Shownotes
Pharaoh can't believe that he has let the Israelites go. He calls out all his army and chariots, gives chase, and traps Israel on the edge of the sea. What he has not expected, though, is that God is about to fight for his people. Join Dave in the last episode on this series as he explores Exodus 13-15.
You can listen to David Suchet read Exodus here.
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Transcripts
G'day. I'm Dave Whittingham and welcome to stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:Today is our last episode in the Book of Exodus.
Speaker:Obviously there's more to the book and God willing we'll come back and finish it off in
Speaker:the future.
Speaker:Stick around at the end of the episode to find
Speaker:out where we'll be going next.
Speaker:A couple of things before we get started, I
Speaker:wanted to let you know about a resource that I've found really helpful.
Speaker:Sometimes it's great just to sit and listen to the Bible read.
Speaker:Well, there are lots of free recordings out there and I'm sure different people have their
Speaker:favourites.
Speaker:For me, I've been really helped by the
Speaker:recording of the NIV translation read by english actor David Suchet.
Speaker:It's freely available.
Speaker:I know it's free on Spotify and Bible Gateway
Speaker:and the Bible app.
Speaker:I'm sure you can find it in other places as
Speaker:well.
Speaker:What I love is that when he reads it, you know
Speaker:he understands the text which helps you to understand it.
Speaker:He isn't showy or promoting himself, but as soon as you listen you think yes, that's how
Speaker:those words should be read and so it actually helps you to hear God's word in a fresh way.
Speaker:I've been listening to him reading Exodus as part of my preparation.
Speaker:It's been so helpful for me and I trust he'd be really helpful for you as well.
Speaker:I'll put a reference for it in the show notes so you can check it out later.
Speaker:I want to do a shout out to all the people at Molong Baptist Church where I got to preach
Speaker:last Sunday on Exodus.
Speaker:Of course I'm always happy to come and preach
Speaker:somewhere.
Speaker:It was so good to be with you guys and start
Speaker:getting to know you.
Speaker:I felt really welcome.
Speaker:It's always exciting to see what God's doing and there's great evidence of his work at your
Speaker:church.
Speaker:Also a special shout out to Hannah and Kyle
Speaker:and to their kids, Teddy and Andy.
Speaker:Hannah and Kyle tell me they've been listening
Speaker:to the podcast in car trips and on the way to work.
Speaker:And Teddy particularly has been listening to stories of a faithful God for kids every night
Speaker:as he goes to bed.
Speaker:Thanks for listening guys, and I'm so glad
Speaker:it's been really helpful for your family.
Speaker:I've got a question for you.
Speaker:Why do you think Christians sing? If you go to any Bible loving church you're
Speaker:going to hear people singing.
Speaker:Its kind of unique.
Speaker:Muslims dont gather in mosques to sing, Buddhists dont have a weekly get together and
Speaker:sing along.
Speaker:But everywhere you go, all around the world,
Speaker:Christians sing together.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Theres a psalm in the Bible where people say they cant sing.
Speaker:Its psalm 137, made famous by Boney M, who completely mess up the mood of the psalm.
Speaker:Its written at a time when the people of Israel have been captured by the babylonian
Speaker:empire and dragged off into exile.
Speaker:They have lots of songs that they used to sing
Speaker:in the temple in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion.
Speaker:Psalms are songs about the victory of God, the
Speaker:wonder of his blessings, the comfort he brings, songs of joy and hope and
Speaker:thankfulness.
Speaker:But the temple has been destroyed.
Speaker:The people have been ripped away from the land.
Speaker:God's abandoned them.
Speaker:And the Babylonians laugh at them and say,
Speaker:come on, sing us one of those great songs.
Speaker:Psalm 137 says, by the rivers of Babylon,
Speaker:there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.
Speaker:There we hung up our lyres on the poplar trees.
Speaker:For our captors there asked us for songs and our tormentors for rejoicing.
Speaker:Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Speaker:How can we sing the Lord's song on foreign
Speaker:soil? No one wants to sing songs of joy as they sit
Speaker:in the despair of defeat.
Speaker:Lots of people today would say that
Speaker:Christianity has been defeated.
Speaker:It's weak.
Speaker:It's lost its way.
Speaker:It's not needed anymore.
Speaker:And yet every Sunday and on other days, christians get together and sing songs of joy
Speaker:and hope and thankfulness.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Today's passage ends with a song, a song of victory.
Speaker:A song about a God who's worthy of eternal praise.
Speaker:A song whose chords echo down the ages and still ring true today.
Speaker:So come with me as I present to you episode 17 of stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:At the end of our last episode, God had saved his people from slavery.
Speaker:The last most terrible plague.
Speaker:The death of the firstborn sons of Egypt had
Speaker:been the final straw.
Speaker:Pharaoh acknowledged defeat, and he let the
Speaker:Israelites go.
Speaker:There weren't any qualifications.
Speaker:There wasn't any bargaining.
Speaker:It was total surrender.
Speaker:Like a conquering army, the Israelites plundered their egyptian neighbors.
Speaker:They hadn't won the battle.
Speaker:Yahweh, the lord their God, had won.
Speaker:But he gave them the spoils of victory.
Speaker:And now they begin their march out of Egypt.
Speaker:Previously, the Israelites have been described as an army.
Speaker:We heard how God brought out the divisions of Israel.
Speaker:We heard the number of men, 600,000.
Speaker:Not because the women and children don't
Speaker:matter, but because those men, those 600,000 are the army, the fighting force of Israel.
Speaker:Kind of ironically, then, one of the first things we hear about them as they march out is
Speaker:that they're a pretty useless army, a gutless army.
Speaker:There was a road out of Egypt that followed the mediterranean coastline up into the land
Speaker:of Canaan.
Speaker:If you took that coast road, you'd come to the
Speaker:cities of the Philistines who occupy the coastal plain.
Speaker:Later on in the book of Samuel said, about 400 years after this, the Philistines will be the
Speaker:major nemesis of the Israelites for a while.
Speaker:For now, God says the israelite army isn't
Speaker:ready for a fight.
Speaker:They don't have the courage yet.
Speaker:Just to be really clear, courage in the Bible is never about some weird masculine toughness
Speaker:that makes you charge a machine gun without thinking too hard.
Speaker:In the Bible, courage is always, always about trusting God, trusting that he'll give the
Speaker:victory, trusting that you don't have to be strong because God's strong.
Speaker:It's why the boy David can take on the giant Philistine Goliath.
Speaker:Goliath's huge, David's tiny.
Speaker:Goliath has heaps of armor.
Speaker:David's wearing his farm clothes.
Speaker:Goliath's a seasoned warrior.
Speaker:David's a shepherd.
Speaker:But David trusts that God will give him the
Speaker:victory.
Speaker:That is biblical courage.
Speaker:So when God says that the Israelites don't have the courage for battle yet, he means that
Speaker:they don't trust him enough.
Speaker:Yet despite all the miracles, despite the way
Speaker:he's just crushed the mighty superpower of Egypt, they still don't trust him and listen
Speaker:to what they'll do if they face a scary situation like battle.
Speaker:Exodus 1317 says this, when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the
Speaker:road to the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearby.
Speaker:For God said the people will change their minds and return to Egypt.
Speaker:If they face war, instead of having courage, they will be afraid and their fear will drive
Speaker:them back to Egypt.
Speaker:It's like someone returning to an abusive
Speaker:relationship because it's the only world they know.
Speaker:So instead of leading them along the coast, God takes them on an inland route.
Speaker:I should say here that no one really knows exactly where this route takes them.
Speaker:There are place names given, but today people don't really know where those places are, even
Speaker:if they've been mentioned in other writings.
Speaker:It's the problem of doing history.
Speaker:Three and a half thousand years after the event, names and places get lost in the sands
Speaker:of time.
Speaker:You can find people who sound really confident
Speaker:about where this all happens.
Speaker:But there'll be someone equally as confident
Speaker:who says something completely different.
Speaker:I looked at a few maps online and they all had
Speaker:different routes.
Speaker:What we can confidently say is they take an
Speaker:inland route to the northwest and end up next to a sea.
Speaker:Now back to the story.
Speaker:After hearing about the lack of courage or
Speaker:faith of the Israelites, we get a beautiful picture of the complete opposite.
Speaker:We get told about a man who's a shining example of faith or trust in God.
Speaker:Faith is a very religious sounding word, but it just means trust.
Speaker:The person we're talking about is Joseph.
Speaker:You may remember him from such 1960s musicals
Speaker:as Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a musical thats lots of fun, but
Speaker:which completely leaves out the main character of the story, God.
Speaker:The real historical Joseph was one of the great grandsons of Abraham, one of the twelve
Speaker:sons of Jacob.
Speaker:We read about him in Genesis.
Speaker:Unfortunately, Jacob made it pretty obvious that Joseph was his favourite son, which
Speaker:earned him the hatred of his other brothers.
Speaker:They were going to kill him, but decided to
Speaker:make some money instead and sold him as a slave to Egypt.
Speaker:Later on, Joseph tells them the most wonderful of lines.
Speaker:He says to them, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
Speaker:It shows Joseph's trust in God, that even when evil people plan evil things, even their evil
Speaker:is part of God's good plan.
Speaker:As God shapes and directs events, it actually
Speaker:leads to Joseph becoming second in charge of Egypt.
Speaker:From that position, he ends up saving the family of Israel from starvation as well as
Speaker:all of Egypt.
Speaker:Joseph looks at that whole situation that had
Speaker:seemed terrible and he marvels at the good plans of God.
Speaker:But he knows that God's plans are even bigger than that.
Speaker:He knows that God's promise to give the land of Canaan to his people, Egypt isn't their
Speaker:home.
Speaker:And so when he knew that he was dying in
Speaker:Egypt, he made the Israelites make a promise.
Speaker:This is what we're told in Genesis, chapter
Speaker:50, verse 24.
Speaker:Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to
Speaker:die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land he
Speaker:swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an
Speaker:oath.
Speaker:When God comes to your aid, you are to carry
Speaker:my bones up from here.
Speaker:He has a rock solid trust that God will keep
Speaker:his word.
Speaker:And so when God does keep his word, Moses
Speaker:makes sure that the Israelites keep their word.
Speaker:In verse 19, we read this.
Speaker:It says, Moses took the bones of Joseph with
Speaker:him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear a solemn oath saying, God will certainly
Speaker:come to your aid.
Speaker:Then you must take my bones with you from this
Speaker:place.
Speaker:It's a great example of how when you put your
Speaker:trust in Yahweh, the God of the Bible, it isn't misplaced trust.
Speaker:It's the best investment you can ever make.
Speaker:Even though Joseph is a hero here, because he
Speaker:trusts God.
Speaker:The big hero, the greatest hero, is God
Speaker:himself, the one who's kept his promise.
Speaker:So the Israelites march out of Egypt carrying
Speaker:all their plunder, carrying the bones of Joseph, and they're led by Yahweh.
Speaker:I don't mean in some mystical, spiritual sense.
Speaker:I mean they're literally led by him.
Speaker:In verse 20, we hear they set out from Succoth
Speaker:and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
Speaker:Yahweh went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day and
Speaker:in a pillar of fire to give them light at night so that they could travel day or night.
Speaker:The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night never left its place in front of
Speaker:the people in the whole Old Testament.
Speaker:There's no other generation of Israelites that
Speaker:gets to see as many signs and wonders from Yahweh as this generation of the exodus.
Speaker:They've already seen the phenomenal ten plagues that crushed Egypt.
Speaker:Now they have this remarkable sign of God's presence with them in the pillar of cloud by
Speaker:day and the pillar of fire by night.
Speaker:It's like a mega version of when Moses got to
Speaker:hear God speaking out of the fire in the bush, and this pillar is going to be with them for
Speaker:40 years.
Speaker:Later on, you can read about how when it
Speaker:moves, they move.
Speaker:When it stops, they stop.
Speaker:There shouldn't be any doubt for them that their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Speaker:Jacob, the mighty God who fought for them and saved them, he's with them every single step
Speaker:of the way, even as he leads them away from Egypt, though he isn't finished with Egypt.
Speaker:This great nation that's used to showing its power to other countries is completely under
Speaker:the power of Yahweh, and he still wants to use them to show everyone who he is.
Speaker:And so he lays a trap for pharaoh and his army.
Speaker:He uses the Israelites to lure them out to his chosen field of battle.
Speaker:Interestingly, we haven't actually heard about the egyptian army up until now.
Speaker:If you think about the great pillars of egyptian strength, the things that make them a
Speaker:superpower, what are they? Well, the Egyptians would say it's their
Speaker:powerful gods.
Speaker:But Yahweh has already smashed them.
Speaker:There's also the fertility of the Nile valley, which Yahweh destroyed in the plagues.
Speaker:There's the great wealth of Egypt, which Yahweh has had the Israelites plunder.
Speaker:The only pillar of strength they have left.
Speaker:The only tool in their hand left to exert
Speaker:their power is their army.
Speaker:And that's what Yahweh is about to deal with.
Speaker:Chapter 14, verse one says, then Yahweh spoke to Moses.
Speaker:Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of PI Hahiroth between Migdol and the
Speaker:sea.
Speaker:You must camp in front of Baal Zephon, facing
Speaker:it by the sea.
Speaker:Pharaoh will say to the Israelites, they're
Speaker:wandering around the land in confusion, the wildernesses.
Speaker:Box them in.
Speaker:I will harden pharaohs heart so that he will
Speaker:pursue them.
Speaker:Then I will receive glory by means of pharaoh
Speaker:and all his army.
Speaker:And the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.
Speaker:So the israelites did this and it works.
Speaker:Of course it works.
Speaker:By now it should be pretty obvious that when Yahweh says something is going to happen, it
Speaker:happens.
Speaker:It should have been obvious to pharaoh that he
Speaker:has no power against Yahweh.
Speaker:Once again, though, he's just a tool in
Speaker:Yahweh's hand.
Speaker:Pharaoh gets told that the Israelites have
Speaker:fled.
Speaker:And for Pharaoh and his officials, it's like
Speaker:they've signed a really bad deal.
Speaker:Gone to bed, woken up the next day and said,
Speaker:what have we done? Why on earth did we agree to that?
Speaker:We've just lost all our slaves.
Speaker:Of course it wasn't a bad deal.
Speaker:It was the only deal that would allow them to survive.
Speaker:It was a better deal than they deserved.
Speaker:Nevertheless, they seem to have forgotten all
Speaker:the really good and logical reasons why they agreed to it.
Speaker:And so Pharaoh calls out the chariots.
Speaker:Chariots are the heart of egyptian military
Speaker:power.
Speaker:They're kind of the ancient equivalent of
Speaker:tanks, although they're not really all terrain vehicles.
Speaker:Theyre pretty useless in mountains or broken up ground.
Speaker:But theyre perfect for large, flat desert plains, the sort of land that surrounds Egypt.
Speaker:They have two wheels and are pulled along by two horses.
Speaker:And theres a crew of two.
Speaker:Theres the driver, who can also protect the
Speaker:other person and even shoot arrows or throw a spear.
Speaker:Ive seen one picture of a driver with the reins tied around his waist to free up his
Speaker:hands.
Speaker:Then there's the main soldier who's primarily
Speaker:an archer.
Speaker:These guys were experts.
Speaker:These guys trained to fire arrows even when the horses are going at full gallop.
Speaker:As a weapon of war, chariots are very fast and very scary.
Speaker:So Pharaoh has his personal chariot prepared.
Speaker:Ancient kings usually led battles from the
Speaker:front.
Speaker:He also got his army ready.
Speaker:It's the army's job to follow behind the chariots and attack after the enemy's
Speaker:terrified and broken up.
Speaker:And then we get this great line in verse
Speaker:seven.
Speaker:He, that's pharaoh, he took 600 of the best
Speaker:chariots and all the rest of the chariots of Egypt with officers in each one.
Speaker:It's like he says, get out 600 of the best chariots.
Speaker:And then a little bit later, he says, oh, actually get them all out, which means
Speaker:everything's on the line here.
Speaker:There aren't going to be any reserves left
Speaker:back at home.
Speaker:They're all going out.
Speaker:Yahweh's hardened Pharaoh's heart, and pharaoh's taken the bait.
Speaker:Verse nine says that he takes all the horses, all the chariots, and his horsemen and his
Speaker:army.
Speaker:They chase after the Israelites and they catch
Speaker:up to them in a place where, just in human military strategic terms, you never want to be
Speaker:caught.
Speaker:They're in camp with their backs to the sea.
Speaker:There's no escape.
Speaker:The Israelites are caught completely unaware.
Speaker:They thought they'd left Egypt behind.
Speaker:Didn't they have permission to leave?
Speaker:You can just imagine the first person to look up and see the cloud of dust approaching with
Speaker:the afternoon sun glinting off the spears of this massive killing machine.
Speaker:And maybe they let out a bit of a whimper or a scream, which makes the second person look up.
Speaker:And the third.
Speaker:Pretty soon everyone's panicking.
Speaker:Verse ten says they're terrified, and they cry out to Yahweh for help, which kind of sounds
Speaker:positive, asking God for help.
Speaker:But if they really trusted him, they wouldn't
Speaker:be so scared.
Speaker:And then they turn on Moses in a moment of
Speaker:astounding betrayal.
Speaker:In hypocrisy, these people who have been so
Speaker:desperate to get out of slavery, who'd cried out for help, who'd seen the power of Yahweh
Speaker:in rescuing them and making them rich beyond their wildest dreams, they say to Moses, why
Speaker:didn't you leave us in Egypt? In verse eleven, they say, is it because there
Speaker:are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Speaker:What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
Speaker:Isn't this what we told you in Egypt? Leave us alone so that we may serve the
Speaker:Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the
Speaker:Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
Speaker:They almost make it sound like Moses has
Speaker:kidnapped them, driven them out of Egypt at knife point.
Speaker:It's a great sign of the weakness of the sinful heart.
Speaker:They don't see any hope.
Speaker:They don't expect any help.
Speaker:They assume they're all about to die.
Speaker:Pharaoh's heart had been hardened by God, and
Speaker:we've talked about how God wasn't actually making him evil, he was just using Pharaoh's
Speaker:evil and shaping his decisions so they'd come out according to God's plans.
Speaker:The Israelites, though God, hasn't hardened their hearts, and yet they're actually just as
Speaker:faithless, just as untrusting of Yahweh, despite all they've seen him do.
Speaker:Remember Yahweh still showing that he's with them, with the great pillar of cloud.
Speaker:But still they're terrified.
Speaker:Moses gives them a sort of verbal slap in the
Speaker:face.
Speaker:Be quiet, calm down, stop panicking.
Speaker:Remember who's on your side, who fights for you.
Speaker:In verse 13, he says, don't be afraid.
Speaker:Stand firm and see Yahweh's salvation that he
Speaker:will accomplish for you today.
Speaker:For the Egyptians you see today, you will
Speaker:never see again.
Speaker:Yahweh will fight for you and you must be
Speaker:quiet.
Speaker:Fear is the opposite of faith.
Speaker:I drove over the Sydney harbour bridge the other day without even thinking about it.
Speaker:I was almost 50 metres above the water, but I wasn't trembling, I wasn't panicking,
Speaker:thinking, oh, I'm about to drop into the sea because I trust the bridge.
Speaker:I have faith in it.
Speaker:When Jesus was in the boat with his disciples
Speaker:in the storm, the disciples were panicking.
Speaker:They thought they were going to drown.
Speaker:They didn't believe yet that Jesus had complete control over every atom in creation.
Speaker:After he'd calmed the storm, he rebuked them and said, why are you so afraid?
Speaker:Do you still have no faith? And the obvious answer is, no. They didn't
Speaker:have faith.
Speaker:They didn't trust him yet, just like the
Speaker:Israelites didn't trust Yahweh as they stand on the edge of the sea.
Speaker:But Yahweh is about to fight for them, just like he had back in Egypt.
Speaker:And so with the Israelites trembling in fear, terrified, and just wanting to go back to
Speaker:their nice, comfortable, terrifying, genocidal slavery, the battle lines are drawn, with
Speaker:Pharaoh and his army and his chariots on one side and Yahweh on the other.
Speaker:It's the final showdown, the final combat, the great decider to see who gets to keep the
Speaker:Israelites.
Speaker:The egyptian army is the strongest military
Speaker:steamroller around.
Speaker:And yet the conclusions already been
Speaker:announced.
Speaker:Just like it had so many times back in Egypt.
Speaker:Moses has said, the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.
Speaker:As you'd expect from a general on the eve of battle.
Speaker:Yahweh starts giving out orders.
Speaker:He starts though, with what seems like a kind
Speaker:of strange rebuke to Moses.
Speaker:He says to Moses in verse 15, why are you
Speaker:crying out to me? As in, why the panicked cry rather than a
Speaker:request for help? Except Moses wasn't the one panicking.
Speaker:That was the rest of the Israelites.
Speaker:But this shows Moses rather unique position.
Speaker:Hes the go between, the mediator between God and Israel, the spokesman for both sides.
Speaker:Thats why sometimes Moses reflects the power and emotions of Yahweh.
Speaker:When Yahweh is angry, Moses is angry.
Speaker:When Yahweh sends a plague, its Moses who
Speaker:raises his staff to start the miracle.
Speaker:On the flip side, Moses is also the ambassador
Speaker:of Israel, the representative.
Speaker:So if Israel is panicking, Moses cops the
Speaker:rebuke.
Speaker:In this role, he's pointing to the much
Speaker:greater mediator, Jesus Christ, the true God man, who one moment is calming the wind and
Speaker:the waves, and the next is dying on a cross as the embodiment of the sin of his people.
Speaker:After this rebuke, Yahweh tells Moses to get the Israelites moving.
Speaker:Pack up the tents, break camp, be ready to go.
Speaker:But go where?
Speaker:The Israelites are trapped between the egyptian army and the sea.
Speaker:Of course, thats no problem for God.
Speaker:Let me read from verse 15.
Speaker:Yahweh said to Moses, why are you crying out to me?
Speaker:Tell the Israelites to break camp.
Speaker:As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out
Speaker:your hand over the sea and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry
Speaker:ground.
Speaker:As for me, I am going to harden the hearts of
Speaker:the Egyptians so that they will go in after them.
Speaker:And I will receive glory by means of pharaoh, all his army and his chariots and horsemen.
Speaker:The Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I receive glory through pharaoh, his chariots
Speaker:and his horsemen.
Speaker:You see, Yahweh is on exactly the same mission
Speaker:he has been on throughout all of Exodus.
Speaker:He wants to be known.
Speaker:He wants to be understood.
Speaker:They haven't learnt their lesson from all the
Speaker:plagues.
Speaker:And so now God's going to do it through a
Speaker:great military victory.
Speaker:Everyone's going to see God's power, his
Speaker:glory.
Speaker:See that there's no greater warrior and that
Speaker:he can't be defeated.
Speaker:Then we're told that the angel of God.
Speaker:Angel means messenger.
Speaker:The angel of God's been going in front of
Speaker:Israel, and now he moves behind them, and then the pillar of cloud moves behind them as well.
Speaker:Again, this is just like back at the burning bush when the first thing Moses saw was the
Speaker:angel of God.
Speaker:Like he's announcing God's presence.
Speaker:And now he and Yahweh are standing guard between the forces of Egypt and the forces of
Speaker:Israel.
Speaker:And we get this kind of cryptic description.
Speaker:Verse 20 says, there was cloud and darkness.
Speaker:It lit up the night, and neither group came
Speaker:near the other all night long.
Speaker:I mean, was there darkness or light?
Speaker:The NIv tries to sort this out by saying there's light on one side and darkness on the
Speaker:other.
Speaker:But that's the sort of thing the NIV does.
Speaker:It's a really good translation, but the translators don't really like ambiguity, so
Speaker:they've tried to smooth things out.
Speaker:The CSB, which were using along with the ESV,
Speaker:keeps that ambiguity.
Speaker:And maybe the ambiguity is part of the point.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:This is an amazing display of Yahwehs power.
Speaker:And perhaps Moses, when hes writing this down and recording it years later, is trying to
Speaker:grapple with the words to describe this weird, amazing event.
Speaker:How do you describe when theres darkness and light and a giant cloud wall thats on fire?
Speaker:And it's all strange, but whatever it is, Yahweh acts as a shield for his people.
Speaker:On one side of the shield, you've got the Israelites terrified but safe.
Speaker:On the other, there's the egyptian army horses champing at the bit, ready to leap forward and
Speaker:hunt their prey as soon as the barrier opens.
Speaker:During the standoff, Moses raises his staff
Speaker:like God told him to, and Yahweh sends a strong east wind that drives the waters apart.
Speaker:The wind blows all night, and it creates two walls of water with dry land in between.
Speaker:This reminds us of when Yahweh first created the world, and by his word, he summoned dry
Speaker:land up from out of the water so that life could flourish.
Speaker:Well, now this land gives life to the 2 million or so israelites who hurry between the
Speaker:water walls.
Speaker:It's yet another one of those events that
Speaker:should have burned itself into the brains of all the israelites.
Speaker:A story to tell the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, telling how they
Speaker:walked through this wind tunnel with walls of water on either side, looking like they could
Speaker:crash down at any time, but never doing it, feeling the spray on their faces and mud under
Speaker:their feet.
Speaker:And finally reaching the safety of the other
Speaker:side.
Speaker:Then it's the egyptians turn.
Speaker:The barrier drops.
Speaker:And all of PharaoH's horses and chariots and
Speaker:horsemen and the entire army leap forward into the channel between the walls of water.
Speaker:And we get this great line.
Speaker:In verse 24.
Speaker:It says, during the morning watch, Yahweh looked down at the Egyptian forces from the
Speaker:pillar of fire and cloud.
Speaker:There's this massive war machine, the pride of
Speaker:Egypt.
Speaker:And Yahweh has to look down, almost like, who
Speaker:are those tiny people down there? And he throws the egyptian forces into
Speaker:confusion.
Speaker:Verse 25 says he caused the chariot wheels to
Speaker:swerve and made them drive with difficulty.
Speaker:Let's get away from Israel, the Egyptians
Speaker:said, because Yahweh is fighting for them against Egypt.
Speaker:You can almost taste the panic in the air, as suddenly its like the scales fall from their
Speaker:eyes, and they finally see clearly whats happening.
Speaker:All the power of Yahweh, theyve witnessed all the strength hes displayed.
Speaker:They suddenly realize who it is theyre fighting.
Speaker:You can imagine them jumping off their chariots, throwing away their weapons and
Speaker:running, running as fast as they can to get out from between the walls of water.
Speaker:And then Yahweh says to Moses in verse 26, stretch out your hand over the sea so that the
Speaker:water may come back on the EgypTians and on their chariots and horsemen.
Speaker:So Moses stretches out his hand, and as the sun rises, with the Israelites safe at one
Speaker:end, and with the egyptian forces desperately trying to escape back to the safety of the
Speaker:shore, Yahweh throws the water back over them, and their destruction is total.
Speaker:If the Israelites experience something like a new creation walking through on the new dry
Speaker:land, the Egyptians get an uncreation with the land sinking beneath the water.
Speaker:Verse 28 says, the water came back and covered the chariots and horsemen, plus the entire
Speaker:army of pharaoh that had gone after them into the sea, not even one of them survived.
Speaker:Moses had told the Israelites that they'd never see these Egyptians again.
Speaker:Imagine being an Israelite, watching this mighty army charging towards you, then
Speaker:panicking, then fleeing, and then being swallowed up as the walls of water crash down
Speaker:on them.
Speaker:And as the waves settle down and the sea
Speaker:becomes calm, there isn't even a single living Egyptian to be seen.
Speaker:Then we read in verse 29, but the Israelites had walked through the sea on dry ground, with
Speaker:the waters like a wall to them on their right and on their left.
Speaker:That day, Yahweh saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians.
Speaker:And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
Speaker:When Israel saw the great power that Yahweh used against the Egyptians, the people feared
Speaker:Yahweh and believed in him and in his servant, Moses.
Speaker:A victory of this magnitude needs a song to go with it.
Speaker:Not just a song about the victory itself, but a song about the victor, the conqueror, the
Speaker:person who won the battle.
Speaker:And so Moses and the Israelites sing to
Speaker:Yahweh, their God.
Speaker:In verse one, they sing, I will sing to
Speaker:Yahweh, for he is highly exalted.
Speaker:He has thrown the horse and its rider into the
Speaker:sea.
Speaker:What will they sing to Yahweh?
Speaker:Remember, for most of the book of Exodus, they haven't really known him.
Speaker:They haven't understood his power and his faithfulness.
Speaker:But now they do.
Speaker:Yahweh has revealed himself to them.
Speaker:And what they've discovered about him is so good, so wonderful, that their hearts overflow
Speaker:into their lungs and burst out in song proclaiming who Yahweh is.
Speaker:They say, yahweh is my strength.
Speaker:Remember how they panicked on the other side
Speaker:of the sea, thinking they didn't have the strength to fight Egypt?
Speaker:Now they know that Yahweh is their strength, and he is so strong.
Speaker:They say, he's their song.
Speaker:He's their source of joy and happiness.
Speaker:They want to praise him, tell the world how great he is, how good he is, how powerful he
Speaker:is.
Speaker:They sing about how he's their saviour.
Speaker:Not a timid savior.
Speaker:He's a warrior, a soldier who goes into battle
Speaker:for his people, who fights and wins.
Speaker:Who is this God?
Speaker:His Yahweh, the Lord.
Speaker:The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker:This name that seemed to come out of nowhere, the name that didn't fit into anyone's
Speaker:pantheon, who didn't have any temples around the world, even though he made the world.
Speaker:Now Israel wants the world to know his name.
Speaker:And so they sing in verse two.
Speaker:Yahweh is my strength and my song.
Speaker:He's become my salvation.
Speaker:This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.
Speaker:Yahweh is a warrior.
Speaker:Yhwh is his name.
Speaker:And then they sing of how he saved them, what he did to Pharaoh's army, the killing machine
Speaker:that had caused terror to so many other people.
Speaker:What did he do to them? Verse four says he threw pharaoh's chariots
Speaker:and his army into the sea.
Speaker:The elite of his officers were drowned in the
Speaker:Red Sea.
Speaker:The floods covered them.
Speaker:They sank to the depths like a stone.
Speaker:What power could accomplish that, no army on
Speaker:earth could have a victory so easily, so completely.
Speaker:And so the Israelites sing of the power of their warrior God in verse six.
Speaker:Yahweh, your right hand is glorious in power.
Speaker:Yahweh, your right hand shattered the enemy.
Speaker:You overthrew your adversaries.
Speaker:By your great majesty, you unleashed your
Speaker:burning wrath that consumed them like stubble.
Speaker:The water heaped up at the blast from your
Speaker:nostrils.
Speaker:The current stood firm like a dam.
Speaker:The watery depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
Speaker:What astounding power to have such mastery over the very water itself.
Speaker:To make the sea his weapon, to hold it back into mountains of water using the blast of his
Speaker:nostrils.
Speaker:And then, at just the right time, to have it
Speaker:come crashing down, sealing the fate of his enemies.
Speaker:Did the Egyptians know what they were getting into?
Speaker:They had spoken so proudly, so arrogantly, they'd assume they'd win like they had so
Speaker:often before.
Speaker:But that is because they hadn't fought Yahweh.
Speaker:In verse nine, the enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake.
Speaker:I will divide the spoil.
Speaker:My desire will be gratified at their expense.
Speaker:I will draw my sword.
Speaker:My hand will destroy them.
Speaker:But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them.
Speaker:They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Speaker:Is there any God like Yahweh?
Speaker:Is there anyone on the planet who worships a God who even comes close to this, who's so
Speaker:glorious, so powerful, so faithful, so loving in saving his people?
Speaker:There isn't today, and there wasn't three and a half thousand years ago.
Speaker:And so the Israelites sing in verse eleven, Yahweh, who is like you among the gods, who is
Speaker:like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders.
Speaker:No one deserves praises like God does.
Speaker:No one does wonders like he does.
Speaker:And just think about how different things are for Yahweh's people compared to his enemies.
Speaker:His enemies are destroyed, and his people are saved.
Speaker:His enemies are made to pay the debt they owe.
Speaker:But God buys back his people.
Speaker:He redeems them.
Speaker:In verse twelve, the Israelites sing about
Speaker:Yahwehs enemies.
Speaker:They say, you stretched out your right hand
Speaker:and the earth swallowed them.
Speaker:Such amazing power.
Speaker:Power to command the earth itself.
Speaker:And Yahweh uses that same power to lead his
Speaker:people to safety, comfort and security.
Speaker:Verse twelve says, with your faithful love,
Speaker:you will lead the people you have redeemed.
Speaker:You will guide them to your holy dwelling with
Speaker:your strength.
Speaker:How many people over the millennia have
Speaker:laughed at Yahweh and his people? How many people have thought he was a joke.
Speaker:How many people have relied on their own strength, their own power, or they relied on
Speaker:the power of their gods, like Egypt did? Suddenly that laughter is turned into
Speaker:trembling as the Israelites prepare to advance on CanAAn, as Yahweh is about to use them to
Speaker:bring judgment on all the evil and wickedness that people do there.
Speaker:The enemies of God aren't laughing at them.
Speaker:Now.
Speaker:In verse 14, the IsraElites sing.
Speaker:When the peoples hear, they will shudder.
Speaker:AnguIsH will seize the inhabitants of Philistia.
Speaker:Then the chiefs of Edom will be terrified.
Speaker:Trembling will seize the leaders of Moab.
Speaker:All the inhabitants of CanaAn will panic.
Speaker:Terror and dread will fall on them.
Speaker:They will be as still as a stone because of your powerful arm.
Speaker:Until your people pass by Yahweh, until the people whom you purchased pass by, they'll
Speaker:pass by to rest, to inhabit the land God's given them, to enjoy the wonderful fruits of
Speaker:blessing.
Speaker:No matter who tries to stop them, no matter
Speaker:who gets in their way, no one will be able to stop Yahweh.
Speaker:He's their guarantee.
Speaker:He's the one who'll make it happen.
Speaker:He's like a gentle gardener who's staked out the perfect piece of land.
Speaker:He's put up the Fence, dug the Hole, prepared everything for his people.
Speaker:In verse 17, the Israelites sing to Yahweh.
Speaker:You will bring them in and plant them on the
Speaker:mountain of your possession.
Speaker:It's not just for them, though.
Speaker:In fact, it isn't even primarily for them.
Speaker:They're there to reflect his greatness, to
Speaker:sing his praises, to proclaim his glory and majesty.
Speaker:They know that as he's prepared the land for them, even more importantly, he's prepared the
Speaker:land for him.
Speaker:A place that acts like a throne room on earth.
Speaker:A place where he'll have his temple built, where people can come to sing his songs, where
Speaker:they'll come to learn of his eternal kingship.
Speaker:And so they finish their songs with these
Speaker:words from verse 17.
Speaker:Yahweh, you have prepared the place for your
Speaker:dwelling, lord.
Speaker:Your hands have established the sanctuary.
Speaker:Yahweh will reign forever and ever.
Speaker:Today, christians still sing to the same God.
Speaker:They still shout words of praise, words of hope, words of victory, which can seem strange
Speaker:because there's still so much evil in the world.
Speaker:The rebellion against God, the desire of humans to put ourselves first, to dethrone God
Speaker:and take his place.
Speaker:You see it on a vast scale, and you see it on
Speaker:a tiny scale.
Speaker:Countries kill and make war and steal and
Speaker:fight for their own pride and glory, waving their flags, singing their songs, squashing
Speaker:those that get in their way.
Speaker:Individuals get angry and lie and hurt.
Speaker:We make our desires, our wants, ourselves, the centre of the world.
Speaker:Children are hurt and abused in horrible ways.
Speaker:Marriages, rather than being places of safety
Speaker:and love, become places of fear and anger and hurt.
Speaker:Sex, rather than being a tool of service, faithfulness and care, is used as a tool for
Speaker:selfishness, self gratification and pain.
Speaker:To quote Romans one from verse 29, people are
Speaker:filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
Speaker:They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
Speaker:They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful inventors of evil,
Speaker:disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Speaker:Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,
Speaker:they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.
Speaker:For people who have repented, who have received forgiveness and put their trust in
Speaker:Jesus, in other words, those who have become the new people of God bearing the name of
Speaker:Christ, they're hated in the world.
Speaker:Sometimes that hatred comes out in really
Speaker:violent ways, sometimes in cruel words and laughter, sometimes in legislation aimed at
Speaker:shutting down any christian influence.
Speaker:So is God still a warrior?
Speaker:Does he still fight for his people? Is his right arm still strong?
Speaker:Or is he like an old man sitting by a fire, reflecting on old glories?
Speaker:Thankfully, he's already won the battle.
Speaker:He is winning, and he will win.
Speaker:When Jesus came into the world, he fought against sin and won.
Speaker:He came to fight that enemy, to destroy its power, to crush it.
Speaker:Under his heel.
Speaker:He met sinful people and changed their hearts,
Speaker:saved them from slavery to sin.
Speaker:He met Simon Peter, who knew he was a sinful
Speaker:man, a man who wanted to follow God, but only on his terms.
Speaker:And Jesus saved him and transformed him.
Speaker:Jesus transformed a sinful woman who was so
Speaker:thankful at what he'd done.
Speaker:The tears ran from her face under his feet,
Speaker:and she washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.
Speaker:Jesus met Saul, a man with such a deep hatred for him, he was arresting and murdering Jesus
Speaker:followers.
Speaker:Jesus transformed him into the greatest
Speaker:advocate for Christ's message in history.
Speaker:The biggest battle Jesus fought against sin
Speaker:was on the cross, taking other people's sin into himself so he could bear the full
Speaker:consequences for it.
Speaker:And it seemed like sin had won.
Speaker:The consequence of sin is death, and Jesus died.
Speaker:So where's the victory? What happened to the warrior God.
Speaker:Well, the victory came on the third day when Jesus burst out of the tomb.
Speaker:It was a victory greater than the defeat of the Egyptians, a victory that shook the world.
Speaker:God the father crowned the risen Lord Jesus Christ, his victorious son, as king and judge
Speaker:of the universe, the one to bring an end to the worldwide rebellion against him.
Speaker:So the battle has already been fought and won.
Speaker:But satan and sin are still fighting.
Speaker:Even now, though, as the good news about Jesus is proclaimed, people are repenting and
Speaker:turning back to Christ, being saved from their slavery to sin, having their hearts
Speaker:transformed to be more like Christ.
Speaker:The victory of Christ isn't seen in armed
Speaker:conflict around the world, wars and battles and fights.
Speaker:It's seen in the way people suddenly want peace, peace with God and peace with others,
Speaker:as people turn from hatred to love, pride to humility, harshness to gentleness, as people
Speaker:turn from fighting others to fighting the sin inside themselves, not on their own, not even
Speaker:as the main fighters, but inviting God to take charge of the battle, to be the warrior we can
Speaker:never be.
Speaker:Not everyone will turn to Christ, though.
Speaker:And although Jesus is waiting for more and more people to come to repentance, he won't
Speaker:let the rebellion go on forever.
Speaker:A day is coming when he'll stop the world.
Speaker:He'll return in glory and power and majesty, and every eye will see him, and every knee
Speaker:will bow before him, whether willingly or unwillingly.
Speaker:And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and he'll bring justice.
Speaker:Every unseen deed, every act of evil that was done in darkness will be brought into the
Speaker:light.
Speaker:Every word, every thought, every action that's
Speaker:so far gone unjudged will be put on display and justice will be done.
Speaker:All evil will be stopped in its tracks, never to rise again.
Speaker:There'll be no more war, no more fighting.
Speaker:Jesus will be seen as the victorious warrior
Speaker:king who saved his people with his own death and then defeated death itself.
Speaker:All creation will be brought back under the authority of Christ.
Speaker:Right near the end of the Bible.
Speaker:In revelation, chapter 19, verse eleven, the
Speaker:apostle John gets to see Jesus in all his glory.
Speaker:And this is what he tells us he saw.
Speaker:Then I saw heaven opened and there was a white
Speaker:horse.
Speaker:White represents victory, so there was a white
Speaker:horse.
Speaker:His rider is called faithful and true, and
Speaker:with justice he judges and makes war.
Speaker:His eyes were like a fiery flame and many
Speaker:crowns were on his head.
Speaker:He had a name written that no one knows except
Speaker:himself.
Speaker:He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name
Speaker:is called the word of God.
Speaker:The armies that were in heaven followed him on
Speaker:white horses, wearing pure white linen.
Speaker:A sharp sword comes from his mouth so that he
Speaker:might strike the nations with it.
Speaker:He will rule them with an iron rod.
Speaker:He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God the Almighty.
Speaker:And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh.
Speaker:King of kings and lord of lords.
Speaker:Once his victory is complete, he will hand his
Speaker:kingdom over to his father.
Speaker:Those who have never repented and sought
Speaker:forgiveness will be cast out of the presence of God for eternity.
Speaker:But for those who took refuge in Christ, they'll be brought into the promised land, the
Speaker:new creation, to live with God face to face.
Speaker:Revelation 21 three says, they will be his
Speaker:people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.
Speaker:He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Speaker:Death will be no more.
Speaker:Grief crying and pain will be no more because the previous things have passed away.
Speaker:If you're a follower of Jesus, we're like the Israelites standing on the seashore all those
Speaker:years ago.
Speaker:They saw the complete victory of God.
Speaker:His victory was total, but they weren't in the promised land yet.
Speaker:There was still more to be done, more things to happen.
Speaker:But because of the victory that had already happened, they were completely assured that
Speaker:nothing would stop God's plans from coming true.
Speaker:They could sing with confidence of their approaching rest with him in the promised land
Speaker:of Canaan.
Speaker:Friends, we've seen an even bigger victory,
Speaker:the victory of Christ bursting from the tomb.
Speaker:And although there's still more to be done,
Speaker:more people to tell, more lives to be saved, more transformation in our own lives.
Speaker:As we learn to trust our God more and more, we can confidently, joyfully sing, the victory of
Speaker:Christ has already been won.
Speaker:His future victory is assured.
Speaker:Our future home is coming.
Speaker:Trust the faithful God who we've seen
Speaker:throughout Exodus.
Speaker:He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Speaker:I really hope youve been encouraged and strengthened by this series in Exodus.
Speaker:Ive had heaps of fun going through this story again and seeing the way God kindly reveals
Speaker:himself.
Speaker:Given that weve spent lots of time in it, it
Speaker:seems appropriate to do some kind of summary.
Speaker:So next week ill be doing a second bonus
Speaker:episode with my good friend and minister Andy Martin.
Speaker:Well be talking about some of the big themes that weve seen throughout Exodus.
Speaker:Well also be answering some questions that have come in.
Speaker:So if you have a question that youd like us to answer, go to faithfulgod.net, fill in the
Speaker:contact form in the next few days, and well have a go at answering your questions after
Speaker:that Im going to be taking a break for a few weeks.
Speaker:There are a couple of other gospel projects I need to put some mental energy into, but dont
Speaker:fear ill be back with a new episode and a new series.
Speaker:Looking at the first part of one of the gospels, well be looking at the astounding
Speaker:life of Jesus and how God keeps proving his faithfulness through his son.
Speaker:Its going to be great.
Speaker:Invite people to get hooked over the next few
Speaker:weeks listening to the episodes that are already there so theyre ready to go when the
Speaker:next episode drops.
Speaker:If you want to hear more about that or
Speaker:anything else, and if you want to pray for the ministry, then please sign up for my news and
Speaker:prayer letter.
Speaker:It comes out once a month.
Speaker:I try to give some news about what God's been doing through the podcast, what's coming up,
Speaker:and things to pray for.
Speaker:You can sign up at anypage of faithfulgod.net
Speaker:dot so bye for now.
Speaker:Keep trusting Jesus.
Speaker:If you have any questions or just want to say hi, drop me a line on the website and we'll
Speaker:talk again soon.
Speaker:I want to thank everyone who's made this show
Speaker:possible with their generous support.
Speaker:If you want to keep hearing more of these
Speaker:stories and if you want other people to hear about this great God, please consider
Speaker:supporting me financially if you're able.
Speaker:If you go to the support page of
Speaker:Faithfulgod.net, you can either give a one off donation or become a regular supporter.
Speaker:I want to keep this show free for anyone who can't afford it, so if you can, please help
Speaker:out.
Speaker:There's a link to the support page in the show
Speaker:notes also on the website.
Speaker:You can sign up for news and prayer points and
Speaker:you can find links to follow the show on Facebook, Instagram and X. Bye for now.
