We Need A Hero: Moses (Exodus 14:15-31)

Moses Parts the Red Sea

Everyone enjoys a good movie, right? We spend many hours every year watching movies and tv shows. It used to be silver screens and television. Now it’s computers and phones. We can watch movies in the middle of nowhere thanks to file storage technology. We never stop to think about just how we got movies much. Do you know who invented movies? I was told most of my life that Thomas Edison invented motion pictures in the late 1800’s. Most of us grew up with that story. However, in recent years, it is generally acknowledged that when Edison patented the technology of motion pictures, he was taking credit for something that wasn’t really his. An unknown Frenchman by the name of Louis Le Prince is apparently the real inventor of motion pictures, beating Edison to the invention 5 years earlier. However, Le Prince never got the credit because he drowned on his trip to the United States to show off his invention, an invention that Edison knew about.

In the great story about Moses and the Red Sea, who is the one responsible for parting the Red Sea? You’ve seen the pictures. You’ve watched the movies. In fact, you can buy books with the title “Moses parts the Red Sea”. There’s even a great Far Side cartoon. Whenever this story is mentioned, the main character in the story is Moses. It’s been that way probably since the Exodus happened. If you don’t think that Moses never had this temptation, there’s another story we often forget.

Years after the crossing of the Red Sea, the Israelites are in the wilderness and they are thirsty and they begin complaining that they are thirsty and God says speak to this rock over here and I will provide water from the rock. Moses, in a fit of anger against the people, though, strikes the rock… and water comes out. As Moses is striking the rock he says this:

Numbers 20:10 “Listen, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?”

Moses lets his guard down. What’s in the inside comes out. Must we bring water out? He’s not doing anything. That’s God. But Moses is taking credit. It’s very easy to do. Taking credit for what God is doing.

People have been doing that with the story of Moses and the Red Sea forever. But is it really Moses. In fact, does the text even say that Moses is the one who parted the Red Sea?

Israel has been in Egypt for more than 400 years. 430 years to be exact. They have been outside of their promises land for more than 4 centuries. Over time, they become slaves to the Egyptians. Israel cries out to God for help. And then, God himself shows up. God appears to a shepherd named Moses, a shepherd who at one time had been in the royal courts of Egypt as one of Pharoah’s sons. And here’s what happens:

Exodus 3:1-4 “Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.”

Here’s the story of the burning bush. The bush that doesn’t burn up. And again, most of have been told that Moses has a conversation with a burning bush, but that’s not what the text says. “The angel of the Lord appeared to him… God calls out to Moses from the bush.” This isn’t just a bush. This is the Angel of the Lord… the Second Person of the Godhead, the Son of God himself, showing up to Moses, giving him details of a plan to rescue His people from Egypt. God himself is orchestrating the exodus from Egypt.

And so, the night comes for Israel to leave Egypt, and through a miracle that night, Moses leads Israel to the Red Sea. And the Egyptian army is chasing them down. Israel is seemingly pinned between the Egypt army, coming to take them back into slavery in Egypt… and the Red Sea. All seems lost. People start to complain. And the next thing you know, Moses is raising his staff over the Red Sea and the Red Sea parts and Israel walks right on through the Red Sea to freedom. End of story, right? That’s the version Hollywood tells. Moses parts the Red Sea. Moses gets the credit.

But it’s not just Moses and the people out there that night. Remember the burning bush? The Angel of the Lord shows up and talks to Moses. And when Israel is in dire straights, pinned between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea, guess who shows up again?

The angel of God…moved and went behind them. The LORD drove the sea back. The LORD looked down. The LORD threw the Egyptian forces into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve. He made them drive with difficulty. The Lord is fighting for Israel. The LORD threw them into the sea. The LORD saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians. The LORD used great power against the Egyptians.

The angel of God shows up. Israel is not all alone. It’s not just Moses out there. In fact, Moses is simply a human instrument for Israel. The Angel of the LORD, the leader of God’s army, the second person of the Godhead in angelic form… positions himself and the pillar of fire between Israel and the Egyptian army. The army cannot see Israel. Moses raises his rod as God told him to...But this passage doesn’t say anything about Moses parting the Red Sea. In fact, it says something else.

The LORD drove the sea back. This Angel of the LORD is doing all of this. God makes a dry path across the Red Sea for Israel to make their escape. And they do. The pillar of fire moves to the front… the Egyptians see Israel making it to the other side, they all give chase, and the Angel of God shuts the water in on them, drowning Pharaoh and the entire Egyptian army. Pharaoh doesn’t lose only his son… he loses his throne, his power, his life.

And here’s how the passage says it went down:

The LORD looked down and threw the Egyptian forces into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve. He made them drive with difficulty. The Lord is fighting for Israel. The LORD threw them into the sea. The LORD saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians. The LORD used great power against the Egyptians.

What’s the common theme there? Again and again and again… the LORD is doing all of it.

But that’s not the story we tell. If you look at the storybooks for children, even the Charlton Heston Hollywood version… you’ll see Moses, his rod, and the walls of water, and happy people walking through the water on dry ground. We all empathize with the hopelessness of the narrative. We’ve all feel for the Israelites. We focus on Moses. We focus on that rod. We want a hero like Moses who is using his magic staff to make things happen. That’s the stuff of legends. It sounds like a Marvel Movie. Just when all seems lost, the hero comes to save the day. Marvel has made billions with that kind of storyline. While that is all make-believe, this event here at the Red Sea is very, very real. It really happened.

But this isn’t some Spider-man, or Batman, who comes to save the day. This is God himself, in the form of an angel come to save his people. Read this again:

The angel of God…moved and went behind them. The LORD drove the sea back. The LORD looked down and threw the Egyptian forces into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve. He made them drive with difficulty. The Lord is fighting for Israel. The LORD threw them into the sea. The LORD saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians. The LORD used great power against the Egyptians.

You know, this is exactly what God said he would do. God told Moses at the burning bush that he was going to rescue his people. He was going to rescue his people. He said it again just before they left Egypt. And he meant that literally. The Angel of God shows up and he literally takes on the Egyptians by himself, while Israel does nothing but walk across the river bed.

In a blaze of glory-fire, this Angel of God, who is God himself, is a One Many Army. A one-man wrecking crew. Even the doomed Egyptians are saying “The LORD is fighting for Israel”. God, as is his habit in the Old Testament, has taken on an angelic form, he is visibly taking on the Egyptians by himself. There is no helping God. There is no cooperating to conquer the enemy. Israel will be saved. And they will have absolutely zero to do with it. There will be no question as to who is responsible for Israel’s rescue from their oppressor. The power of Egypt is no match for the Power of the Divine Warrior. He slays the firstborns, and then, in one final decisive act, dooms Pharaoh and saves His people.

And he doesn’t just save them from the Egyptians or the water. There is more going on here. God’s salvation of Israel creates faith in Israel. It causes them to believe:

Exodus 14:31 “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.”

The exit from Egypt through the Red Sea on dry ground, through the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea… is all aimed at their faith. This is God’s grace. This isn’t a grace that is inert or works passively. No.. this grace, shows up as a One Man Army to conquer the enemy and give Israel their salvation. The only response to such grace is to receive it in faith.

No event in the Old Testament is quoted more often as a picture, as a type, of what Jesus does for us in our salvation. The Exodus story is often cited as an example of how God fights for us in getting us a better parking spot. In getting me the promotion over the guy who is my enemy at work. In conquering negative feelings so I feel better about myself. His rescue from me having a bad day. Or even rescue from physical oppressors. As important as any of this might be, this is not the point of this event at all.

Moses is not the hero of the story. Jesus is the hero of the story.

Jesus, the Son of God, who showed up as the Angel of the Lord that night to save Israel, is the hero of the story. He’s the hero of our story. We are slaves to sin. We cannot help ourselves. We are all slaves to something. Me and you. There is no working myself out of my slavery.

But we convince ourselves we can save ourselves all of the time. We’re always looking for the magic staff. We’re always looking for the influence, the power and the control to one-up the next guy. We tell ourselves it’s all up to me. We look out over the Red Sea with the Egyptians closing in and we actually tell ourselves, I’ve got this.

Friday night we had a great time handing out water. I figured out later, we gave away around 1100 bottles of water. Between donors and Jose and Karina, we had about 24 to 26 cases of water. One funny thing about Friday night… I’ll bet half of the water we gave away went to Harlingen Cardinals fans. Harlingen travels well. We joked with some of them that the water was only for Los Fresnos Falcons fans. The church handing out the water is wearing the Falcons colors. We all had a good laugh. But you know why it was silly and funny? Because we all know, we do this all of the time, especially when we are backed into a corner. One of the ways that we save ourselves is we save our kindness and our energy for people who are like us. We’re always looking to make sure that the other guy is wearing the same team colors. And if he isn’t, I must control. I must influence. We want to influence and control and make everyone just like us. If they don’t vote like I do, if they don’t spend their money like I do, if they don’t look like I do, I either will cancel them, or I will not bother with them, or I will spend a lot of time and energy trying to control them with my position and influence and power. That’s the world we live in. I control my world when I know and I make sure that everyone is wearing Falcons shirts, and when that happens, I want the credit I deserve for making it happen.

We spend an awful lot of time trying to part the sea. We want the staff. We want the control. But we cannot save ourselves. We cannot save the next guy. We can never get enough credit to make it all good. It’s not our credit to take. Jesus is the Hero I need to save me from all of that. The point of this Exodus story is this is what Jesus accomplishes for me in rescuing me from sin, from hell, from the devil, from my own self-interests and self-infatuation, my narcissism. The rescue here is an ultimate rescue. Eternity is on the line and I am absolutely helpless… unable to save myself. I am pinned between destruction and eternity without God and no forgiveness of sin and my enemy. My Angel of the LORD came to earth, Emmanuel God with us. And he single-handedly won my salvation, my eternal life, and my forgiveness at the cross.

We don’t do anything. No works. There’s no being good enough. He does it all, by himself. Without our help. Without anyone’s help. You read the New Testament and story after story after story… Jesus is by himself. He stands in front of Pilate and Herod… by himself. One man against the world. The One Man Army… laying it all down… for my deliverance and yours. Our Emmanuel, God with us, fights for us by going down into the waters and dying as an Egyptian. He takes our judgment. So we go free. He dies… and we walk free on dry ground to all of the Promises he gives us in grace.

Let’s pray.

Jesus came to save sinners. To rescue sinners. To give deliverance to sinners from sin, the devil, and hell. Like Israel, we tend to complain. Egypt can look so inviting. It promises self-fulfillment, self-sufficiency, instant gratification. All the while we are entangled and ensnared by our sin. We need Jesus to save us. To lead us out. To give us His Promise of life and forgiveness. He did this, when he the Angel of the LORD who led his people out, became the Passover lamb. And he does this in this Table, right here, right now. Life, forgiveness, rescue, deliverance… all Promised in Christ who is present in this Table.