November 30, 2007

• Discovering God’s Character
  
  
  
  Exodus 13-14: Remembering Him; His Guidance and Protection

  Picking up where we left off, Israel had just left Egypt in Exodus 12
  and the Lord had begun instituting things that would be symbols of
  remembrance for them. This continues in chapter 13.

  The Lord then tells Moses that all the firstborn were to be sanctified
  to Him. He had saved the firstborn of the sons of Israel by the blood
  of a lamb that was applied to the doorposts and lintel and the Lord has
  destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians. If you remember all of the
  rest of the things that God did in the way of plagues did not deliver
  Israel out of Pharaoh’s hand except that the Egyptian firstborn died
  (even the firstborn of Pharaoh, himself.) It was a powerful thing here
  and we see that the Lord wants Israel to remember the entire matter
  through the consecration of their firstborn. He also reminds them of
  their eating of unleavened bread on their departure from Egypt.

  It is clear that the Lord prefers to have us do things to remember.
  Even communion carries this message with it… “do this in remembrance of
  me”. It is not a thing to commend oneself to righteousness but an
  acknowledgement of something about the Lord that we need to remember. 
  We often forget, don’t we?  I know I do. It is good to remember the
  goodness and character of the Lord.

  Now that Israel was released from Egypt, the Lord did not just let them
  wander by themselves. He also did not want them to experience war with
  the Philistines at that point. Can you imagine the weariness and
  discouragement that Israel would have felt getting into a mess like that and then return to Egypt?  The Lord
  carefully directed them away from that. It is clear that the Lord knows
  when things would simply be too much for us. So He took them another
  way… through the wilderness to the Red Sea. Now it isn’t like that
  route they actually would go would be much easier but this one would
  lead to a more productive end. Also, they did not forget the bones of Joseph and kept their promise to take them back with them to Canaan when God brought them out.

  We are told that they started at Rameses (Exodus 12:37) and traveled to
  Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. The Lord
  Himself guided them where they went. So it’s a bit interesting that the
  Lord has Israel turn around and camp at Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and
  the sea, camping across from Baal-zephon.  He does this to bait Pharaoh
  into pursuing Israel with all his armies as we find out in Exodus 14.

  Of course, when Pharaoh jumps into action and finally catches up with
  Israel camping by the sea with all his army’s chariots including the
  very best ones and has his top ranking officers manning them.

  When Israel sees this, they complain to Moses saying things like
  “weren’t there enough graves in Egypt that we should die in the
  wilderness?” and “it would have been better to have served the
  Egyptians.”  How soon did they forget the wonders God did just before
  that?

  However, we see that the Lord fights for them. He tells Moses to have
  the people go forward and as Moses lifts up his staff and stretches it
  over the sea, God is going to divide it for them and allow them to walk
  on dry land. This is quite a dramatic way to show that the Lord makes a
  way when there isn’t a way before. Yet that’s not all, He has another
  plan and will actually use His people as bait to draw Pharaoh and his
  army that will also go in after them. Not only will God make a way for
  His people to escape, He will use it to also be a way of destruction
  for their enemies. He not only incites Pharaoh to pursue them but He
  also removes their “good sense” as well because strategically this is a
  very poor move for Pharaoh to make. This is another aspect of God
  hardening a heart.  It could be said this was going to be “Pharaoh’s
  Waterloo”. The Pharaoh who thought he could fight with God will soon
  learn He’s outnumbered and outwitted.

  Now the angel of God, who appeared like a pillar of cloud moved to back
  of the camp. Now it has to be daytime when this happened since that’s
  how the pillar looked (as a cloud) in the daytime (Exodus 13:21)
  however since darkness set in quickly it must have been in getting
  toward evening when this occurred because the reference to night in
  Exodus 14:20.  So by the time all this transpired, Pharoah and his army
  could not come near to Israel all night.

  While God protected Israel by being their “rear-guard”, they were told to march forward. Now let’s give Israel a little bit of credit here. It was a scary time.
  Their enemies were pursuing them shortly before. The sea opens up and a
  dry path appears before them. What sort of thing would this seem to you as you would look upon
  something so awesome and formidable?  Would not the walls of the sea to
  their left and right be a little intimidating? I think it might. One
  would have to trust the Lord in order to walk out into that path and so far in that if the waters fell on them, life would be
  over.  Let’s not underestimate the commitment and trust that it took to
  walk through the sea like they did. It’s a pretty scary thing and it would take the threat of Pharaoh at
  their heels to get them to overcome the fear. The Lord knew that.

  Given the sequence of events, Pharaoh’s army began pursuing Israel in
  the night yet they were not allowed to come near Israel during that
  time. Now when the morning watch came, the trap that the Lord had
  planned for Pharaoh and his army was set and as I figure it the morning
  light began to clearly show Pharaoh’s army the predicament they were in
  and this might be the way the Lord brought them into a confused state. 
  The walls of water defying gravity and the increasing difficulty to get
  their chariots to operate properly made them realize that the Lord was
  fighting for Israel and they didn’t stand a chance. As Moses stretched his hand over the sea at daybreak, the sea returned
  to its normal state while Pharaoh’s entire army was fleeing “into” it.
  The entire army was destroyed in that one action. Later, the dead
  Egyptians were seen on the seashore.

  Now why might we think the Lord put this account into the scripture?
  Could it be that He wants us to know that during our darkest times that
  He is our “rear-guard” and that while we are forced to move forward
  into a most fearful situation ourselves, only to find that by
  “morning”, your “enemy” is destroyed and gone?  I’ll bet that you’ve
  experienced at least one of these kind of events in your life.  I know
  I have. Sometimes we have to move forward when it seems impossible or
  stupid to do so, yet we do because we are forced to do it.  I figure
  that the people of Israel worried in their hearts as this event
  unfolded and so do we.

  As we close on these chapters, I’d like to focus on the verses in Exodus 14:13-15:

  
  But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the
  salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the
  Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again
  forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent."  Then the
  LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of
  Israel to go forward. Exodus 14:13-15 (NASB)

  These very verses are quite real to me since this sort of thing has
  happened several times during my life. I’ll tell you a story about one
  of them.

  I was once “persecuted” by someone at the company I worked for who
  happened to be my supervisor who had it in for me. For a couple of
  years, he tried his best to get rid of me as I was the only one qualified
  to become his boss yet I really had no interest in doing that.  It was one of those really scary kind of times
  where I wasn’t so sure if I’d have my job the next day but the Lord had
  reassured me that He is the one who makes kings to stand and fall and I
  should not fear this man because, in the Lord’s time, He would take
  care of him. My job before Him was to do right, continue the good work
  I was doing, and move forward not knowing the long path this would
  take. After a good deal of time had passed, the Lord caused this man to
  experience a car accident that nearly crippled him. Now I had heard of
  the accident on the car radio going to work and that it was near where
  I worked. At that moment, it seemed while it could have been any number
  of people who had the accident, it seemed like a still small voice
  said… “it is My doing”.  I said nothing about it to anyone except to
  Bee. When I got to work, I heard the news that my boss (the one
  persecuting me) was in an accident that morning. While one might figure
  that a thing like that might change a person, he was like Pharaoh of
  old, sometime later, he again hardened his heart. Yet time after time,
  the Lord protected me all along the way.

  A little while later, during a company-wide staff reduction, I was
  finally laid-off by a different person (who had become a friend of mine
  who nearly wept having to tell me the news) and within two hours on the
  same morning, I was talking to the person in a new company that had a
  job waiting for me as soon as I could get there.  I had made it through
  “the sea” but that wasn’t all.

  It would be about a year and a half later that it would finally be
  resolved. I had random contact with people who still worked at the old
  company. I heard news to the effect that a project had gotten into
  serious difficulty in a way that I would have been able to correct
  fairly easily. This fellow attempted to do it himself and failed.  He
  had claimed my success for himself and could not do the job when a real
  problem came around. He had driven himself so hard and long that he collapsed at work and ended
  up in the hospital. Afterwards, he was demoted from his much larger
  responsibilities to a fairly inconsequential position and I’ve heard
  nothing of him since. Everything he has sought to preserve, he lost.
  This is a fearful thing to contemplate. It reminds me to “do good to
  others because you do not know when the Lord will even the score with
  you if you don’t”.

  Are these accounts of the Old Testament relevant to adults in today’s
  world? They certainly are. Don’t dismiss such things as myths and
  fairy-tales. This account I have related to you is only one time and a
  particularly remarkable circumstance where the Lord has protected me
  from harm. If you are one of His, do not underestimate His power to
  “bring you out” in safety while you “move forward” doing His will. Do
  not worry about “getting even”, you neither have the time nor the
  talent to do as well as the Lord can do. Let the Lord handle it,
  vengeance is not yours to do.

  I see here that God delivers His people and guides them even when the
  path seems dark and formidable. We will experience opponents in life.
  Do not be distracted by them. Do the good that He has intended for you
  to do. Be still and quiet your heart in Him. Move forward in faith
  enduring to when He delivers you from the situation. When He shows you
  the “sea has pulled away and dry land is before you”, do not fail to
  take that path. It is from Him and He indeed wants you to be free.  Mr.
  Vee

  • 12:23 pm
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