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Exodus 14
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 night1 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 clogging2 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 threw3 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] 14:20
[2] 14:25
[3] 14:27
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Our text tonight is from Exodus, chapter 14. Listen carefully, for this is the word of the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi HaHerath between Michdol and the sea, in front of Baal Zephon. There you shall encamp facing it by the sea. For pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, they are wandering in the land.
Speaker 1:The wilderness has shut them in. And I will harden pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. And I will get glory over pharaoh and all his hosts. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so.
Speaker 1: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 that we've done, that we've 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, all pharaoh's horses and chariots, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea by Pah harath in front of Baal Zephon.
Speaker 1: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. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt?
Speaker 1: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, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
Speaker 1:The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. 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.
Speaker 1:And I will get glory over pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen. 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 before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. 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. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharah's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 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, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.
Speaker 1:And the Egyptians said, 'Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.' 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. 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 threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 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.
Speaker 1: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. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord.
Speaker 1:And they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. The word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your salvation, how you have redeemed a people, and how you have called us your own. We have sung about that, we have heard that in the public reading of your word, and I pray that we would now hear that proclaimed from the pulpit.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, may my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Tonight, we finally get in the story of Exodus to that climactic moment of the parting of the Red Sea, which is really the definitive event in the Old Testament.
Jeffrey Heine:But before we dig into this text, I wanna once again remind us as to why we go to the Old Testament. What are we trying to find when we go there? And at Redeemer, we spend a significant amount of our time in the Old Testament. And I've been fortunate this week to have a number of conversations with some of you, and that you've said it's like light bulbs have been going off. As we've gone through these stories about how Jesus is central, and that this has been a novel idea to many of you.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I thought before we even move on, I would once again lay the foundation as to why we go to the Old Testament. In John chapter 5 verse 39, Jesus is talking to a religious people, people who had grown up well versed with the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures. And he says this to them, you search the scriptures because you think in them that you have life. Yet these scriptures testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. So he tells these people well versed in the Hebrew scriptures, you're reading your Bible the wrong way.
Jeffrey Heine:Because the scriptures talk about me. And the purpose of you reading these scriptures is to come to me that you might have life. Later in John chapter 5, after Jesus had said these words, he tells the same group of people in verse 46. He says, if you believed Moses, then you would believe me because Moses wrote of me. And now in case you don't know what Moses wrote, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, what we would call the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Jeffrey Heine:And I can assure you that if you were to look through there, you're not gonna read the name Jesus. You're not gonna read about the person of Jesus. Yet Jesus says, Moses wrote all about me. That although he is not named there in person, all of the scriptures that Moses wrote are concerning him, and we need to come to him as we read these things. Let me give you a couple more text.
Jeffrey Heine:In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 24, we read these words. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. For he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, For he was looking to the reward. So although Jesus had not been born yet, the author of Hebrews, when he's writing about Moses's life, he says, Moses was already considering Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:And Christ was the one who was shaping his actions, shaping his faith in what he did. Let Let me give you one more. Luke 24. It's a famous story about Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus. This is after the resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus, he comes alongside 2 disciples who are walking on this road, and they don't recognize Jesus and so he's just listening in to their conversation and he notices that they're very sad and he says, why are you so sad? And and so they tell about all of the events that happened, how they had hoped this man named Jesus was the Messiah, but he had died. Jesus says these words to them. Oh, foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
Jeffrey Heine:And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Once again, Jesus goes back to Moses and says, Moses wrote about me. I I would have loved to have heard that sermon as Jesus walks through the entire old So if we reduce the grand theological message of the old testament to to really nothing more than some good moral lessons. Maybe how to be better people or how to have faith or how if you trust God, He could get you through some hard times. If we do that, then we miss the primary point of the Old Testament, which is to lead us to Jesus that we may come to Him and that we might have life.
Jeffrey Heine:That's my goal as we go through Exodus that we would constantly go to Jesus, who says that Moses wrote of him. And and you see this already. If if you've been if you read the Bible up to this point, you know, Moses, he wrote Genesis. And Genesis is all about Jesus. We don't have time to go through all the stories, but let me just highlight let me highlight 4.
Jeffrey Heine:Just looking at what we would call the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Joseph which leads the people into Egypt and is how they got there in the first place. When you look at the story of Abraham in Genesis 15, we have God making a covenant with Abraham. And the way you would make a covenant is you would cut animal pieces. You would cut large animals in half.
Jeffrey Heine:It's kinda grotesque, grotesque, and you would separate these large pieces of animal, essentially making a hallway in between 2 animal halves. And what the people that day would do is they would want to make a covenant with their god. And so they would walk through those halves saying, god, if I don't keep my covenant with you, may what's done to these animals be done to me. But then in Genesis 15, we have something radical. Abraham, he cuts the pieces, he divides them, and then he falls asleep.
Jeffrey Heine:Says God causes a deep sleep to fall on Abraham. And while Abraham is asleep, God appears as this fiery melting pot. And God himself comes through the pieces and comes to man. Unheard of. It's not a story about Abraham having faith here.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a story about a God who makes a covenant with us. God who comes to us and says, I will be faithful to you no matter what. You look at Abraham's son, Isaac. We remember in Genesis 22 how Abraham took Isaac up to Mount Moriah, which is the same mountain range where Jesus would later be killed. And he takes him up because God said, I want you to sacrifice your son.
Jeffrey Heine:And you can look at that story and you could say, well, you know, Abraham, he's the story is about obedience. The story is really about faith. And those are good things and and and they're partially right, but it's not the primary point. When Abraham is bringing down the knife and God says, stop, stop. We should be thinking is there is still a need for a sacrifice.
Jeffrey Heine:And although god allowed Abraham to spare his son, we look forward to the time when he who did not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for us all. We see Jesus as being the sacrifice to whom Isaac pointed. You look at Isaac's son, Jacob. I love studying Jacob because he was really just a scoundrel. I mean, you could kind of identify with him.
Jeffrey Heine:He he never really does anything good. He he never prays. He he he doesn't have any kind of moral life. And after he cheated his brother Esau and he deceived his father, he goes on the run, and he's in the middle of nowhere in a place called Bethel, and he lies down to sleep, and he has a dream. A dream we know is Jacob's ladder, which is really a a staircase going up to heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says he sees angels ascending and descending on this ladder. We think, what what what is that about? And Jesus, he tells us in John in the gospel of John, he's talking to a man named Nathaniel who was really impressed by something Jesus did. And Jesus like, you were impressed with that? He goes, I'll tell you what to be impressed with.
Jeffrey Heine:Nathaniel, you will see angels ascending and descending on the son of man, on me. I am Jacob's ladder. I am the bridge connecting heaven to earth. That's a story that's about me. Then you come to Joseph, Jacob's son.
Jeffrey Heine:Joseph is a little harder, you know. Most people preach him, you know, just live a life of faith like Joseph, but that kind of fails because he didn't have perfect faith. But it's just so hard to find in a man who was betrayed by his best friends. His robe stripped from him, thrown from silver, or sold for silver, ascends to a position on power, restores relationships with those who hate him, and saves the world. It's hard to kinda make a connection to Jesus, you know, when you're really studying Joseph.
Jeffrey Heine:You you you see how all of these stories, the point is not primarily some moral lesson. The point is as we are hearing these things, bricks are being laid. Vocabulary is being given to us. And then we finally get the Jesus, and it's like click. It all makes sense.
Jeffrey Heine:We now have the vocabulary we need to understand. Stand, and we now have the foundation we need to appreciate him. That's why we go to the old testament. That's why we've been taking our time through the book of Exodus. So after this long introduction, let's dig into his word, into the story of God parting the sea.
Jeffrey Heine:It would be hard to overstate the importance of what happens here. It it is the central event to the Old Testament. It's gonna be referred to over and over again by the psalmist, by the prophets. It's gonna be mentioned as the paradigm that we are to look at in the way that god saves. This is how god saves.
Jeffrey Heine:The parting of the Red Sea in the old testament is what the resurrection of Jesus is in the New Testament. It's the essential event that changes everything. And so if you wanna understand what the word salvation means, you need to understand the story where the word salvation is introduced. This is what it means to be saved. Now when the Israelites left Egypt, God went before them as a pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night.
Jeffrey Heine:It could have been the same thing. It might have been just a fire that you saw at night, but a day you saw the smoke. We're not we're not sure, but it's a pillar of cloud by day, a fire by night. But he doesn't take them to the most direct route to Mount Sinai, which is where he's going to take them. Instead, he he goes this indirect route to a place called the Red Sea.
Jeffrey Heine:The reason he does this is because he is trying to lure pharaoh out into a final confrontation. Now when the Israelites left Egypt, pharaoh and and all of the rest of the Egyptians, they're left behind, and they are grieving the loss of their firstborn son. And we looked at that last week. And I want you to picture this as all of Israel has left and they're grieving, and that grief begins turning to anger. Anger at these Israelites.
Jeffrey Heine:Anger at Moses. Anger at what his god has done to them. And then all of a sudden, pharaoh hears. The Israelites, they did the most foolish thing. They just pinned themselves in by the Red Sea.
Jeffrey Heine:They've got no place to go. And then pharaoh in his anger says, let's get them now. And he unleashes all of the power of Egypt there. Says his whole army went. 600 of his chariots and of his best chariots along with all the rest of the chariots, And the chariots were the premier weapon of war in that day.
Jeffrey Heine:Just picture the sound of all those chariots and all the army of these men who are furious at the Israelites rushing towards them. I'm sure the ground shook, and so did the people of Israel. They did probably what we would do. They were scared and they cried out. You see this in verse 10, what they cried out.
Jeffrey Heine:It says, when 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. 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? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt?
Jeffrey Heine: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. So the people, they they yell at Moses, and they say, hey. Hey. Didn't we tell you this would happen?
Jeffrey Heine:Didn't we tell you to leave us alone? Let's just do a little fact check. You know, just a little fact check as to actually maybe what happened. We read this in Exodus 4 29. This is right after Moses.
Jeffrey Heine:This is when Moses goes to them. It says, and Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses, did the signs in the sight of the people, and the people believed. And when they heard that the lord had visited the people of Israel and that the lord has seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and they worshiped. It it it doesn't exactly I mean, I didn't really like digging deep in the Hebrew or anything right there, but it doesn't really seem exactly like when Moses came to them, they said, go away.
Jeffrey Heine:It seems like they believe his word, and they worship the Lord. So they're misremembering their former life, and they're gonna do this time and time again. You're gonna see later in chapter 16. It's one of the most comical ones out there. It was when they're hungry, and they're like, Moses, Moses.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, when we were slaves, we had warm bread. We had great meat every single night. It was it was fantastic. Look what you've taken us from and they begin looking back at their former life so fondly not remembering that they were slaves. Their life was horrible, and they were crying out to God for deliverance.
Jeffrey Heine:It's really a paradigm for our own salvation, in which often we look back at our former life, we look back at maybe sins we even committed a few days or a few weeks ago, and at the time, there was such guilt, such shame, such crying for a deliverance, and then how shortly we forget. You're like, oh, you know, that actually wasn't really that bad. You know, actually, I really kind of enjoyed that. You know, it was wonderful, and you you begin thinking fondly of the sins that you have left. We're no different.
Jeffrey Heine:What's happening here is that although we have been set free from the blood by the blood of the lamb, We have yet to really cross over to a new life. That's what's happening with them. They have been set free by the blood of the lamb, but they're not at Sinai yet. They haven't made a covenant with God yet. They haven't crossed over into new life.
Jeffrey Heine:And they are still largely being controlled by their former master and not God. Look. Just look at this. Look how the Israelites who, although that they are free, although they are free, who are they being controlled by? They're still being controlled by their fear.
Jeffrey Heine:They're still being controlled by pharaoh. I mean, as I see the armies of pharaoh closing in, they think our only options are this. Our only options are either death or or maybe a return to slavery, but we've got no other options. I want you to notice that God is not even part of the equation, which is unbelievable, because God has just shown himself more powerful than any god or any person or any army in all of Egypt. He's just done 10 mighty plagues.
Jeffrey Heine:He has just killed the firstborn of every family. Went through Egypt like a warm knife through butter. Nothing could stop him. And yet here comes pharaoh's army, and instead of praying for perhaps, maybe, I don't know, another plague, you know, do do something, They just forget. God's not even in the equation.
Jeffrey Heine:They might be free from pharaoh, but they are still slaves to fear at this point. They still don't trust god yet. And so Moses comes in. Moses, he he both rebukes them and then he gives them a word of comfort. Verse 13 is one of the greatest verses in all of the Bible.
Jeffrey Heine:Look at verse 13 again. 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 will never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you only have to be silent. Moses says, this is what I want you to do.
Jeffrey Heine:Do nothing. Do nothing, and you're going to see the salvation of the Lord. He doesn't tell them to fight. He doesn't tell them to run for it. He doesn't, you know, give him a book.
Jeffrey Heine:Here's the 7 steps to saving yourself. You know, he he says, do nothing. Do nothing and just look and see the salvation that god will bring. Now don't think for a moment that standing still and doing nothing is easy to do. Picture the scene.
Jeffrey Heine:Pharaoh and his army and all the chariots are racing towards you in all their fury. Moses says, stand still. That is a hard thing to do. You're thinking, I'd kinda like to run. I'd kinda like to try swimming.
Jeffrey Heine:I'd I'd try to about anything rather than standing here and doing nothing. Doing nothing is sometimes the hardest thing that god ever calls us to do. To simply be still and to believe. This verse sounds remarkably close to Romans chapter 4 verse 4, to which Paul says this, and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. To the one who doesn't work, but has faith and believes, his faith is counted to him as righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:So God is going to save his people by them not working, tells them to stand firm and to watch the salvation that happens, and then God begins fighting for them. Verse 19, he sends the messenger of god out from the cloud. Don't ask me about this messenger of god. I have no idea who this really is. But he apparently sends a messenger, same word as angel.
Jeffrey Heine:This angel of god comes out and stands before the armies of Egypt and Israel. And then the pillar of cloud comes and stands between them as a barrier judgment is coming and God says no and he stops it. He says, you will not reach my children, and he stands as a barrier. And in verse 19 through 22 are absolutely fascinating. What what we see here is that the cloud as it is standing in between the Israelites and the armies of pharaoh, it makes the armies of pharaoh be in utter darkness, and yet it shines light onto the Israelites.
Jeffrey Heine:So the armies are in darkness. The Israelites, they're not only protected from pharaoh, but now they're in light. But now they have to deal with the water. Now the waters, if you go all through scripture, the waters really are representative of of chaos. This is what we see in the opening verses of the bible when it says that the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Jeffrey Heine:Meaning that everything that we now see in in creation, everything was in a state of chaos. There was no order. There was no beauty. It was just the waters, and the spirit of God was hovering over it. And what we see here is the exact same thing.
Jeffrey Heine:God is reenacting the first moments of creation as he stands there and he hovers over the waters. And his first words are, let there be light, and he separates the light from the darkness. His next creative act here is he says, and let there be land, and he separates the waters, and the lands come up. And what we see is this beautiful picture of God recreating something, and it climaxes and recreating his people. He is forming a new people here who will serve him and who will obey him.
Jeffrey Heine:He's making them a new creation as they pass through the waters from death to life. It's hard not to think of Jesus' words in John chapter 5, words he said right before Moses wrote of me, or all the scriptures testify about me. Jesus said these words, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He doesn't come into judgment, but he has crossed over from death to life. Believe, and you will not receive judgment, and you will cross over from death to life.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look at how God's people cross the sea and pass from death to life, and this is so important. Verse 22 describes it as a wall of water on their left and on their right. I think I I saw the the movie, the previews for the movie coming out in December. It looks more like a tidal wave is is coming in, but here we have there's there's a wall of water on the right and a wall of water coming on the left. And the people all walked through this, and I'm sure that there were some people who walked through and really thought this is pretty amazing.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, god, good work. This this is awesome, and they're they're trusting. But I'm sure that the vast majority of these people are terrified, absolutely terrified as they walk through. But the key is this, all of them walked through and made it safely to the other side. What Tim Keller refers to or points out over and over that you really see here is it is not the amount of faith that you have, it's the object of your faith.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not the amount that saves you, it's the object of your faith. Whether you had a little faith, or whether you had a lot of faith, you were carried safely to the other side. You actually see both of those degrees of a lot of faith or perhaps almost no faith at all in just the text that we have read. I mean, in Psalm 106 pretty clearly says, this is what we read at the beginning, that they rebelled by the sea, and they're not trusting. Then you look at Hebrews 11, and it says, by faith, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.
Jeffrey Heine:By faith, they crossed the right Red Sea. It doesn't look like faith here. Psalm 106 certainly says they were just rebelling. And what you have is probably some with great faith, most with hardly any faith, yet all crossed. It's not the amount of your faith, it's the object of your faith.
Jeffrey Heine:Now up to this point, we've already looked at the role of the cloud. We've seen the angel of God in fighting for Israel. But before we close, I want us to take a look at the role of Moses and the role that Moses plays in the salvation of God's people. God could have saved the Israelites any way he wanted, but he decides to use the man Moses for this. He has Moses actually be the one who stretches out his hand over the seas and parts it?
Jeffrey Heine:But why does he choose to do it this way? Well, look at verse 15. This is after Moses has given his words that people are to stand and they're to trust and they're to watch the Lord. And it says, then the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
Jeffrey Heine: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. Now Moses just said some of the most courageous, faith filled, comforting words in all the Bible. And God hears him and says, why are you crying out to me? He's like, me? This is it's it's your people.
Jeffrey Heine:Moses isn't Moses isn't crying. Moses isn't lacking in faith. Moses is is praising the Lord and having faith through all of this, yet God says, why are you crying out to me? Even though it was the people, the people don't get rebuked. Instead, Moses gets rebuked.
Jeffrey Heine:What's going on? Well, what we see here is that God is introducing for the first time this role of a mediator, a mediator, in which we see that Moses is so identified with the people of God that their sin is on him. Yet he is also so identified with god that god's power works through him. He is both identified with the people and he is in a sense carrying their sins, and he is so identified with god that god is working salvation through him. God uses a mediator to rescue Israel from judgment.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, of course, we have a greater, a superior mediator in Jesus Christ to whom Moses points. Jesus became fully human while also remaining fully God. And Jesus took on our sins and was rebuked and punished for them, so that we might receive his blessings, and that we might receive deliverance and salvation. He treated Jesus got treated how we deserve, and we got treated how he deserved to be treated. And so here we see a mediator is necessary for salvation, and Jesus is the ultimate mediator between God and man.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you know what Jesus's name is in Hebrew? His name is Yeshua, which the y's and the j's interchangeably. You could pronounce it Joshua. It would be later, but Yeshua or Joshua. In Greek, it's translated as Jesus, but he was called Yeshua.
Jeffrey Heine:And it in Hebrew, it literally means salvation or he saves, Which is why in Matthew chapter 1, when the angel appears to Joseph, he says this, Mary will bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua. They don't get to name their child. God's naming this child Yeshua, and he says because he will save his people from their sins. He's called Yeshua. He's called salvation because he will save his people from their sins.
Jeffrey Heine:Well, the meaning of that word salvation is found here first in the story at the Red Sea. It's found here in that verse, verse 13, which I said is one of the most glorious in the Bible, in which we see, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord. The word salvation there is Yeshua. It's Yeshua. I mean, it's Moses is saying, he's saying, fear not, Stand firm and look at Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Look at Yeshua. And so when we come to Jesus, this is why Jesus was named Jesus or salvation. Because this one is to declare to everybody, you know what you saw in Exodus. You know how I saved people. You know how I used a mediator.
Jeffrey Heine:You know how I told people not to work, but to trust. You're going to see all of those things in this little boy named Yeshua. Stand still and look at Jesus. Do you wanna know what the application is of this story for us? Often, probably rightly, I I get criticized some about, you didn't really tell us to do anything.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, what what's the application? I mean, what am I supposed to take from this? Listen. The point of this story is not about what you do. It's about what God has done.
Jeffrey Heine:God has provided a way of salvation for us. It is God who has set us free from our sins, And we are to look to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Pray with me. Lord, I pray in this moment that we would stand still, that we would fear not, and that we would look at you, Jesus, that we would hold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that we would behold Jesus who will save the people from their sins. Lord, we declare that you are strong, so much stronger than the sins, the slavery that we were a part of.
Jeffrey Heine:And I pray that we would know both the freedom that comes from the blood of the lamb and that comes from passing from death to life and crossing that sea. We would know both the freedom of the that the cross provides and the new life that the resurrection provides in Jesus. Spirit, you're welcome to come in this moment and to move in our midst. May we lift up high the glorious son of you, father. Amen.