The Exodus - God Delivers!
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Introduction
Introduction
Ill: Tell them about today’s fish...
Key Word: Deliverance
Key Verse: Exodus 14:30
Definition: To rescue someone from a bad/dangerous circumstance
Can someone tell me about some of the plagues God sent in Egypt? (Hail, darkness, frogs, lice, water turned to blood, flies, locusts, cattle dies, boils, death of the first born) Why would he do all of this stuff to the Egyptians?
There was a very special group of people living in Egypt, those people were called the Hebrews. These people were so important because they were God’s people, He chose to love them and care for them as long as they exist. But in Egypt, they were living as slaves. Does anyone know what a slave is? A slave is someone who is forced to do work without being paid; and usually, the people that forced them to work weren’t very nice people.
(Long days of very hard work, probably not very much food or water, mistreated during work, no playtime during the day) You think your parents are brutal for just asking you to clean up your room!
How would you feel if you were one of the Hebrews?
God saw all the pain they were facing and He heard their cries for help. Do you think God loves those poor Hebrews? YES! He loves them so much, so He was working a way to free His people from the mean Egyptians. Are you guys all ready to check out how God saved His people from the Egyptians?
A. Pharaoh Changes His Mind - Exodus 14:1-6
Our story starts off in Exodus 14 only a few days after the Hebrews escaped Egypt thanks to all God’s miraculous plagues.
Ill: Map illustration of Hebrews journey...
- Start line and finish line
- Path 1
- Path 2
- 2 Reasons for going the long way
- The Egyptians would see God’s power again
- The Hebrews would escape the Philistines
God told Moses to lead the Hebrews along the longer path. This doesn’t really make much sense to us, or to Moses! What would you do if you were Moses in this situation?
No matter if it made sense or not, Moses chose to obey God. So, Moses and the Hebrews make their way down the long way. And Pharaoh realizes what’s going on..
“What are they doing?? They aren’t supposed to go that way, they must be confused. Aha! We can take them back.”
Pharaoh wipes away his tears from losing his firstborn, and he realises, “Why did we ever let those Hebrews go?? Now we have to do all the lame tasks they did!! I don’t like that at all, we need to get them back in our land.”
B. Israel is in a Pickle - Exodus 14:7-12
At this point, what do you think is the worst possible thing that could happen to the Hebrews?
I’ll tell you what it is, it’s all in verse 8. Exodus 14:8
8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness.
Uh Oh!!
Pharaoh’s 600 best chariots (Army Lamborghini), other chariots, and an army
Israelites are slowed down big time (600 000 people, thousands of animals, jewelry, kids, slow Grammy's and Grammy's, etc.). Quickly, the Israelites were completely surrounded by danger. In front of them were a bunch of armed angry Egyptians, and behind them was all water.
Ill: Dodge ball illustration
There’s no way of getting out of this one! Or is there?
What would you do if you were in this situation? Run? Fight? I know what I would do… AAAAHHH!!
All jokes aside, that’s basically what the Hebrews were doing. In vs. 11 they said, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?” Their screams of terror as they looked at the Egyptians stopped, and they started growling and complaining as they looked to Moses. “You’re the one who brought us here, why would you just let us die in the desert like this?! Egypt wasn’t all that bad.”
You know what’s crazy? Moses wasn’t worried like the others at all, he actually told the people not to be afraid!
Can anyone tell me why you think the people were afraid and Moses wasn’t?
The people did not have their eyes on God in that moment. All they could see were the big bad Egyptians and the water that they could not cross.
In their reaction to this trouble, do you think they were showing faith in God or unbelief?
They were showing unbelief! They thought there was no way they could possibly live through this one. But Moses had a different way of looking at it. He didn’t see the Egyptians the way the others did. Do you think a couple thousand tiny little Egyptians is too hard a problem for God? Of course not!
Moses believed that God is able to deliver the Israelites from any kind of trouble, including this one.
C. God Makes a Promise - Exodus 14:13-18
So Moses tells the people, Exodus 14:13
13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.
Place verse on screen, Exodus 14:14
14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
This is the key to the whole story, without God’s help, it’s impossible to escape those Egyptians, it’s impossible to be brought to safety and to be delivered. But the Israelites were on God’s side, so they have hope to be delivered. Which side do you want to be on? Spoiler alert, God always wins.
D. God’s Cloud Protection - Exodus 14:19-20
God did His first miracle, and this is one we don’t talk about very much but it is so amazing.
19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: 20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.
Ill: Photo illustration of the cloud
E. Red Sea Parted - Exodus 14:21-31
But it gets even better. After God had protected the people with the cloud, Moses looks out to the sea, and stretches his staff. God sent a very strong wind, and the water parted in half!!
What kind of noise do you think the water was making while it was splitting in half?
The craziest part of all this is the fact that Israel was able to walk on dry ground.
Raise your hand if you’ve gone scuba diving before.
What do you walk on when you’re in the water? The sand! You know what I haven't figured out yet? Why does the sand on the beach feel so different from the sand in the water? It’s because the water makes it soft and mushy! It’s hard to run fast on mushy ground. What happens when you mix water and dirt? You get mud! It is so easy to get stuck in mud.
We can only imagine how hard it would be if the Red Sea would’ve stayed muddy, but God said that they walked on dry ground! This was a miracle! So, the Israelites keep on walking on dry ground, but now Egypt follows them between the walls of water.
Now if you were a Hebrew, and you saw the Egyptian army following you even into the ocean, what would you be thinking?
I’d be scared for my life! But was God done saving His people at this point? No!
25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
Ill: The chariots getting harder and harder to drive; then they get stuck.
Then, something absolutely amazing happens, God commands Moses to stretch out his staff one last time,
26 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
God called Moses to do the last step in getting rid of the Egyptians and saving Israel. He lifts up his rod, and God sends water on the Egyptians and they all end up dying in the water.
Key Verse: Exodus 14:30
30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.
In this Bible story, we learn about all the ways God worked to save His people. Israel’s big problem was slavery; the Egyptians had them tied up and forced them to do work they didn’t want to do. And God used incredible miracles to bring them out of that. But you know what, we aren’t all that different from Israel. Paul said in Romans 6:17
you were slaves of sin...
If you haven’t trusted in Jesus, your soul needs to be saved. Because what we deserve for sin is death. Like the Israelites in Egypt, we need God to work a miracle to save us. Do you know what miracle God used for us?
He sent Jesus on earth to die for your sin. All this needed to happen because we deserve death of our sin. Jesus can deliver you and live in your heart if you ask Him to save you.
