Exodus 14
God had a plan.
We see his plan unfolding in Exodus chapter 14, verses one
through nine.
Then the Lord said to Moses,
"Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of
Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall
encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel,
'They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.' And I will
harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over
Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the
Lord." And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people
had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people,
and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from
serving us?" So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and
took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with
officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of
Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were
going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and
chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea,
by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. (Exodus
14:1-9 ESV)
God purposely made it look like the Israelites were wandering
aimlessly. It says here, “for Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘they
are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’”
God confounds the enemy’s plans and turns them against him. For
example, when the Son of God was on this earth, the enemy of our souls, the
Devil, tried to destroy Him by hanging him on a cross. God confounded the
Devil’s plan, and used the Devil’s plans to accomplish the salvation of our
souls.
The Egyptians had a foul motive for chasing after the Israelites.
Exodus 15 verse nine tells us that motive:
The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will
overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I
will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.' (Exodus 15:9
ESV)
Here we see that the enemy wanted to divide the spoils or plunder
them, ravage them or use them as an object to fulfill their desires and
slaughter them. It is these evil motives that are behind the Devil’s workings
in our world today, and it is the same evil desires that will be behind the
invasion of Israel by the armies of Gog and Magog.
In Ezekiel chapter 38 verse four, God says to Gog:
And I will turn you about and put
hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and
horsemen... (Ezekiel 38:4 ESV)
This drawing out with a hook in the mouth is what God did with
Pharaoh. God used Pharaoh’s own lust and desires against him. This is what God
will do in the end with Gog and Magog.
Thus says the Lord God: On that day,
thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme and say,
'I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet
people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no
bars or gates,' to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against
the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from
the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of
the earth. (Ezekiel 38:10-12 ESV)
Here we see that the motive for the invasion is to seize spoil
and carry off plunder. The enemies of God’s people have always carried this
motive, and God has used this to accomplish his purposes. He uses the motives
of our enemies to accomplish his purpose in our lives.
Since God uses our enemies’ own plans against them, it often
seems as if our enemies are winning. We see this happening in Exodus 14, verses
10 through 14.
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.
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 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." (Exodus
14:10-12 ESV)
The Israelites were tactically in a horrible position out gunned
and trapped between Pharaoh’s army and the sea. From a human perspective, they
had nowhere to go. They were trapped. This is why they complained to Moses with
such bitter words. They could see no way out.
I have been in situations where I could see no way out and no way
of deliverance, and have probably said words with the same sort of implications
to God. “Why have you brought me here? Why didn’t you leave me alone when I was
enslaved, but at least I wasn’t trapped between the sea and an army!”
Is there any better definition of being afraid than what the
Israelites were facing in that moment?
When your heart is overwhelmed with fear, read Psalms 55 and 56.
The Psalmist had many fears and challenges. His life hung in the balance, and
in the midst of his trials he said, “But when I am afraid, I will put my trust
in you.” (Psalms 56:3 NLT)
Although the Israelites were hemmed in and trapped, they had
nothing to fear, because God had a plan. God’s plan was a perfect plan. Here is
what the Israelites were singing the next morning:
I will sing to the Lord, for he has
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The
Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my
God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus
15:1-2 ESV)
Just hours before this song was sung, the Lord said to Moses:
Why do you cry to me? Tell the people
of Israel to go forward. (Exodus 14:15 ESV)
Even the leader, Moses, had no idea what God was going to do, and
while he tried to calm and control the panicked people, he was desperately
calling out to the Lord for deliverance. However, the Lord had made a couple of
clear statements of His purpose. He had said:
And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and
he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and
the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord." And they did so. (Exodus 14:4
ESV)
At this point, as Moses cries out to the Lord, the Lord repeats
these words to Moses saying:
And I will harden the hearts of the
Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over
Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. (Exodus
14:17 ESV)
These verses speak of God getting glory over the Egyptians. The
problem that God had been dealing with Egyptians about was the fact that they
exalted themselves above Him. The first commandment is not to have any god
besides the One true God, and not to exalt any such god over God. With the
Egyptians, God was not being a stickler for rules. He makes His reason for
confronting their obstinance clear. He says, “...and the Egyptians will know
that I am the Lord.”
This is key for us to understand. All men everywhere must know
that God is the Lord. Someday, every knee will bow and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
We will not see the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. God did
that a long time ago, but I can guarantee you that if you put your trust in the
Lord, whatever obstacle you face will be defeated in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ so that all the world might know that God is the Lord.
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