The Parting of the Red Sea

Introduction

Three years ago, as many of you know, I had the great privilege of doing gospel work in South Asia. It was an incredible experience and a powerful week, and I hope to do so again. It was on this trip that I learned, through my circumstances, the difference between rescue and deliverance.

- Our first day in this country, we flew into Delhi and did some sightseeing before going farther south to continue our work. We had the chance to see the Taj Mahal.

- On the way home in our taxi cab, I remember looking out the window and seeing heavy raindrops start to fall. Knowing where I was in the world, I turned to my missions partner and said, “Wouldn’t it be crazy if we got caught in a monsoon?”

- Within the next 30 minutes, my partner and I were standing on the seats in the back of the taxi, because water had risen through the bottom of the taxi and was about to overlap onto the seat.

For over an hour rain continued to pour, and our driver, by the grace of God and skill, navigated the road and skillfully kept us from harms way.

However, the journey was only starting. We were no longer in immediate danger, but we were still far from our hotel - over 15 kilometers to be exact.

For the next six hours, our driver navigated unbelievable traffic, flooded streets, and complete havoc to return us to our hotel around 3 AM.

I have never been so happy as the moment I laid my head on the pillow that night.

THE POINT: Our taxi’s driver’s driving had rescued us from harm, but until we arrived at the hotel we had not been delivered.

The Exodus story is a story of rescue, but more importantly, it is a story of deliverance. God is not simply calling his people out, but he is taking them somewhere.

The Israelites certainly needed rescuing from the Egyptians, but they needed deliverance to the promised land just as much.

While Exodus shows God’s deliverance of the Israelites, it foreshadows Christ’s deliverance of sinners.

Christ delivers the sinner from the slavery of sin and death.

CIT: As God uses Moses to deliver the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery, so Jesus delivers His people from their sins.

Explanation and Application

As the people of Israel were enslaved to Egypt, so we are enslaved in our sins.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

When I read these verses, I see a people who are faithless, but I also see a people who have been enslaved for a really long time.

For quite some time, God has been working to set the people of Israel free from Egypt. Appointing a leader, plagues, festivals, a pillar of cloud and fire, and his continual presence are all drawing the people of Israel out of Egypt.

This slavery is primarily physical, but it is also mental and emotional.

V13, “We said it would have been better if we had stayed in Egypt.”

In Exodus 32, you realize that the golden calf was not incidental, right? They didn’t say, “What do we make? A crocodile, an elephant, a goat or a calf? Eeny, meany, miney mo! Calf it is!” The calf was an Egyptian God. As soon as the doubted Moses coming from the mountain, they reverted to an old idol that they had worshipped.

While God said they were free, they certainly did not feel free. The army is right there beside them.

It is possible, to have freedom and yet, not live in freedom.

We do the very same thing with our lives.

English Standard Version Chapter 8

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

Every human being since Adam and Eve, besides Jesus, are enslaved to sin. You can’t not sin.

While the Israelites exhibit a physical slavery, they also starkly exhibit spiritual slavery as well.

Even though they have been freed, the continue to sin against God.

Tim Keller speaks of slavery in layers, and I believe that this way of talking about slavery to sin is the most accurate. While we are freed once and forever, we still fall into the habits of slavery.

We fall back into the slavery of sin.

Let’s say you go to the dog shelter, and pick out a dog to take home. The people who run the shelter say that the dog you have chosen has been abused, so you will have to build his trust. You take the dog home, feed him, give him somewhere to sleep, play with him, buy him bones, treats and toys, and train him. Let’s pretend that you go out for a walk one day, and that dog hears the unique whistle of his old master. There is a very high chance that the dog will run right back into the arms of his abuser. Why? He is free, but that call still holds sway. We are the same. We have been set free, but we are not free.

We fall back into works-righteousness.

We know that we are saved, but we still believe that we have to earn some kind of approval.

Instead of working because we are loved by an adoring Father, we are still trying to gain the approval of a master.

While the New Testament authors often define themselves as slaves or bondservants, they are quick to champion the grace of God and speak of God as a father.

We fall back into our old idols.

Knowing God is better, we still place other things before Him.

J. D. Greear, “When something becomes so important to you that it drives your behavior and commands your emotions, you are worshipping it.”

What, if it was taken from you today, would completely devestate you?

God is going to destroy Israel’s idols in the desert.

Jesus is the greater Moses.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

3 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” We forget that the law was written by Moses. Also, every word of the Old Testament is ultimately about Christ.

In the Bible, every word we read tells us something about God. We read each passage of Scripture like the first people who experienced it and read it. However, we also have the New Testament, and we know that all that God was doing in the Old Testament was preparing a way for Jesus. Moses is one of those early pictures of Christ.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

15 The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.

Moses did what God commanded, and the water parted. On the other side, Moses lifted his hand again, and the water receded, overcoming the Egyptians. (v26-27)

Jesus and Moses are similar in many ways.

(1) Born while God’s people were oppressed. (2) Hidden as babies because the leaders were trying to kill children (both saved by going to Egypt). (3) Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness, and Jesus 40 days in the wilderness. (4) Moses was a shepherd, and Jesus was refered to as a shepherd. (5) Moses received the law on the mountain, and Jesus teaches on that law at the Sermon on the Mount. However, ONE key similarity overrides them all - the fact that both were mediators.

Have you every wondered why God rebuked Moses? Could it be because Moses so identified with the people that their sin cause a rebuke of him. In the same way he spoke to God for the people. He was their intercessor.

However, Moses and Jesus also incredibly different. Moses was man, and Jesus was God. Moses was sinful, and Jesus was perfect and completely holy. Moses, had to intercede as a man, and Jesus was God. Moses was God’s chosen instrument to end the slavery of the Israelites, Christ was God made flesh sent to end sin for all who would call upon His name. While Moses had to call upon the salvation of the Lord, Jesus WAS the salvation of the Lord.

As Moses made a way stretching out his hands to part the Red Sea, so Christ made a way for mankind by His hands being nailed to the cross.

We are saved by faith in God’s finished work.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Everything that the Israelites do in this passage can be characterized as “stand still.” v13

It was by faith and only by faith did the Israelites cross the Red Sea. Hebrews 11:29

God had finished it. They simply had to have faith that he would do it.

We sometimes struggle with our faith. How do we do this? How do we live by faith

Not one inch of what they had done or could do or would do was measured as they cross the Red Sea. Only their faith to step between the pillars of water.

Not even the strength of their faith saved them. It was the object of their faith. God, Yahweh, the I Am that I am.

Some of the Israelites walked through the Red Sea and said, “WOW! Isn’t God great! March forward.

You know there were others, who looked to their left, their right, and behind them, and said, “Well… this is it. This is where we die.”

Who made it to the other side? They both crossed the Red Sea, because they had placed their faith, no matter how simple, small, weak, frightful, fearful, or untested - in their God who was able to save.

Faith is no different for us. When Jesus said, “It is finished, he was saying, “For all who trust in me, they need not earn the approval of the Father. I have come, I have lived, and I have given myself for the salvation of all who would call on my name.”

Conclusion

Faith in Jesus to save you.

Deeper love of Jesus.

A rest that only comes when we truly believe, “it is finished.”