Exodus Week 4: Trusting God When There’s No Way Out
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Exodus 14
14 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you must camp in front of Baal-zephon, facing it by the sea. 3 Pharaoh will say of the Israelites: They are wandering around the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in. 4 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So, the Israelites did this.
The Egyptian Pursuit
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said, “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.” 6 So he got his chariot ready and took his troops with him; 7 he took six hundred of the best chariots and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in each one. 8 The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen, and his army—chased after them and caught up with them as they camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians coming after them! The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
13 But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation that he will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you must be quiet.”
Escape through the Red Sea
15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to break camp. 16 As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 As for me, I am going to harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh, all his army, and his chariots and horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I receive glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
19 Then the angel of God, who was going in front of the Israelite forces, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them. 20 It came between the Egyptian and Israelite forces. There was cloud and darkness, it lit up the night, and neither group came near the other all night long.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So, the waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left.
23 The Egyptians set out in pursuit—all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen—and went into the sea after them. 24 During the morning watch, the Lord looked down at the Egyptian forces from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian forces into confusion. 25 He caused their chariot wheels to swerve and made them drive with difficulty. “Let’s get away from Israel,” the Egyptians said, “because 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 water may come back on the Egyptians, on their chariots and horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal depth. While the Egyptians were trying to escape from it, the Lord threw them into the sea. 28 The water came back and covered the chariots and horsemen, plus the entire army of Pharaoh that had gone after them into the sea. Not even one of them survived.
29 But the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left. 30 That day the Lord saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 When Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses.
Summary
This week we jumped from chapter 4 to chapter 14. Moses has already confronted Pharoah and God has sent the plagues. The showdown with Moses and Pharoah has already happened and Moses was told to leave Egypt. Moses has shifted from a doubter to a leader. He is walking in confidence because of all God did.
Chapter 14 will be divided into 3 parts:
1. Hard Hearts (v1-4)
It can sound cruel when you hear that God hardened Pharoah’s heart. As we read though, we see that Pharoah had hardened his heart first. Theologically speaking, everyone gets a chance to respond correctly, which would be your second chance to get it right. The first chance was blown by Adam and Eve. Chances beyond that are not guaranteed. We see this in Romans 1, in the story of Noah’s Ark, and in the life of Judas. Even though he hardened his heart God protected His people from the consequences that cam with that. Egyptians lost their first-born sons, not the Israelites. Egyptian army died, not the Israelites. The damage that comes from a hardened heart extends beyond the one person.
2. God Doesn’t Lead You To Leave You (v5-15)
The Israelites has already seen all the plagues. Did you catch that? They had seen all the plagues, but they did not experience any of them. Every day of your life the sun has come up and the sun has gone down. We tend to forget; God has been faithful everyone of those days. At times He has been so faithful, that we begin to take our blessings for granted. Sometime, things get hard and we cry out to God, rather than carrying out the assignment he has placed before us.
3. Dead Ends Become Doorways (v16-31)
One of my favorite depictions of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea comes from the animated movie The Prince of Egypt. When they are walking across on dry land and they see the silhouettes of whales and other large fish swimming right next to them. That is better than any aquarium you could ever go to. But before they experienced that they had been terrified that they would be killed by Pharoah and his army. It was not until Moses told them, God will fight for you, just be quiet. When they got quiet, God got to work and did what no one expected. God displayed His provision, the sea parted, and He protected them until the last one crossed. When they crossed over the fear of the Egyptians was gone and now, they had a healthy fear of God. When we are overwhelmed and forget God’s faithfulness, we are allowing the problem to be bigger than the answer. Many time we harden our hearts to a situation and believe that God has left us. But just like He told Moses, He will never leave us or forsake us.
Thanks for joining us for this Community Group Gathering, I pray that all of you are being blessed by your community. This year we have seen about 30% of those who attend on a weekend join and be a part of a Community Group. We are setting a goal of 70% in the next three years. In order to accomplish this, we need to have a plan. I will be speaking with some of you to see if God may be asking you to be a part of what we plan to do. Please pray for our Community Group Ministry and all those that are a part of it.
Discussion
Have you ever struggled with a hardened heart? Share
What did you learn by going through that? Has it helped you from falling prey to it again? Share
Have you ever felt God leading you to do something and once you obeyed, you felt alone? Share
How long did it take you to realize He was there all the time? Share
Share of a time you felt you had reached a dead end only to see the Lord open the door WIDE OPEN
Announcements
I am looking to implement the next part of our CG Leadership Plan. We have over 40 CG’s and two new ones just started this week. I will be reaching out to 4 couples asking you to pray about being CG Coordinators. I want you to know that I am already praying for the ones the Lord calls. If He is calling you to serve, DON’T MAKE EXCUSES!
Let’s continue to pray for each other and send prayer requests through our WhatsApp thread. If you are a CG Leader and are not on our WhatsApp thread please contact Meichelle at meichelle.vasquez@bt.church
Pastor Isuaro Medina
Isauro.medina@bt.church
Cell: (956) 984-9380
