089 - Go Forward? Forward?

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. So what do you do when God says go forward, but it looks absolutely impossible. So like when they were standing on the beach of the Red Sea and there was no way through. Yeah.

Well, it turns out that God's plan, His way was through the sea and not around it. We'll see that today on More Than Ink. Good morning. Welcome to our dining room table. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim. And this is More Than Ink.

More Than Ink. And we are here today talking about Exodus. We're in Chapter 14. We are about to cross the Red Sea. Very dramatic. Very dramatic. So we left off right in the middle of Chapter 14 when the Israelites are backed up against the edge of the Red Sea and the Egyptians are descending on them. Yes. And everything looks dire.

Well, yes. And the text had been very specific. It said God led them there. God brought them into that position. So God arranged this seemingly hopeless situation with the Red Sea at their back. Well, remember the people had fled from Egypt. They had taken stuff because they had asked for the Egyptians, you know, can we have gold and silver and clothing and all that. So they were carrying a lot of plunder. They're leaving behind people who are whopping mad and in the depths of sorrow because they've all, everyone in Egypt has just lost a firstborn.

They're angry. And Pharaoh has said, what have we done? Let's go get them back. Or let's go kill them, one or the other.

Let's go take them down. Exactly. So, well, let's just see how the people of Israel were handling this. Yeah. Oh, well, and we also had the, God was with them in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. This incredible phenomenon. This very unusual, very unusual affirmation from God that he's present and in their midst. Right.

Yeah, exactly. Well, let me just pick up where we are. We're in chapter 14. If you're following with us, we're at verse 10 and the drama is right on the brink of happening here. So when Pharaoh drew near, he caught up with them. When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord and they said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? I mean, what have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.

Okay, we need to stop there. Isn't that amazing? They've just had this incredibly victorious march out and the text says with a high hand. They're going out laden with stuff. And here in these couple of verses we have fear, blame and self-pity. Yep, exactly. It's rational though, because they're not thinking about God's presence, but they're saying, look, here's the entire army of the most powerful nation on the earth and they're bearing down on us and there's nowhere we can go. But why aren't they thinking about God's presence?

That's the issue. He gave them already the pillar of fire and smoke and he had delivered them by means of these incredibly violent plagues on Egypt. Wouldn't you hope that your first impulse would be to cry out to God not to blame Moses?

Now fear, absolutely you would fear, but not to turn to the guy who is God's spokesman and blame him and then pity yourself. We should have stayed. We should have never gone back. We never left. I told you so. I told you we shouldn't have left. I told you we shouldn't have left.

It would be better for us to be serving the Egyptians than to die here in the desert island. Well that's the story they're going to tell themselves again and again. I don't recall that being recorded anywhere in the chapters that came up to this, but now that looks like the issue. They're completely forgetting that God exists, which is just an astonishing thing. This is what Paul calls living by faith and living by sight. If you live by sight you let the circumstances and what your eyes see completely overwhelm every other fact in your life and the fact of God's caring and loving kindness and his power is just completely pushed out of the picture and as a result you're just on your own in an impossible situation and all you can do is fear. That's what happens when you forget God in any circumstance. Fear and blame and pity yourself.

Those things so often go together. And you would expect them to kind of in the midst of this say, look here come the Egyptians. Wait till you see what God's going to do now. Well that's kind of what Moses says to them. That's what Moses says next. Okay so let's read on.

Shall I pick it up? In verse 13, and Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. Yeah let's stop there.

Yeah let's hold still there for a minute. That's interesting. I find it interesting because God hasn't told them how this is going to resolve them. But Moses has the faith to say look God's got this. He did have this conversation with God in our last show where God says you know I'm going to be on top of this.

I am on top of this. But he does know exactly how. I mean he could be thinking well maybe it's going to be fire from heaven.

Maybe this pillar of cloud and fire is going to shoot out laser beams and kill out. Well what can he do next? What have they seen him do? Yeah so it could be almost anything. So Moses says look you just need to stand firm which means don't go running away like crazy people.

Just stay where you are and you will see the salvation of the Lord. Well you know you could reduce this and say hold still and shut up. Exactly. Right? Because that stand firm. He says that in 14. Be silent.

Hold still and be silent. That makes me think of so many other scriptures. Especially Psalm 46 10 that says be still and know that I'm God.

Our yammering is flapping around. Is that the one where it says he's a present help in trouble? I think that's 46. No maybe but that's not the verse that I looked at but it might be in that Psalm. But you'll see the power of the Lord. And Isaiah 30 15 says in quietness and trust is your strength.

And sadly it follows but you would not. So you know hold still. Quit your yammering and watch what God will do. And you know in the New Testament we all know Ephesians 6 right where that description of spiritual warfare. But we're told now put on your armor stand firm. Believe in God stand firm. Know the power of God and just stand there.

Put it all on and hold still and let God fight for you. That's totally foreign to us. Well every bone in our body wants to run away. Run away run away run away run away.

Yeah that's what we want to do. But Moses is saying in very clear terms if you run away you're going to miss it. Stay here you're going to see something that you won't believe. Right you'll see the salvation of the Lord.

Something only he can do. Yeah and it occurs to me that that is seldom my first tendency when crisis happens is to say I'm just going to sit still and I'm going to see what God's going to do. Sometimes I do that but it's not as frequently as I'd like to say. But you know I've observed in myself that over my lifetime I get in way more trouble when I reflexively respond to something rather than hold still take a breath and wait for God. And wait for God. Yeah.

And sometimes all it takes is a breath. Remember yourself. Remember God. Yeah we've talked about this a lot.

We get into more trouble by kind of reacting badly. Oh yeah. And jumping ahead of God. When the psalmist and so many others in the Old Testament say you need to wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Right.

Wait on the Lord. Which doesn't mean being active. That's actually an active. It's a very active word. An active inaction is what it is.

What is an active exchanging of my plan for his. My strength for his. I'm putting my trust in what he's going to do rather than my ability to run away.

So yeah it's a really mature kind of response. Stand firm and you'll see God's salvation. And in reality where would they run. They got to see behind them and the Egyptians in front of them. Well they could run around with their hair on fire.

Run around in panic. Yeah. Yeah the Lord will fight for you. But Moses doesn't know how yet. So it's going to be a little bit of a surprise to Moses. But he knows that God has fought for them. How have we seen Moses growing as a spiritual leader. Oh my goodness. This is the place where it becomes really very clear.

Yeah. And you know many times I think about the fact that Moses is kind of sticking God's neck out right here. I mean what if God doesn't come through with what Moses is saying. What if God doesn't fight for them.

What if they're all slaughtered. He's putting God's reputation on the line. So it's interesting because Moses is the one who was writing this account.

Right. He wrote it much later. But in the next verse the Lord said to Moses now why do you cry to me.

So you know Moses must have then turned around and said well God I hope you come through. I hope you got this. I hope you got this. Yeah let's keep going. Let's keep going.

This is great. Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Go forward.

Go forward where? Verse 16. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.

Wow. So now God tells them how it's all going to go down. All going to go down. I'm going to part the sea. So when I say go forward I really do mean go forward. Go forward.

In through the water. It hasn't happened just yet. Exactly. Exactly.

But now I think it's fascinating that God does make some allowance for Moses to say look I am going to fight for you. I'm going to tell you how it's going to go down. This is how it's going to go down. And I'll give you instruction. And I'll give you instruction. I've got this under control. Watch this.

So he's actually in a way, in a more detailed way telling Moses stand firm and you'll see the salvation. And this is how it's going to happen. Yeah. Ooh.

Ooh. Well let's push on. Yeah. Okay. Are you reading? I'll read. 19.

19. So then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness.

And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night. Yeah. Stop there. Yeah.

No we have to stop there. So this is a fascinating piece of logistics. So before the waters parted how do you keep the Egyptians from doing bad stuff? Well the presence of God in this pillar moves from being in front of them where he was leading to being between them and the Egyptians and holding the Egyptians off.

Holding the Egyptians off and so it gives us some time. Well this is where we have the pillar, the fire, the cloud and the fire specifically associated with the messenger of the Lord. The angel of the Lord. The presence of the Lord through his sent messenger. So in a sense the pillar itself is the messenger of the Lord.

It's the one who is speaking to them. I'm God. I'm among you. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is a fascinating tactic because you know being a nerd like I am and into numbers I always wondered how long does it take to march two million people across the Red Sea? I mean that's a lot of people when you think about it. And they're carrying a lot of stuff and they've got kids with them and animals.

There's a lot of stuff. I mean it's going to take a while to get across. But when we just left the story the Egyptian army is right there.

It's already right there. So what do you do to stall the Egyptian army while you're moving two million people across a dry riverbed? Well that's why God moves around in the back and holds them off. You know this sets me thinking of Psalm 139 5. It says you go before me and behind me you've enclosed me in your hand.

Yeah. God's got this all worked out. And I wonder if that wasn't in David's mind when he wrote that.

You go before you come behind you are enclosing me. Yeah probably because this whole account right here is legendary. It's a true story but it was a touchstone that went back to all the time when you talk about faith. This is what God does. So wouldn't you wonder what's in the mind of the Egyptians? Yeah. Because they're seeing this thing too.

And trying to figure out well let's see we can't attack them through a wall of fire so we better just hang on for daylight and see how we can get around it. I don't know. I don't know either. The text is silent on that. But it clearly staggered them. They didn't come forward. It slowed them down. So they didn't even come near each other all night.

Like there weren't even any scouts. Right. Right.

Kept them apart. So by the way we're in the night time now here too. Right. The most impressive nature about this phenomenon, this cloud is going to be at night. I mean that's really unusual.

Really unusual. Well so then verse 21. So then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land. Dry land. And the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground.

That's important. And the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Let's stop right there before we get the Egyptians in. So sure enough Moses is involved showing what God's going to do.

He raises his hand. The waters part. An east wind parts the water and dries out the land. If you've ever walked in the edge of a pond in about six inches of water you know how monkey it is between your toes?

Salty. Well that would be what's at the bottom of this sea, this red sea and it's not like that when you're walking across. But a warm wind can desiccate very quickly. I'm a gardener and when we get those hot winds that come through in the summertime no matter how much water I pour on the garden it just evaporates so fast. So you can see how God who reigns over all of creation could send a warm wind that would not only part the waters but dry out the ground.

I actually have just a little bit of an understanding of this on a teeny scale just because I've seen what a dry hot wind can do in a very short period of time. Yeah, dried it out enough that they could walk on it and it wouldn't be a hazard. You just keep walking across. And the water's standing up like a wall. See there's the Cecil B. DeMille part. Well yeah we've seen this in the films and you think I couldn't really have been like that but how else are they to describe it? Because the water is clearly there, the water itself is speaking, something is holding this water back. Well it's the hand of God. Yeah, it's the hand of God. And many people will testify the fact that the miracle here isn't so much parting the water but the fact that the land was dry.

The land was dry. And that's really a pretty remarkable thing to happen. So God basically paved the way for them so they wouldn't get stuck out there. So they're crossing, it's night by the way too, and they're crossing across the Red Sea which is now dry land. And then verse 23, the Egyptians pursued.

They pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea. All of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, his horsemen. And in the morning, watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud look down on the Egyptian forces. And threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, oh let's flee from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.

Okay, what's going on here? Well, there's some debate about this. However, when you look at verse 25 where it says clogging or in many translations it says binding, let's just put it this way. That sounds like mud. They're having a transportation problem all of a sudden. And some guys speculate the fact that the ground was dry enough to walk on but it wasn't dry enough to support the weight of chariot wheels, which many times have two people on it and the hooves of horses. So maybe actually they broke through the dry crust that the people could walk on fine and they're getting stuck. That's the speculation.

That's always speculation. But clearly what he's saying right here, the Egyptians get into the dry land where the Red Sea was and they're having problems with the chariots. And that's when they say, this looks bad.

And they're thinking about turning around. The Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians. Exactly, exactly. And by the way, just for some future reference, when you look at the story of Deborah, this is sort of what happens with the chariots.

I was just thinking that. Yeah, chariots are not the best land transportation unless the ground is really hard. And if the ground is kind of gushy or mushy, they don't go forward very well.

In fact, it says in verse 25 they drove heavily. Right, they're bogging down in the mud. Something's bogging down right here. So that's a real problem.

Okay, we need to press on. So they're getting second thoughts about being out here exposed. And they say, look, the Lord's fighting for them.

Why don't you pick up 26 then? Okay, then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all of the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea. Not one of them remained, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Wow. Believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. They feared the Lord and believed in the Lord.

So they profoundly reverenced this God who did this, once again, this profoundly powerful and very personal thing. Yeah. I think we can't overestimate the impact when you see the entire army of the most powerful nation on earth dead in the water in front of you. And it all happens in hours.

I mean, maybe minutes. I mean, it's just a split second and suddenly the entire army of the most powerful nation is decimated and you see bodies floating in the water. Well, what do you make of the fact that that happens in the morning, right? They've been running in the night and crossing the sea apparently in the night. And as they have crossed, the daylight dawns and the Egyptians are in the middle of the dry space and then the water, God just throws them into the water.

That's what the text says. Yeah, threw them in, like he kind of shook them off is literally what it says. And all the Israelites are out of the water, so now you have this whole army that's kind of mired, it's bogged down. So they can't turn around, they can't move, they can see the water crashing in, but they can't fight it, they can't get away.

They're stuck there like one of those flight traps, sticky flight traps and they can't get out of where they are. Like a tidal wave. And then a tidal wave comes in and just completely, yeah, I don't think the people of Israel, they have seen so much in the Ten Plagues. They say, you know, we should really know what God's like, but when you see something like this, an entire army and chariots, which is the, chariots are like, I mean, they're the best of the best of the war machinery.

I mean, if you got chariots, you know, you're going to win. And God, in a sense, snaps his fingers and they're all dead. I think that imagery of a tidal wave is a good one. You know, in our recent memory, we have memories of a couple of huge, incredibly destructive tidal waves within the last couple of decades. And people who witnessed that and saw the death and the destruction of buildings and the destruction of equipment and the world just didn't look the same afterwards. Now, of course, that was a wave that came in and washed back to the sea.

This is the sea returning on itself. It must have been astonishing. You would think that from this point forward in the memory of the nation of Israel, they'd say, gosh, if God can do that, then all the armies that we're going to come up against as we come into Canaan, I mean, this is a pushover. We've got the God who took out the entire Egyptian army. And got us out.

Right. But that fear and that blame and that self-pity is still deeply rooted in them. But what's interesting to me about this crossing the sea and God crashing the water back is there's no return now. There's no going back through this sea.

It's what we call burning your bridges behind you. You don't go backwards now. The Lord made the way where only he could. And then he closed the way behind him and said, you're not going back now.

You're mine. You're out here. You're going forward. Yeah, exactly. You know, I think about, I was looking at Psalm 77 and Psalm 77 is an interesting Psalm because the front half of Psalm 77, he mopes about how bad a situation is. And then when he gets near the end of Psalm 77, he says in verse 11, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

So this is like the Lamentations 3 thing. He recalls what God's like. And then he recalls this very event. He says, I will ponder on your work. I'll meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy.

You are the God who works wonders. You may known yourself among the peoples. And then at the very end of this Psalm where he's kind of woe is me, everything is horrible. He says, the way was through the sea. The way was through the sea. Your path through the great waters. Yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. So that's what this story is meant to do, not only for Israel, but for us, is that this is how we look back and say, but this is the God we have. So maybe my current circumstances look impossible.

Maybe my back is up against the wall and I see no options in my own power to fix the situation. But I recall to my mind who God is and that changes everything. I remember what he's done.

I remember what he's done. You know, that sets me thinking about 1 Corinthians 10 and we referred to this last week where Paul has said all of that, they experienced all of that. They were all baptized into the cloud and in the sea, he says in 1 Corinthians 10, 1. He says they experienced all of that for our benefit and our instruction so that we would not do what they did. That we would remember God can deliver and that thought culminates in that.

We can benefit from their pain. In verse 13, there's nothing overtaking you that's not common to man, but God will make a way through it. In the day of trouble, I'll seek the Lord. And that's the reflex that we should have in the midst of horrible situations. So what does it take for you, for us, to fear the Lord and believe that God will do what he says he will do?

Right. Yeah, because a fear reaction in bad circumstances says overtly God doesn't see, God doesn't care, God doesn't love anymore. He sort of cast me off and now I'm going to be taken down by my circumstances. Okay, but that pang of fear is natural and we all experience it.

It is, but you can nurse it is what I'm saying. Yeah, the going on in fear is the sin when we've remembered who God is and what he's done. When you dwell on it. So basically you need to have the honest fear of your circumstances translated into our memory of the fear of God who loves you. Right, a deep reverence.

That's a remarkably different thing. That's a solid theme through many Psalms. And David himself writes many of them as he's being pursued in very unjust circumstances by King Saul. It's that same idea, my back is up against the wall, there is no escape, there's no way out. And I have to think that what you would think is what the Psalmist says in 77, the way out is through the sea, it's not around it, it's through it. And so like Moses adheres them, he says, look, stand firm and you'll see the salvation of the Lord. Just stand firm.

You're okay. God's in control. Well, so one of my very favorite passages and it relates to this is Isaiah 43 where God says, your mind, I've called you by name. When you pass through the waters, they will not overflow you because I'm with you.

It's not an if, it's a when. When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. Your mind, I've called you by name. Go forward, your way is through the sea, not around the sea.

This is something God's deliberate doing. Well, next week, come back with us and we're going to celebrate together because we have this wonderful song of Moses and Miriam dancing around and they're going to celebrate in big style about the fact that we've gotten through this and God has taken down the Egyptian. So join us next week on More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org.

God's way through the sea. Yeah, that's what I need to do, yeah.