Enough Graves in Egypt

Introduction

Good evening and welcome back!

Tonight we are going to be returning to a very familiar passage that you all have heard me preach from on more than one occasion.

And hopefully you won’t come into it thinking that you’ve already heard everything there is to hear about it—because that’s how I felt when God told me to preach from it.

That is until God opened my eyes to a slightly different take on the whole series of events that transpired.

But the passage I am talking about is Exodus 14, The Red Sea passage.

And tonight we are going to be looking primarily at verses 10-31 and I’m going to be reading primarily from the New King James Version tonight because the language used in that translation does the best job of really outlining the power and majesty of God Almighty.

And don’t worry if you don’t have a NKJV with you if you are not using an app, we will have it on the screen and you can follow along.

But what’s going on here, as you already know is Israel has been in bondage to Egypt for over 400 years and God sent Moses to convince Pharoah to set the Israelites free.

And we know that Pharoah went back and forth, one minute saying okay go and then before they could go changed his mind.

And in response to this God ratcheted things up with plague after plague until it got the point that all of the firstborn of Egypt died.

And finally after this great tragedy, Pharoah relented and said, go! Get out of here! He had had enough.

And the Bible scholars estimate that around 2 million people, and all their livestock and possessions left Egypt.

And when we stop and think about that, it left Egypt in shambles.

All of their firstborn children AND livestock were dead.

And now their slave labor force of 2 million people were gone.

That is roughly twice the size of the Church of the Nazarene in the United States—gone and all their possessions.

So once that initial grief subsided, the people looked around and said, “what have we done?”

We have completely destroyed our economy.

So, Pharoah being Pharoah—still unable to acknowledge the actual power of God, decides he is going to go get them and bring them back.

And that in itself, before we even get to the sermon is really an excellent parallel to the attitude of many in our country today.

We live in such a selfish and greed driven society that everything revolves around us having what we want not what we need but what we want, that we will completely ignore God and ignore when God is actually demonstrating His power right before our eyes.

God gave Egypt ample time to repent and ample time let Israel go.

10 plagues, in addition to conversations with Moses prior to the plagues, where God warned Pharoah but he ignored and dismissed God.

How many warnings has God given us?

What does God have to do in order to get our attention?

And I am not talking about our country right now—I am talking about US as God’s people.

It is like God is tell us, “hey, get your house in order because I’m about to move.”

He is telling us “get ready because it’s coming.”

He’s telling us to “put on our armour” because the fight is about to get real.

And if we are out here fiddling around, ignoring the calling that God has put on us—or running from that calling—or avoiding it because we are afraid, then it’s time to put all of that aside and STOP IT!

Listen, anytime God calls you and sets you on a path, it is going to be hard and challenging.

How do you think Moses felt when God called him to go to Pharoah and tell him to set God’s people free.

He didn’t want to do it, but he did it anyway.

And it wasn’t easy and even after they left it still wasn’t easy.

But Moses did it.

Be like Moses—put your Nike’s on and “Just do it!”

But anyway, I want to get into our passage for tonight.

Moses and the people have left Egypt and Pharoah has a change of heart and decides to go after them.

So he gathers 600 chariots, countless soldiers on horseback, and an untold number of foot soldiers.

Some even say it was the entire army of Egypt.

So this was not a small group going after Israel.

And this is where we pick up in verse 10 . . .

Scripture Focus

Exodus 14:10–14 NKJV

And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “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? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” 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. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

Graves in Egypt

Powerful words in this passage and I get goosebumps every time I read it.

But we start out with the children of Israel in complete panic over what was going on.

Again verse 10 . . .

Exodus 14:10 NKJV

And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

The NIV says that they were “terrified and cried out to the Lord.”

And while I get it, they had this vast army chasing them down, so sure it is natural to be afraid, but what about the things they had already seen God doing?

God had just wiped out the first born of all of Egypt, while not a single Israelite died.

Did they not think that God could handle this as well?

And I really think the problem here was they were not thinking—at least not rationally thinking.

They did exactly the same thing we do when something happens that shakes our faith and frightens us.

They panicked, and in their panic, forgot who God was and forgot what God was capable of doing.

And the first thing I really want us to think about and consider is what are the Egyptians in our lives?

What are the things that Satan has led us to, enticed us with, that is holding us in bondage?

And what are the things that even after God has freed us from that bondage that still chase us and terrify us?

Things like drugs, alcohol, depression, loneliness, sexual sins, pornography—it could literally be anything.

Anything that is holding you in bondage right now, God wants to deliver you from it.

Anything that is chasing you right now God wants to save you from it.

But we have to be willing to give it over to God and let God destroy it.

Not defeat it, but destroy it.

Otherwise we will be just like the Israelites here in their response to the enemy they were facing . . .

Exodus 14:11–12 NKJV

Then they said to Moses, “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? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

And now remember, these are people who God has already delivered.

They have been set free and instead of walking in that freedom and walking in the light of God, their minds immediately turn back to the darkness.

They immediately turn back to their wordly mindset.

And that worldly mindset was “what’s the point Moses?”

“Why did we go through all of this just to die out here in the wilderness?”

“At least when we were slaves we had food, water, and shelter, it wasn’t that bad.”

But they were quickly forgetting the true nature of their bondage.

How they as individuals were being destroyed.

As a people how they were being destroyed.

Eaten away and decayed by the generations of bondage and death.

How they had longed to be free and have that weight lifted off of them once and for all.

Which is also how sin works.

It drags us down and encases us in such a bondage that sometimes we cannot even breathe.

And all we long for is freedom from that bondage.

And when we receive that freedom it is light a weight is lifted off and we can finally move and finally breathe freely.

But because of the nature of life, problems come.

Adversity comes.

Temptation comes.

And the enemy attacks and puts the thought in your head, “what’s the point?”

“You’ve done all this hard work, for what?”

“You still have problems, you still have issues, was the old life REALLY that bad?”

The Lord Will Make A Way

And my answer to that is yes, it really was that bad.

Because then, I was fighting these battles—these demons all on my own.

I was out there struggling but I was by myself.

So, yes, even though at the time I was blinded and couldn’t see how it was damaging and destroying me, it really was that bad.

But PRAISE BE TO GOD IT’S DIFFERENT NOW!

Because, I am not alone and I do not have to fight these battles by myself anymore.

And I have a warrior on my side that no demon in hell can defeat.

Satan himself cannot defeat my warrior—because the God who fights for me is the God of this Universe and as long as He is by my side, nothing stands a chance.

Look at these next two verses . . . .

Exodus 14:13–14 NKJV

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. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

And I cannot stress this fact enough—God is fighting for us.

We have no reason to fear ANYTHING.

And I truly believe that sometimes we panic and are afraid because the enemy is surrounding us and we don’t see a way out.

We are blindsided and hammered by the hardest and worst battle we have ever faced.

Our breath is literally knocked out of us and our feet knocked out from under us.

And we are laying there unable to move and unable to breathe, and we panic.

And we start crying out to God— “Where are you?” “Why aren’t you taking care of this God?” “Why did this happen God?”

And God is silent.

And one thing I have learned and continue to learn is that when God is silent, God is working.

God has not went anywhere; He is just preparing a way through the battle.

Look, chances are God is not going to make a way around the battle, because the battle has to be fought.

But rest assured God will plow right through the middle of it.

And we are to never back down and never retreat.

Just stand there facing that Egyptian that is trying to destroy you and watch the Lord fight for you.

Watch the Lord deliver you.

Watch the Lord save you.

Watch the Lord restore you.

Watch the Lord anoint you with the full power of the Holy Ghost.

And watch those Egyptians run.

Destruction of the Egyptians

Because here is the reality of the situation.

Demons flee in the presence of God.

Because they do not stand a chance and they know it.

So they will run.

So, instead of us panicking why don’t we do a little fighting and unleash the power of God in this place tonight.

Anything that is fighting against you as a child of God doesn’t stand a chance.

Let it go and let God have it.

And let God destroy it.

And I mean destroy it.

We talk quite a bit about God defeating the enemies in our lives—but that is not what God does.

God doesn’t defeat the enemy, God destroys it.

I’m going to show you what I’m talking about.

Skip down to verse 25 here for a minute . . .

Exodus 14:25 NKJV

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.”

So here it is, the enemy realizes that they are fighting, not against the people, but against God Himself, so they say, we gotta get up out of here!

So, they decide to hightail it out there.

Exodus 14:26–30 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Not a single one of them survived.

And Israel didn’t do anything but cross the sea.

God did the fighting and God destroyed the enemy.

Altar/Challenge

And God will do the same thing for us as well.

Paul tells us that in Christ we are NEW CREATIONS the old is gone and the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).

As a new creation, God destroys the old things and old Egyptians.

When I look at someone I don’t see the old, I see the person for who they are in that moment and who God desires them to be.

Not because I am some great person but because that is how God sees them.

And I know that because that is how God sees me.

The enemy will constantly want to bring up our past and try to put us back in bondage to that.

But when God breaks the stronghold, it is broken.

When God destroys the enemy, it is destroyed.

Scars from the battle may remain, but that enemy is no more.

So know this, God sees you for who are are NOW, not yesterday.

Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy.

Step into the victory that God has for you.

And walk with your head held high right through the middle of that Red Sea, in the victory He has provided.

Because if He is for us, who can stand against us (Ro 8:31)?