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Exodus 13-14
13:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. 5 And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. 6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. 7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. 8 You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt. 10 You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.
11 “When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12 you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD’s. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”
17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 18 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph1 had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” 20 And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.
14:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6 So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7 and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD. 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.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
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. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night2 without one coming near the other all night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 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. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging3 their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”
26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw4 the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
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.
[1] 13:19
[2] 14:20
[3] 14:25
[4] 14:27
(ESV)
Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
Reading comes from Exodus 14. As Jill said, it's a it's a rather lengthy reading. So you if you wanna follow along, it's, we're gonna be reading verses 1 through 22. If you'd like to, bow and and visualize this, amazing event in our history. Listen carefully.
Speaker 1:This is the word of the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamped in front of between and the sea, in front of Baal Sefan. You show on camp facing it by the sea. For pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land. The wilderness has shut them in.
Speaker 1:And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them. And I will get glory over pharaoh and all his host. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so. When the King of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people.
Speaker 1:And they said, what is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, and took 600 chosen chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. The Egyptians pursued them.
Speaker 1:All pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea by Piahiroth in front of Baal Zephon. When pharaoh drew near and the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them. And they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to their Lord. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the wilderness?
Speaker 1:What have you done to us bringing us out to Egypt? 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. And Moses said to the people, fear not. Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.
Speaker 1:The Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 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. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they shall go in after them. And I will get glory over pharaoh and all his host, his chariots and his horsemen.
Speaker 1:And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. Then the Angel of God, who was going before the host of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was a cloud, and there was the cloud, and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
Speaker 1:Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land. And the waters were divided. 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.
Speaker 1:The word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. Pray with me again. Lord, we wanna hear from you. So we ask that through your spirit that you would speak. Thank you for your words of salvation.
Joel Brooks:I ask that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but lord, let your words remain, and may they change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. If I were to ask you guys to share your testimony, to get up here and share your testimony, although you would realize that your salvation happened probably through a series events or over a period of time, maybe through different conversations, different situations, things like that, you would probably bring up one event, one central event, maybe a prayer time, in which you really cried out to God and you asked him to forgive you. And you said, you are Lord of my life, and you trusted him for your salvation.
Joel Brooks:There would probably be some time that you would point to. Now for the Hebrews, the parting of the Red Sea is that moment. And although they understand that their salvation is is a is a process, This is the key moment that they would point to over and over. It is the central event in all of the Old Testament. What the resurrection is to the New Testament, the parting of the Red Sea is to the Old Testament that we refer to over and over again by the psalmist, by the prophets, and they'll say this is basically a a paradigm of the way that God saves.
Joel Brooks:If you want to understand what salvation means, you need to understand this. What it means to to be saved. And it's gonna, this passage will give you the framework to understand the death and the resurrection of Jesus, and what that purchased for us. Now now look at chapter 12, go back 1 chapter verse 31. And you find here pharaoh tells him to leave.
Joel Brooks:He says, pharaoh, he summoned Moses and Aaron by night, and he said, up. Go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said. And so the people of Israel, they're let go to go and serve the Lord. And we've looked at how Exodus, that is the theme of Exodus. It is all about serving, and whom will you serve?
Joel Brooks:And Moses never went to Pharaoh and just said, let my people go. It was always, let my people go that they may serve me, that they may worship me at this mountain. And the Israelites say, they they couldn't serve God at the moment, because they were under this bondage of pharaoh until God does something. And we've looked at the last few weeks how all of us are serving someone or something that we are all in bondage. Everybody is.
Joel Brooks:We all need deliverance. All of us want freedom, and you can see this in every aspect of your lives. Why why is it that you you work so hard to make money? Because you want financial freedom. You want to be able to do what you, you know, whatever you want to do, and be able to afford it.
Joel Brooks:You don't want to have to think, can I afford this or not? Why do you want to be the boss in a company instead of just an employee, is because you want freedom. You wanna do things the way you want to do them. You wanna set your own vacation schedule. You wanna do all these things.
Joel Brooks:You want to be the person in control. It even filters out at things like, why do you wear makeup? Or or or why do you spend so much time looking in the mirror and putting on nice clothes? Freedom. And because you know you are judged by your appearance, and you're bound by that judgment, and it's something that you want to be freed from.
Joel Brooks:You don't want people pulling you down, because of the way that you look, and we're all after freedom. But the fact that we can ever truly be free is a myth. It can't ever be a reality, because we're always going to serve someone or something. If you look at the Hebrews at this point, when they get right up to the edge of the Red Sea, you can actually argue that that for the first time in their life, they are free. For the first time, they are no longer under the bondage of pharaoh.
Joel Brooks:Yet they haven't made it to Sinai, where they've made a covenant with God. So they're not serving God, and they're no longer serving pharaoh. You can argue that this is the first time in their life that they're actually truly free. They could do what they want. And if you look at it, it's not really a great place to be.
Joel Brooks:They just want to get out of it. Left to ourselves, we will perish. And if your goal in life is to do what you want to do, whenever you want to do it, however you want to do it, realize that still is not freedom. You are still actually a slave. And you're a slave to your own selfishness.
Joel Brooks:Your selfishness is this is this master of it. You can't get outside of yourself. And you know, for instance, I was thinking about this day, how many of y'all have an iPod? Not a trick question. About all of you.
Joel Brooks:That is music freedom. That's what that is. Nobody can tell you what you have to listen to. You know, you if you have satellite TV, you probably have 400 something stations. TV, freedom.
Joel Brooks:Nobody can tell you what you have to watch at any moment. Watch whatever you want to watch. Nobody's gonna tell me what I have to listen to. Nobody's gonna tell me what I have to watch. I mentioned a few weeks ago, I went to the grocery store to to count cereal, and then I think it was 203 boxes, different types of cereal.
Joel Brooks:You have cereal freedom, breakfast freedom. Nobody's gonna tell you what you have to eat. I went to Walmart this morning to try to find some more examples, and I was going to count shampoo. And so I'm going to Walmart, and before I got to shampoo, I got to deodorant. And I thought, well, you know, I'll count deodorant.
Joel Brooks:Guess. I stopped at 300. 300 different types of deodorant. It was amazing. It was only half an aisle.
Joel Brooks:Shampoo was an aisle and a half. And so I didn't do that. I got overwhelmed. There's like over 300 types of shampoo. You have got deodorant freedom.
Joel Brooks:If you know, if somebody says, you know, you have to have a gel, you know, deodorant that smells like an ocean breeze, you can say, no. I want a dry roll on, you know, that smells smells like sporty ice or something like that. None of the names make sense. But you've got deodorant freedom. And I remember after that, I actually had to get some deodorant, and and I said, okay, I need to buy something, and I froze.
Joel Brooks:I was like, oh my gosh, there's 300 choices. And, Old Spice original is what I got, and, just because it was in front of me, and I grabbed it. That's not freedom. When you become so self absorbed, when there's no outside influences that that make you do something or or or get your attention, and you are your own person always making your own decisions, always doing what you want, when you want, there is a biblical word for that and it is hell. It is hell.
Joel Brooks:When you become so self centered, Martin Luther called it, the curvature of your soul, and your soul begins to curve inward, and given eternity, it curves completely inward on itself, and that is hell. It's when you can't think outside of yourself. God, no room for you. Push them out. Community, no room for you.
Joel Brooks:Just me. Just me. And we saw what happened to the Egyptians during the plagues, when they said, God, no thanks. Get out of our life. And things began spiraling out of control.
Joel Brooks:There is no such thing as freedom. Part of God's salvation is that he actually saves you from yourself, and he plants you in the midst of community. And you see that here. The the salvation that we just read, it is individual. Individuals are saved, but they're saved within the context of a community.
Joel Brooks:God saves an entire people here. It's a corporate salvation. And you can even see in in chapter 12 verse 38, that it's a universal salvation. Look at 38. Says, a mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock.
Joel Brooks:This mixed multitude. And so it's not just the Israelites. It is likely all these other slaves, maybe some Egyptians, other nationalities. It is a mixed group of people that are delivered. Don't think of it as being just the Hebrews.
Joel Brooks:God is creating a mixed community here. And once they all leave Egypt, God, he goes before them as pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. And then it's really interesting, God does not take them the most direct route. He doesn't take them by the land of the Philistines and actually says, because if they went by the Philistines and the army came out, they would be really scared and I don't want them to be discouraged. God actually says, he doesn't want them to be discouraged.
Joel Brooks:What he's hinting at is, these people don't have any faith. None. I just did 10 plagues, miraculous deliverance. But if they see an army, they're gonna flee. And so what God does is he puts them in a position where they can't flee.
Joel Brooks:He puts them in a place where they have no other options except to cry out. They're gonna pin he's gonna pin them in, and he's gonna draw Pharaoh out. And Pharaoh comes with all of his armies. You'll find the word chariots over and over and over. And what the author is doing, he's picking out that is the premier weapon of war.
Joel Brooks:So here you have the mightiest power on earth coming with their biggest weapons. See these little refugees pinned in. And when the people of Israel see the Egyptians coming and they have no place to run, they panic and look at chapter 14 verse 12. Says, is it is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians.
Joel Brooks:For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Now if this wasn't so sad, this would actually be humorous, because these people are delirious at this moment. They never said that. They never once said that to Moses. No.
Joel Brooks:Actually, they trusted in Moses. In in chapter 4, it says that when Moses told them what God was gonna do, it says they believed Moses and they worshiped the Lord. And so they're delirious in their thinking that, no, no, no. We asked you not to deliver us. Oh, we wanted to serve the Egyptians.
Joel Brooks:And they're also delirious in thinking there's only 2 options before them. It's either slavery, death. Those are our two options, slavery or death. And you have to think, why in the world would they think that? God had just sent the destroyer, cut through Egypt's defenses, like a, you know, a hot knife through butter.
Joel Brooks:Killed all the firstborn. So once again, here comes Egypt and all their army and all their might. You would have thought at least, maybe, they could have prayed for another plague, destroy or come. But these are people with no faith at this moment. They're delirious.
Joel Brooks:God's not even in the picture at this point. And so although they're free from pharaoh, you see that they are still slaves to their own fear. And at this point, Moses, he rebukes them, then he gives them a word of comfort. Chapter 14 verse 13. I love this.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't he doesn't just hammer them. He says, fear not. Stand firm. See the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. He realizes they're kind of like an an abused girlfriend, who's gonna keep going.
Joel Brooks:They they want to go back. They always picture life was better than really being free. And so he doesn't just hammer them and just rebuke them. He says, you know what? Stand firm.
Joel Brooks:Be still. See God's salvation here. There is no 7 steps I'm going to give you at this moment to saving yourself. I'm not gonna give you more law. There is nothing you could do.
Joel Brooks:See god work salvation. Now there is a temptation that I found when studying through this chapter to really try hard to find a personal application. You really wanna apply this. How does this affect my work? And how this is, you know, how this is affect my my life at home or my relationship with my neighbors?
Joel Brooks:And and you really want to try to to to to find that personal application, and I want to warn you against that, because I think you'll miss the point. The point is not if you're going through oppression at work, or an annoying neighbor, you pray that God will give a little personal exodus. He would deliver you, maybe plague come down, something like that. You you don't you don't pray that. This story is about what God has done.
Joel Brooks:What God has done to redeem you, what God has done to save you. You have done nothing like like we just read in those canons. Nothing to merit this. Matter of fact, when God gives the reasons behind saving these people, he never says, oh, because you were crying out to me because of all no. He says, I remembered my covenant with Abraham.
Joel Brooks:I remembered my covenant with Abraham and I saved you. And if you look back to Abraham, why did God save Abraham? Came from a family of idolaters in a pagan pagan culture. Because God said, I want to save Abraham. It's God's initiative.
Joel Brooks:God saves us. That's what this is about. God is doing it all, and the parting of the Red Sea is to show you how great that salvation is. If there is any application whatsoever for us, it is this, it is worship. In light of such a great salvation, worship.
Joel Brooks:Exodus 15. Go right there, and that's worship. First song in the Bible. One of the oldest songs, if not the oldest song in the world. Delivered and then we worship.
Joel Brooks:Application, we begin next week, when we find out how community once delivered how they're supposed to live. The the way that God chooses to save the Israelites here is so rich with symbolism. There's a reason everybody keeps going back to this moment. And there's a reason that God decided to save everybody this way, instead of all the other ways he could have. It's because this event is a paradigm for our own salvation, in which we have no faith initially.
Joel Brooks:We bring nothing to the table. We want freedom, but all of our freedom that does is just scare the daylights out of us. And then look at the imagery here. They walk through the sea. They're walking through the waters, and and every commentary you read is gonna say, the imagery that's used here is that of a birth.
Joel Brooks:Passing through the waters, until they become a new creation, new life. This is also a picture of baptism that we use in the New Testament. And then like the very first acts of God in Genesis 1, we see that God, he separates the land from the water. God once again separates the darkness from the light. And what you're seeing is there's this re creation happening.
Joel Brooks:He is creating something new. A community of God. A redeemed community of God. And the goal of all of this is that the world may know, and that we may worship. We may worship.
Joel Brooks:And so we can sing songs like Exodus 15, and they'll be rich to us, and we'll mean them. And so I hope when we read this text, whenever you come back to this moment, you think how great is our salvation.