to meet the challenge ahead of you.” How might God be saying the same thing to you…
with family relations?
with work challenges?
with the mission of our congregation?
(to do at home) The sermon quoted Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your staff and your rod, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4) Isaiah 43:1-3 is just as comforting. Commit that passage to memory or illustrate it and stick it on your fridge.
Isaiah 43:1-3 But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
