Sermon Tone Analysis

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.