I’m Dennis
Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a
moment we’ll talk about some "Lessons from the Sea."
… I love the
Bible, God's Word! I know many of our listeners would say "amen." However,
there is a vast majority of world citizen's who could not and would not agree.
Perhaps the vast majority in this camp would do so, not out of hatred for the
Judeo-Christian Bible, but simply out of ignorance of not having read it.
Well, I enjoy reading the Bible and I NEVER cease to enjoy hearing again the
most dramatic moments of biblical history. So today I want to share a great
moment with you. For this dramatic moment of ancient history has been one
quite forgotten these days, and if remembered at all, many have relegated it
to mythical happenings of the past. But friends, we'll do no such thing, for
the Bible is God's truth! Truth you can trust, words that can be relied upon,
and its message from cover to cover ¾
believed… But before we get to today's message entitled: "LESSONS FROM THE
SEA," taken from Exodus chapters 14-15, we'll pause one more time and listen
to this…
…Let’s begin my
message today by introducing a man named Moses. Indeed, in biblical history no
man stands out more than this one. Moses was an Israelite born of the Jewish
captivity in Egypt, but by a stroke of God's intervention, he escaped the
slavery of His people and entered upon birth into the household of Egypt's
king. Growing up in Pharaoh's household as an adopted son, Moses came to see
the power of Egypt and its ways, and thankfully grew to loath and hate them.
As Moses saw his true family of Israelites as slaves of Egypt, often brutally
beaten and used mercilessly, he cried out in his heart for their deliverance.
Of course the Bible tells us Moses prematurely attempted to deliver God's
people, and it cost him 40 wasted years on the backside of the desert. But,
the time came, as God had originally intended, that a man be used of God to
deliver the Israelites from the enslaving hand of the Egypt’s Pharaoh.
I think everyone
knows something about the great "Exodus," that took place when almost two
million Jews were liberated from their captivity by God's miraculous hand.
Yes, the moment came, following the Ten Miracle Plagues God sent to Egypt,
whereby the Pharaoh gave orders to free the slaves for their journey into the
wilderness.
Now let's read
the texts pertaining to it and then comment on it for some truly wonderful,
"Lessons from the Sea.." We begin with,
Exo 13:17-18 (NIV)
“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the
Philistine country, though that was shorter… 18 So God led the people around
by the desert road toward the Red Sea…"
Amazingly, the
easy way to the Promised Land was not in God's immediate plan for His
children. Rather, the "way of the wilderness" was mapped out for the
Israelites by God Himself. Amazingly, this text is filled with insight! It
seems that for every believer who is freed from the bondage and slavery of the
world of sin we are born in, the moment we come to faith and begin our walk
with God, the "way of the wilderness" is often the first path we are led to
take. But, this way also soon led them to another miracle event, their
encampment by the great Red Sea. We don't know exactly where they encamped,
but it was somewhere west of the Red Sea. Now if any of us were the navigators
for Israel's escape from Egypt, we surely would not have chosen this route
that dead ended at the Read Sea. For you see the location brought them to the
shores of the Red Sea and made escape impossible for them. Again we read,
Exo 14:1-2 (NLT)
“Then the LORD gave these instructions to Moses: 2 “Tell the people to march
toward Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. Camp there along the shore…"
It was an
amazing and wonderful thing! Just think, being delivered from over 400 years
of slavery, now free to pursue a new life! However, the Israelites were not
thinking about that. Although they were specifically delivered by the hand of
God from slavery in Egypt (Ex. 13:14), new troubles and testing came quickly
to these newly freed slaves of Egypt. We read again,
Exo 14:5-9 (NIV) “When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled,
Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have
we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” 6 So he
had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7 He took six hundred
of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with
officers over all of them... 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and
chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they
camped by the sea...”
What an amazing
picture this is for every believer to take note of. Here we see the Israelites
deliverance from Egypt as a picture of God's deliverance of every human being
who enters the faith of Christianity. The moment we put our trust alone in
Jesus Christ as our God and Savior, we are "delivered" from the bondage of sin
and its slavery. The Israelites were saved from the last and most deadly
plague God sent to Egypt, the Plague of Death upon every firstborn child in
the land. But they were only saved as they exercised faith and obeyed God’s
command to paint the shed blood of a lamb upon the door posts of their homes.
That night when the death angel arrived at Egypt, those whose homes which had
believers who obeyed God's command, were "passed over," and delivered unto
life!
How wonderful is
that picture of the blood sacrifice of Christ, who when we believe He died for
our sins by shedding His life blood on that cross at Calvary two millennia
ago, God promises to forever pass by the believer’s sin penalty which is the
"second death"(Rev. 20:14).
Well the
Israelites who believed that night, were delivered, and God brought them out
by way of the wilderness to the place of impossibility, the shore of the
fierce and flowing Red Sea.
Now I realize
there are a host of skeptics who say they cannot believe the story in the
Bible of the miracle crossing of the Red Sea by God's people that glorious
day. However, the Bible states in no uncertain terms. Listen…
Exo 14:21-22 (NIV) “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.”
Can you imagine
the scene? Before God performed this miracle of miracles, the Israelites came
to a dead end at the seashore. Looking out at the turbulent and deep waters of
the Red Sea, they knew they could not cross. Yet in the distance behind them,
the ground began to shake with the thunder of 600 chariots, and armed men who
were pursuing the Israelites to recapture and kill many of them! Fear struck
the Israelites for the Bible reports,
Exo 14:10-12 (NIV) “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!””
How sad this
conclusion was. These slaves who were miraculously delivered from their
slavery now blamed Moses for their impending doom. Yet, in picture analogy, in
the life of every Christian will come trouble and persecution by the world
that pursues us relentlessly looking for our demise. In similar ways, God
often leads us to "impossible" dead end situations and locations where there
is no path forward, no path backward or sideways
¾ we are trapped and the inevitable
seems to await us.
Ah, but God is
the deciding factor, for every believer has the promise that God is on their
side and His plans often entail the "impossible," with the accompanying
deliverance of God's miraculous. Such was the case for Israel.
Now, regardless
of whether you believe this or not, the Bible does say so, and more. The New
Testament affirms what is written here in Exodus really and truly happened (1
Cor. 10:2).
1 Cor 10:2 (NIV) They were all baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
As such, it
really doesn't take great faith to believe in this great miracle of parting
the Red Sea. Miracles are but the manifestation of the divine power of God
using methods and processes which are unusual, miraculous and
incomprehensible. Yes, everything depends upon what we envision our God to be.
Is He the "Omnipotent Creator" of all or not? Paul the apostle tells us,
Col 1:16-18 (NIV) “For by him [Jesus Christ] all things were created: things
in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or
rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is
before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head
of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the
dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Indeed,
Scripture declares that Jesus Christ is the final and forever manifestation of
God in human history. The Creator God, the sovereign, omnipotent, omnipresent,
omniscient God who made us and all things ¾
therefore, is it too hard for Him to just part the sea to deliver His people
out of the hand of evil and death? Well, for those who have such a God it is
not, but for those who do not believe in the God described in the Bible, they
cannot believe and accept this event as truth!
Now I know all
the arguments against the miracle happening of the parting of the Red Sea.
Some say in Exodus chapters13-14, Moses identifies the Red Sea by the term
yom suph which means "sea of reeds." This, some say, was a shallow still
body of water among the fields of the great papyrus reeds that lay between
Goshen and the Sinai Peninsula. As such the crossing was not a matter of
miracle at all just a tromp through the low waters of that place! Well if so,
then truly a "greater" miracle occurred that day for the Bible text tells us,
Exo 14:21-28 (NIV) “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. 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. 25 He made the wheels of their chariots come off 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.” 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 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.”
What a text! God
parted a sea of reeds? Hardly! Note what the Bible says - there was a "wall
of water on their right and on their left."(Ex. 14:23). What was the
purpose of this "wall of water?" ¾to
just slosh through a swampy area and get your feet wet? Indeed, the greater
miracle then would be that Pharaoh's entire army of more than 600 chariots and
fighting men were drowned in a few inches of water ( Ex. 14:28)! How
preposterous! You cannot explain away the great miracle that occurred that
day. You either take it or leave it.
No my friend,
the crossing of the Red Sea was perhaps one of the Bible's most dramatic
moments and one of the greatest miracles in all history ever to occur. How sad
it is the secular schools of our nation never give this history a moment of
thought. But we do today and ask ¾
what can we glean from this account of God's deliverance? What lessons from
the sea can we gather? Well here’s the first,
-
God deliverance from slavery of an entire nation of almost two million
people, pictures for us God plan to redeem a world lost in slavery to sin
This story and picture in the Bible is God's great illustration of His plan
and purpose to rescue the world of lost sinners. Say friend, have you been
rescued, that is saved? Have you believed in the shedding of the blood of
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world? This sacrificial Lamb,
the Bible reveals, is Jesus Christ; And, as we believe God who tells us
Christ died for us on a cross, and purchased our redemption – from this God
DELIVERS US out of sin and slavery and sets us on a journey to the Promised
Land. Indeed, the Exodus, and the crossing of the Red Sea is a beautiful
picture of our salvation through Jesus Christ. Next,
-
ALTHOUGH THE ISRAELITES WERE DELIVERED, THEY WERE STILL SINNERS AND OFTEN
WOULD FAIL IN FOLLOWING GOD
Yes, the Israelites would spend many years, in fact a lifetime in the
desert, learning how to manage their sin natures, although they were
redeemed. How like us today. We too are on a trek to the Promised Land which
for us is Heaven. While we march through this life, the barrenness of sin,
and the bondage of decay is all around us. However, we have the wonderful
promises of God that He will see us through. Say friend are you struggling
today with some sin, failure, or unbelief? Then turn it over to the miracle
God who saves, for He has promised,
Heb 13:5 (NIV) “… God has said,
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.””
Although believers are saved for eternity, they still sin, but when
we do we have a forgiving God who will always give us another opportunity
and chance. We see this,
In Exodus CHAPTERS 13-14, for Moses had a
three-point message for God's people
(1)
"Fear not!" -As the Israelites faced their enemy and
their impossible situation, they trembled in fear. God spoke through Moses
that they were not to fear, because God would deliver them. You know
deliverance is not always in ways you and I think. I remember the Hebrew
teenagers in the book of Daniel who faced the burning fires of
Nebuchadnezzer's judgment. Yet, they said,
Dan 3:16-18 (NIV) “… “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do
not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown
into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he
will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you
to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold
you have set up.””
Very often, God's deliverance entail our
future hope of Heaven itself, but nonetheless, true believer trust God's good
hand will be with us in this life.
So we are to"Fear
Not," for it is still God's call to
us in all the tight and impossible situations we face. Now secondly, Moses
tells the people of Israel facing the Red Sea,
(2)
"Stand Still or Firm!." This of
course was the opposite of what they wanted to do, But, it was a call of faith,
Psa 46:10 (NIV) “”Be still, and know that I
am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.””
We are so busy in life, running to and fro, that we are often
to busy to see God's plan and purpose for us in the situation we find
ourselves. Standing still or firm simply implies we are to stop what we are
doing, and get alone with God and trust Him. How do we do this? Well, just
give Him a moment of quietness, whereby He can speak to your heart through
meditation and prayer. Are you one who practices this, or are you so busy with
life you take no time to be specifically alone with God? Friend, take time to
pray, to worship, to study God's Word, and especially to meditate upon it, and
God will speak to your heart and often show you they way of deliverance, the
way of glory out of your predicament.
Now lastly in our "Lessons From the Sea," we find Moses' last words just
before God intervened in the affairs of His children's peril, was to…
(3)
"See the salvation of the Lord!". Moses cried out,
Exo 14:13 (NIV) “Do not be afraid. Stand firm
[still] and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today.
The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.”
Are you willing to pause in the busyness of your life and see the hand of God
at work? One of the most blessed places to see it is in the work and worship
of the saints in Bible believing churches across the world.
"See the salvation [deliverance] of the Lord!" Yes, the Miracle of
opening the Red Sea, parting it and drying up the seabed, opening up a way to
escape was God's great moment of Old Testament miracle and history.
But you know, an ever greater miracle occurred in New Testament times. It is
the miracle of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because God raised Jesus from
the dead, we have hope.
1 Cor 15:20-22 (NIV) “But Christ has indeed
been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also
through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
Yes, the crossing of the Red Sea was a miracle
sight to behold, and one to be told over and over again that others might
believe. Have you believed God's Word? If so, then you'll believe in Jesus
Christ and confess your sins to receive His bountiful forgiveness and grace
for all eternity. The Triumph of God at the crossing of the Red Sea is a
picture of our hope and assurance that the Promised Land of Heaven and eternal
life is yours now and forevermore. Trust God's word friend, believe in God's
Son Jesus Christ, and be the recipient of a deliverance that begins in this
life and lasts for all eternity…
…The crossing of
the Red Sea is set forth as the greatest display of God's power in the Old
Testament, but the greatest power of all time is that which raised Jesus
Christ from the dead. May these" lessons from the sea" encourage your faith
and all who believe, and also engender faith to believe in all who listen
today. This is my prayer for Jesus sake, Amen.
