Life and Death - Exodus 14

Introduction

Have you ever stopped to think about how little control you have over life and death? We’re driving down the interstate at 80 miles an hour, and we’re 16 inches from the car beside us. He could get stung by a bee, swerve, and kill you. Or, the guy in front of you is towing a trailer for the very first time and doesn’t seat the hitch correctly, causing the trailer to come off and come through your windshield. There can be e coli in the swimming pool or asbestos in the ceiling tiles at work or a hidden tumor growing, and you don’t know and have no control. These are the types of thoughts that can paralyze parents and provoke phobias, aren’t they?

And, we aren’t the first generation to wrestle with our lack of control over circumstances. It’s hard to imagine a scene in which life and death felt more out of one’s control that in Exodus 14. God commands Moses to make a tactically crazy change of course and to set up camp on the banks of the Red Sea. Pharaoh sees their change of course and surmises that they are either confused as to where to go or afraid to actually follow through. And so, he’s emboldened to go after them with his chariots and soldiers. The most trained military in the world bearing down on a group of ragtag former slaves. So, for Israel, this was the precipice of life and death. In front of them was the Red Sea, too deep, too daunting to cross. Behind them was the Egyptian army who would, at best beat them severely and return them to slavery, and at worst, annihilate them. It was totally out of their control.

God’s Word

Read Exodus 14:10-31

What God Revealed about Himself (Headline)

God often takes his people the wrong way on purpose. He likes to teach through apparent contradictions. That’s certainly the case in Exodus 14. God’s command to Moses to change routes provokes Pharaoh and puts Israel’s back against the wall. Think of it. God intentionally puts his people in a defenseless position. He intentionally takes them down a path the relieves them of all control over their lives. How else can you describe cancer or COVID-19 or Wall Street? You see, God uses what we can’t control to teach us who He is. That was true for Israel, and that is true for us. Look at what God was teaching Israel with their backs against the wall.

God “loves” his people.

v. 11 “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” First, we learn that God “loves” his people. It’s true that God loves the world. But, there’s another gear to the love that He has for his people. And, that’s the love that’s called into question in Israel’s response to seeing Pharaoh bearing down on them. In verse 8, Israel is “defiant”, bold, but in verse ten, they’re terrified. One look sunk their hearts. One look brought into question all that God had shown them. One look, and they doubted God loved them at all. It’s a poignant picture of human weakness if there ever was one. In light of all that God has done, in light of the plagues and the Passover and the fulfillments that God has brought about, in light of the plunder of Egypt that they held in their possession, in light of how strong their confidence in God had just been, one look unravels it all. I know that I can relate to Israel. My life is a museum of artifacts displaying the greatness and kindness of God to me; yet, COVID-19 comes and I’m convinced that the church will collapse. A text message comes, and I’m convinced that my ministry is coming apart. It’s like I say with Israel: “What? Were there not enough graves in Egypt? They couldn’t fit one more mummy? Did you just rescue me last time to kill me this time?”

Like the Other gods?

Psalm 106:7 “Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.” We “doubt” God’s love far more easily than we “believe” God’s love — even as his people. This is how the coming generations would interpret what they read in Exodus 14. Listen to what it says in Psalm 106. “They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.” Notice particularly the word ‘steadfast’. That’s the part they were struggling with. Maybe God loved them in the plagues and loved them in the Passover but has forgotten them now. This was the way of the gods of the ancients. They would be with you one second and against you the next. So, the goodness that you experienced from your god yesterday had no bearing on what your experience with him might be today. And, now, Israel was living the same way, as though YHWH’s love was as unstable and random as the love of the Nile or the sun.

Adjusted to Darkness

It’s the un-steadfastness, the instability of our experience with love that makes us distrust and misunderstand God’s love. Our biggest trouble with God’s love is that we know how we love, and how we’ve been loved. For many of us, contemplating his love is painful, not joyful because those who claimed they loved us and would love us forever betrayed us. It’s hard to contemplate the love of God when you have the blade from your father or wife’s knife still stuck in your back, or if you’re carrying the guilt forward for how imperfectly you love yourself. The “brightness” of God’s love is difficult to see with “human” eyes. Our eyes have adjusted to the darkness of human love. That’s why we strive when God says rest. That’s why we perform when God says abide. That’s why we hide when God says to confess. We need his love, which translated into our language means we need his approval and acceptance, which we’ve been conditioned to understand is based upon our scorecard, our ability to perform, or, at least, our ability to cover up.

Just Watch

v. 13 “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today.” That’s what makes what Moses says to Israel so powerful. In verse 13, he gives them three commands: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD.” What did they need to do in order to be saved? Watch. Don’t try to control. Don’t try to win this for yourself. Don’t try to make everything better. Don’t strive; rest. Don’t perform; abide. Don’t fight; watch. It’s the most counterintuitive command they could get. In other words, they could stand courageously and firmly because they were about to see just how powerfully and steadfastly God loved them. Our lack of “control” teaches us the “stability” of God’s love. You can’t control your cancer or infertility or adult children or the economy, and yet, it’s that very lack of control that sets the stage in your life to “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD”, that sets the stage for you to learn (again) that God’s love is not like your love, hot and cold, up and down, but that it’s stable and steadfast and dependable. Just watch! Just watch how your out of control life draws out his steadfast love!

God “defends” his people.

v. 14 “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” And, there was a particular way that they were going to see God’s love worked out as Egypt bore down. They would see that God “defends” his people. Why would Pharaoh come after Israel after all that he’s been through? Pharaoh thought the same thing that Israel was thinking. This was just another god who would lose interest and move on. In other words, eventually, Israel would run out of luck. But, YWHW abides with his people. His love is steadfast. Israel looked defenseless, the odds appeared insurmountable, except that God was abiding with them. He would do their fighting. He would do the defending. He would do the overcoming. That’s the picture of verse 19 when the pillar of cloud moved from the front to the back. The pillar of cloud and the Angel of the Lord are essentially the same. They are physical manifestation of the presence of God abiding with his people. We have the Spirit within, and they had the pillar before.

Reconciling Weakness and Courage

v. 16b “Tell the people to go forward” That’s how Israel could “fear not.” That’s how they could “stand firm.” And, that’s how we can, too. It’s really an irony: if you read the Bible from one end to the other, you’ll come away with two realizations about God’s people, about us: 1) We’re very, very weak. 2) We’re called to courage and boldness. We’re Swaziland at war with the United Nations. We’re rabbits trying to fight off a pack of wolves. We’re the wind trying to catch a bowling ball. So, at first glance, it appears as though our apparent weakness and our call to courage are irreconcilable. And, they ARE irreconcilable alone. But, God puts “himself” between the threat and his people. This is what good fathers do. They stand between their children and the robber, between their children and the oncoming traffic. So, God is glorified by our defenselessness, and He is glorified by our enemies’ strength because our defenselessness and our enemies’ strength draw out his Fatherly love. They show the strength of his presence that always abides with his children. And, that’s what gives the courage to cross the sea. That’s what gives the courage to cross the wilderness. That’s what’s to give the courage to enter the Promised Land. That’s what gives you the courage to show kindness to the person who slanders you on Facebook. God is between you and them.

Jesus Abides with Us

The “distance” between you and your enemies is “Jesus”. He is standing in front of us. That’s what happened on the cross. Your greatest enemy, sin, and your greatest threat, death, found Jesus standing in front of you. So, when your sin called for your punishment and your death, Jesus, the “man of war” stood firm on the cross, experiencing the full power of your enemy, and then, through the resurrection, He struck back, slaying your enemy, and burying it in a grave as deep as hell. We had what appeared to be insurmountable problem, but Christ is a love and power that is more daunting than our problem. And, if He has struck down our greatest enemy, what else do we have to fear? Our Defender has said: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” That’s why we stand courageously. That’s why we can speak out with a voice of reason and compassion against injustice, to the detriment of our reputation. That’s why we can raise our children to know what is true and good even though our culture calls them evil and intolerant. That’s why we can love those who seem to hate us. That’s why we can meet vitriol with kindness and a slap in the face with a prayer. We don’t have to compensate for our defenselessness. We don’t have puff out our chests before our enemies. Jesus abides with us, and He is standing before us. Jesus abides with us, and He is our defender. They’ll have to overcome him if they’re going to overcome us.

God “saves” his people.

v. 30 “Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians” And, that’s what brings us to the climax of the greatest redemptive event until the cross. Ultimately, God “saves” his people. God commands Moses to raise his staff, and with it, the sea carves out a path with a wall on the left and a wall on the right. The ground is as dry under their feet in the middle of the sea as it had been walking through the desert sands. The Egyptians assume that if the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea, then certainly they, the superior force with the superior technology can do so even better, even faster. So, they pursue Israel to capture them in the midst of the sea. And, God throws them into a panic. He confuses the generals and clogs the wheels of their renowned chariots. With every Hebrew on the other side, Moses raises his staff once more, and like a tidal wave, the waters close again, annihilating the greatest fighting force in the world. On the opposite shore, there was a picture of finality, closure, ultimate deliverance. Israel celebrated and sang, while the Egyptians washed upon the shore. God had redeemed his people. They were saved.

No More Sea

And, in Israel’s salvation there’s a beautiful peek into my salvation and your salvation. The instrument of “judgement” becomes the means of “deliverance”. You see, when the flood came and the waters rose, the earth was judged. Like the Egyptians floating to the seashore so was every person on earth stacked in natural graves, purifying the earth of its wickedness. But, there’s an exception, by God’s grace, Noah and his family, who experienced God’s love through flood, not his judgement. Now, the Red Sea becomes the highlight of Israel’s salvation and, at the same time, the crest of Egypt’s condemnation. And so, we see the cross. Upon the cross, God’s Son stood between us and our enemy by drowning beneath the outpouring God’s wrath as though He were God’s enemy. The Red Sea, in fact the whole earth, doesn’t have the capacity to hold the fullness of God’s wrath that you are owed for your sin, but Jesus drank that cup to the dregs. And so, with our baptism, we are buried into the waters of judgement, identifying that this is what we’re owed, but because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, we don’t stay there under the waters of judgement, but we are raised to new life in Christ Jesus. Our baptism “buries” us into the waters of judgement and “raises” us to new life. The instrument of judgement has become the means of our deliverance. And so, we look forward to the day that Revelation 21:1 promises us: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, AND THE SEA WAS NO MORE.” No more judgement. No more condemnation. No more baptisms. Only the enjoyment of freedom in the Promised Land.