"The Pass Through Deliverance"
Notes
Transcript
God’s Promise for Deliverance -- verse 4
God’s Promise for Deliverance -- verse 4
God’s plan was to not only deliver Israel from physical bondage but put to rest any doubt about who he was. From chapters seven to twelve, God revealed his arm to Egypt and yet he was not done with them. After the tenth plague, Pharaoh set Israel free (Ex. 12:29-32), and two chapters later, he told they fled...The first part of God’s plan is enacted....GOD HARDENED PHARAOH’S HEART!!!
God can use whomever he choses to move you towards deliverance.
The promise God made to Abraham was that he would be the father of a great nation, and that couldn’t happen while Israel was under the Egyptian heel. Israel’s enslavement had nothing to do with their disobedience. Israel was enslaved because a new regime feared what the Israelites were becoming in harsh conditions. “PEOPLE CAN’T ALWAYS HANDLE YOUR STRIDE OR SUCCESS IN STRESSFUL SITUATIONS.” The more the hardship, the more they prospered until this new Pharaoh decreed that all the first born male child would die.
The phrase “I will harden” in Hebrew suggest a person is not willing to learn information, implying the information would change the response to a situation. Pharaoh let Israel go God declares ahead of time so that we can know he is in control and we can maintain our faith. The people did as God commanded and encamped at the front of Pi-Hahiroth between Migdol and and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon (Lord of the North). Pharaoh went from letting go to now upset they actually left...
God’s Plan of Deliverance -- vs. 5-13
God’s Plan of Deliverance -- vs. 5-13
Israel is in an IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION as they were strategically situated in a place where they had to totally trust God. The tension here is that their impossible situation was orchestrated by the omniscient God. First, he strategically sets them in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to go. Secondly, the very enemy he promised to deliver them from, he hardens his heart. Next, the very enemy is in hot pursuit until the armies of Egypt “overtook” them. The word “overtook” here נשׂג, is a verb meaning to collect, reach; be sufficient, produce; appear. The Egyptians were in position to “collect their slaves” and bring the back to Egypt. Once against all of this was a plan of God announced in advance, so that Moses and the Israelites would not (if they could maintain their faith) be surprised and discomfited by the coming Egyptian pursuit.
Luke 2:37 says that there is nothing impossible with God, and it seems that Israel forgot that in their fear. Just like Peter began to sink as he looked at the storm, the faith of Israel began to sink because of the Egyptian army. “CHRISTIAN CANNOT OPERATE IN BOTH FEAR AND FATIH.” It is surprising how soon we forget what God has done in the past because fear in the present grips our faith. Exodus 14:1-4 provide the fodder to keep them faithful, but the massive Egyptian army created spiritual amnesia. They forgot how God turned Moses’ rod into a serpent that swallowed up the Egyptian sorcerer’s staves. They forgot how God TURNED THE NILE TO BLOOD...BROUGHT FROGS INTO THE LAND...CAUSED GNATS TO APPEAR...AND FLIES TO FILL THE LAND...CAUSED EGYPTIAN LIVESTOCK TO DIE...BOILS...HAIL FALLING FROM A CLEAR SKY...LOCUST RAVAGED THE CROPS...DARKNESS COVERED EGYPT FOR THREE DAYS...AND THE DEATH OF THE FIRST BORN…
In contrast to the majority of Israelites, Moses had understood the meaning of God’s earlier promise of protection (14:2–4)—and had not only understood it but believed it. This speech of Moses represents perhaps his finest hour yet in the leadership of Israel. He urged calm, commanded simple, patient waiting (but not total inaction; see below), reassured the people that what seemed to them a certainty that they would die in the wilderness (v. 12) was in fact the last, hopeless gasp of Egyptian hubris, and explained to them the most basic tenet of Old Testament holy war: God fights for his people and—no matter how undertrained, ill-equipped, poorly organized, or outclassed they might be—eliminated their foes.
From the point of view of God’s attributes, Moses’ speech alludes to five: (1) God is a dispeller of fear, a comforter of those who are afraid. (2) God is a deliverer from distress. (3) God invites and expects his people to trust in him (“Stand firm … you need only to be still”). (4) God removes danger. (5) God is a warrior against the forces of evil. The timing and application of these attributes are under God’s control, not man’s, but Moses could offer strong assurances to the Israelites in this instance because of what God had already said through him to them in regard to his plan to humiliate Egypt yet again, a last time.
עָשָׂה (ʿā·śā(h)): v.; ≡ Str 6213; TWOT 1708, 1709—1. LN 42.7–42.28 (qal) do, i.e., perform or act out an event, highly generic, of almost any kind or manner (1Sa 1:23); (qal pass.) be done (Ex 38:24); (nif) be done, happen (Ge 20:9b); 2. LN 42.29–42.40 (qal) make, i.e., to fashion or create an object, usually implying the use of existing materials (Ge 1:26); (qal pass.)
A better translation of vv. 13–14 would be: “Don’t be afraid. Stay where you are and see the Lord’s salvation, which he will provide for you today. Because you have seen the Egyptians today, you will never see them again. The Lord will fight for you. You do not need to do anything.” Of particular note is the translation of the last sentence of v. 13. The modern English versions usually render this in the manner of the niv, “The Egyptians you see today you will never see again,” but that is not in fact the meaning. The meaning is that of our translation. What Moses was saying was, in effect: “You should be glad you are seeing the Egyptian army coming at you. Because you have seen the Egyptians, it means that God’s prediction that he will trick them and trap them is about to be fulfilled. If you didn’t see them, now that would be cause for worry because then God’s prediction to us would not be coming true.”1
1 Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 336–337.
God’s Power on Display - vs. 14-31
God’s Power on Display - vs. 14-31
Moses speaks to their fears, reminding them that God will do the fighting as long as they stand still (be deaf, keep silent). AT SOME POINT, GOD WANTS TO SEE YOUR FAITH MORE THAN HE HEARS YOUR COMPLAINTS… The Lord asks Moses why are you crying to me...Tell them to go forward...”THE PRESENCE OF ENEMIES DOES NOT CHANGE GOD’S PLAN FOR YOUR DELIVERANCE. THE PRESENCE OF YOUR ENEMIES IS A SIGN THAT YOUR DELIVERANCE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK...” God tells them to move forward, meaning they had to break down the camp, rounding up the animals, packing up belongings, and orderly departure by rank, so this was not just a drop everything and run. They had time to pack while their enemy sat there and watched them pack. Moses’ staff that turned the Nile red, producing frogs from the Nile would now cause the Red Sea to divide. They would take the road never traveled which would be through the Red Sea. Again, God reminds the people of what he said in Exodus 14:1-4 about hardening hearts that will cause them to pursue you, but remember that I am doing this so they will know that I am the Lord after I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen...
The pillar moved from a guiding position to a protective position, showing that God does not just guide us, but he protects us from harm on the way to our deliverance.
Four difficulties thwarted the Egyptian army’s attempt to capture the Israelites:
They pursued into the sea
They suffered from God’s direct debilitation of their minds
They had trouble with chariot wheels
They suffered a sense of defeatism
יָד (yāḏ): n.fem. [BDB: masc. Ex 17:12+ ]; ≡ Str 3027; TWOT 844—1. LN 8.9–8.69 hand, i.e., the part of the human body from the upper wrist to the tip of the fingers (Ge 3:22)
“THE SAME PATH THAT GOD USED TO DELIVER WILL BE THE SAME PATH THAT GOD WILL DESTROY YOUR ENEMY.”
Verse 31 addresses this most important implication of all the events with attention to faith: the resultant faith of God’s people in the Lord and their willingness to place their trust in him and in his representative, Moses. Not only does this verse thus identify the point of the story of the deliverance at the sea for all generations (all should learn from it that the Lord can be trusted to deliver his people, no matter what their plight) but adumbrates the New Testament emphasis on salvation by faith. What was important for Israel was not merely that they were safe and the Egyptians were not; what mattered was that faith saves, and God had shown them how faith in him could pay off to their lasting benefit. They were still new to good theology. Many of them at this early point understood very little of who Yahweh was and what he expected of them. But they had now seen one final, awesome act of deliverance from Egypt, and it prompted their fear and trust.
11 Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 346.