Exodus 14: 1-25
by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
January 14, 2018
Then the Lord said to Moses: ‘Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall camp opposite it, by the sea. Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, “They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.” I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.’ And they did so.
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed towards the people, and they said, ‘What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?’ So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him; he took six hundred picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out boldly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his chariot drivers and his army; they overtook them camped by the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, “Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’
But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.’
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward!
But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.’
The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.
At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.’ - Exodus 14: 1-25
Over the course of our lifetimes, Scripture comes alive to each of us. God's Word often speaks to us in surprising ways to bring comfort in distressing times, to deepen the roots of our faith, and to prune those roots by challenging us.
No matter how young or old we are, when we learn about the B-I-B-L-E, we all come to hold a favorite biblical passage that becomes meaningful. For in the story God speaks directly into our hearts. Therefore, Scripture becomes quite personal to us as God rewrites our own personal and communal stories. And because of this deepening relationship with the Author of our lives, we are forever changed by God’s Word in some small or big way.
One of the most important stories in Scripture, and also one of my personal favorites, is the story of God parting the Red Sea. The familiarity of the story can cause our spiritual eyes to focus on the sheer wonder of God separating this massive body of water.
But there is more to the story that holds implications for our trust in God’s power and our faithful response to it.
Pharaoh and the Egyptians clung to Israel like baggage they could not rid themselves of. Whatever direction that God’s people looked they heard that seductive voice of fear, “The wilderness has closed in on you. This is as good as it gets. There is no way out.”
You and I know the power of that voice and how heavy that baggage gets. It made God’s people complacent to believe that nothing would ever change their circumstances. To imagine anything other than this baggage was too, too hard.
Complacency gets comfortable because it confines us to a particular lot in life. Complacency defines us in underwhelming ways. It ties our hands behind our backs. Complacency strives to hold us down in the darkness. It denies us the hope to spread our wings and rise up to the light.
But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:24b-25).
I love this story because Moses sees all this in real time and he knows what time it is. It is time for Moses to tell his truth.
Moses was once in the same boat. His own complacency with self-doubt, fear, and feeling inadequate kept him from rising up to God’s call. And yet time and again Moses saw the surprise of God’s power and deliverance in his own life and in the lives of God’s people.
In a climactic moment of leadership, Moses says: Do not fall prey to fear and complacency. Stand firm in full reliance upon God. He is the stable center of your hope. Give all your attention to the hope that God saves. Your baggage is heavy and exhausting but prepare yourself - you will never carry it again. I know this is not logical but trust that the Lord will accomplish this today. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still (Exodus 14:13-15).
Joan Chittister is an author and speaker on the spiritual life and was a former Benedictine nun. She says,
“There are some things in life that cannot be avoided: death, illness, change, personal expectations. What each of them does to us depends a great deal on the way we have allowed ourselves to deal with lesser things. The purpose of stability [Moses’ instruction to be still] is to center us in something greater than ourselves so that nothing lesser than ourselves can possibly sweep us away.
Stability says that where I am [that] is where God is for me. More than that, stability teaches that whatever the depth of difficulties around me, I can, if I will simply stay still enough of heart, find God there in the midst of them.”
God is acquainted with all our ways and hardships. God is faithful and gives us the assurance of his presence. The Lord goes before us and is our rear guard to shine the light into the darkness. If God is for us who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).
God will fight for us because the Lord our God is with us and he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in us, he will quiet us in his love, he will rejoice over us with a song of deliverance (Zephaniah 3:17).
God always makes a way forward when there seems like no way. Faith allows us to wait for God’s plan and God’s timing to intersect with great anticipation. We do not wait passively of helplessly. We wait with a prayerful eagerness that the Lord will never leave us where God found us.
And then we can be still no longer. God worked through Moses to part the Red Sea but notice that God did not carry the Israelites across the dry land. God said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the people to go forward!” (Exodus 14:15).
God prepared the path of deliverance, but the people had to respond in faith by taking the next step to experience God’s freedom. How can we possibly look forward into God’s future if our eyes are fixed on the past that lies behind us? Our attention is divided if we do that.
Years ago, Jake Clark met Pastor Lorenzo on a mission trip to Costa Rica. Pastor Lorenzo was a man you can not forget; he always had a big smile on his face and a joyful presence. One day, Jake just happened to share a story about prison ministry with Pastor Lorenzo. In those moments God led Pastor Lorenzo to tell his story of God’s faithfulness.
As a child Lorenzo never knew his father. Lorenzo’s young mother gave him away at birth. I imagine much of his life story was narrated by the voice of abandonment. Lorenzo was adopted and raised by a farming couple. He was not exposed to the blessings of faith community, but he was exposed to hard labor, violent beatings and verbal abuse. At the age of 15 he stole money from his parents and ran away. Daily survival on the street came from fighting for pay.
Lorenzo married and his wife bore children. The cycle continued as Lorenzo unleashed his anger on his wife and children. At the age of 25 Lorenzo was arrested for stealing and left to serve a prison sentence. He wandered aimlessly in a wilderness that was closing in on him. There seemed to be no hope to rise up from the darkness into the light. But hope that is seen is not hope, is it?
Prison was a stable center for Lorenzo; it forced him to be still. And in the stillness of a prison cell someone shared the good news of God’s deliverance with him. Lorenzo put his trust in God’s steadfast love, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the deep embrace of Holy Spirit and it changed his life.
When Lorenzo served his sentence and was released from prison, he had no idea what freedom might truly look like. Nor did he have any expectation that his wife and children would forgive him. The only thing Lorenzo knew was that he was a different man. But God made a way forward when there seemed like no way. God’s plan and timing intersected before Lorenzo and God’s Spirit nudged him to take the first step into God’s freedom.
In doing so, Lorenzo’s family forgave him. Surely God went ahead of them and was their rear guard because Lorenzo and his family were able to make peace with the past and reach forward into the promises of new life. The Lord used Lorenzo’s wilderness and baggage to glorify God; the Spirit called Lorenzo to serve God and God’s people as a pastor. God rewrote Lorenzo’s story of abandonment and pain with the finger of God’s grace.
Today Lorenzo’s story is knowing he is loved beyond measure and has a greater purpose in life within the heart of God. That story brings a smile and abiding joy for he is deeply aware of the power of God’s grace. And now Pastor Lorenzo helps others to see God’s deliverance as a new reality.
Friend, how long have you felt that you are wandering aimlessly in the wilderness? I know how heavy that baggage can become; the baggage of broken relationships, past regrets, deep doubts, and hard decisions in the mix of daunting uncertainty. I know how seductive the voice of complacency can be; it dulls our hearts to believe this is as good as it’s going to get.
Do not be afraid. Stand firm by fully relying on God. Give all your attention to the truth that God saves. Do not the let the past divide your attention.
God delivered us once through Jesus’ death and resurrection and God will deliver us again and again from anything that stands in the way of experiencing Christ’s promises of freedom and new life. Believe against all odds that the Lord will deliver you and then live into God’s reality.
The Lord will fight for you. Be still in God’s strength only waiting to hear him say, “Rise up and go forward.”
May it be so for you and for me. In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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