Between the Devil and the Deep Red Sea
Exodus 13 & 14
By Dave Redick
This spot at the edge of the Red Sea was the place of their predicament. It was a dead-end street. To the north Egyptian stone fortresses and beyond these, the Mediterranean Sea. To the south was the Egyptian desert. To the west was Egypt and Pharaoh, and to the east, the foreboding Red Sea. They were boxed in and God was the one who put them in the box!
Introduction
My grandfather and I used to go fishing in a particular stream that was our own secret spot. The fishing there was good - so good in fact, that we seldom if ever went there without catching our limit before dark. Of course, once you have your limit, you're in a predicament. You can't fish anymore. For us, that always meant that my grandmother would have to get out the frying pan and fry a batch of fish for supper. Then we'd spend the night in the camper and fish the next morning. My grandfather always referred to that as "being in a predicament." He'd pick me up after school in the camper and say, "Want to go get in a predicament?" That always meant going fishing at Hatchet Creek.
Those were pleasant predicaments. Other predicaments aren't fun.
It may be this morning that you are in a predicament. You're in a jam. You're between a rock and a hard place.
Perhaps your predicament isn't a pleasant one. You're in a tight space from which you can see no exit. Maybe it's due to some unwise decision or action on your part. Maybe it’s the result of circumstances beyond your control.
In this message, when I speak of a predicament, I don't mean a situation where there is an easy escape route. I'm talking about a circumstance that looks like all the avenues that lead out of town are blocked off. You thought that when a certain thing happened, you had planned well enough so that you had an alternative, but that alternative was suddenly no longer available. Now, it looks like there is no way out. There is no human hope of deliverance. You are in a predicament. The worry lines on your face are getting deeper. Stress is heavier than you have ever experienced before.
If you can identify with the things I have just said, you should be able to relate to the story we're going to read this morning from the 13th and 14th chapters of Exodus, where we find Israel between the devil and the deep Red Sea.
At this place in Israel's history, during the exodus, the people had lived in Egypt all of their lives. Not one person living among them was born outside Egypt. Their bondage had lasted 400 years. The lifestyles of the people were Egyptian to the core. They had Egyptian habits, Egyptian customs, and Egyptian culture. Now God wanted to change that and teach them a new lifestyle patterned after Him. In order to do that He had to deal with the "Egyptian" in them. That He did - at the Red Sea.
In the last third of chapter 13 we see that:
1. God Piloted Them.
(Read 13:17-22)
Before we move on, let me point out several things that are important to learn from this passage. I would like you to underline a two phrases in your Bible. Please underline the phrase in verse 17, "God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near..." Then in verse 18, underline "God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea..."
The phrases I had you underline are statements about God's piloting Israel. I point them out because they have some amazing New Testament parallels that apply to Christians today.
The first statement about God not leading them by way of the land of the Philistines is an indication that God never puts more on his people than they can handle. In the New Testament, I Corinthians 10:13 says, "God... will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able..." The Israelites had been slaves, not warriors. The Philistines were a race of fierce warriors. Israel was not ready for such an encounter, so God didn't allow it to happen.
The second statement you underlined was "God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea..." The first three verses of chapter 14 get more specific about that.
(Read 14:1-3)
This spot at the edge of the Red Sea was the place of their predicament. It was a dead-end street. To the north Egyptian stone fortresses and beyond these, the Mediterranean Sea. To the south was the Egyptian desert. To the west was Egypt and Pharaoh, and to the east, the foreboding Red Sea. They were boxed in and God was the one who put them in the box! Militarily, Baal-zephon was the most vulnerable place they could camp. Even Pharaoh saw their vulnerability. His words were, "the wilderness has shut them in." More correctly, God had shut them in.
My point is this: Sometimes God leads us into a predicament to build our faith and demonstrate his power.
That second part about demonstrating His power can be seen in the next verse.
(Read v. 4)
A lot of people think that if the Spirit of God leads you, you are not going to have any troubles. Everything is going to run smoothly. You're always going to be rejoicing and praising the Lord. In fact, some people assume that troubles are sure indicators that the Spirit is not leading you. But is that idea true? Look at the evidence. God led these people, right into a trap from which there was no human escape.
I'm thinking of another example of this. Remember those words in Matthew 4:1 about Jesus' temptation: "Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." God's Spirit led Jesus into a predicament. Don't think that because you are in a tight place, God has forgotten you or left you or that you are necessarily "out of His will." On the contrary, He may very well have led you there! Why? The reason given in this passage is so that "the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." When God delivers His people with a mighty hand, or strengthens them to go through tough times, people notice and He is honored.
2. The Egyptians Pursued Them.
(Read v. 5-9)
I can hear them in my mind, thundering across the desert floor in hot pursuit. The Hebrews are backed up against the Red Sea. There is no place to go. Suddenly they hear what sounds like thunder in the distance. As they raise their eyes, they see a cloud of dust rising through the shimmering heat of the desert sand. Pharaoh was coming! It isn’t hard to understand that the next thing we see in the text is that:
3. Pharaoh Panicked Them.
Try for a moment to imagine yourself camping there among the Israelites. One moment you are victoriously walking away from a ravaged land that once held you captive and the next it appears you are about to die! Pharaoh is coming and there is no escape! There is going to be a massacre at Baal-zephon!
(Read v. 10)
Predicaments sometimes break our independent spirits. We can strut around like human peacocks in our smug self-confidence when things are going well. We can handle it! We don't need any help, thank you. Then the bottom falls out and we change our tune.
Often the hardest heart will cry out to God when facing certain death - and that is what Israel did. Yet the cry wasn't one of trust. It was one of shear panic and frustration. Rather than look to God for deliverance, they looked for Moses to blame!
(Read v. 11-12)
If there was one thing these people had learned to fear in their 400 years of captivity, it was the wrath of Pharaoh. Now Pharaoh was coming. They were toast!
How did Moses deal with these people who were in a predicament? How did he counsel them? Further, how should we counsel others and ourselves in a similar predicament?
(Read v. 13a)
Can you imagine that? The whole Egyptian army is coming and this man says, "Do not fear"? Moses, you're crazy! Look at the rest of what Moses said.
(Read v. 13b-14)
There are four parts to Moses' counsel to his people who are in a predicament: (1) Don't Fear. (2) Stand Still. (3) Watch For the Lord to Work. (4) Keep Quiet.
Every one of those directives is just the opposite of the natural tendencies of a human being in a predicament. When we are in such a spot, we panic, try to run, look for human deliverance, and tell everybody!
Earl Stanley Jones once said that people could tell more about our faith from the way we react than the way we act.
Think back to your last predicament. How did you handle it? Did you do any or all of these four things?
Apparently, Moses did a little panicking himself. He said something that isn't recorded here. I know that because the Lord responded to it. That will bring us to the fourth part of this passage.
4. The Lord Provided for Them.
(Read v. 15)
Go forward into the Red Sea? God told them to do the very thing their minds told them not to do.
(Read v. 16-20)
So, the cloud moved over and behind them to cover and protect them. (Keep that in mind because I have something else to say about it in a few moments.)
(Read v. 21-22)
You see, in such predicaments, God must intervene if we are to be spared! When He does, you'll know that He has done something great in your life. It will strengthen your faith like nothing else can. But God didn't stop there. He had another purpose for opening the Red Sea.
(Read v. 23-30)
What a miracle! God ended Pharaoh’s control over His people forever. No longer would Egypt dominate them. They were free!
Look back at verse 30. "Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hands of the Egyptians." The Red Sea both destroyed Pharaoh and saved Israel.
At this point I want to pause for a brief observation of typology. Types are certain Old Testament events that correspond to truths taught in the New Testament. A biblical type is an image or a similarity between something in the Old Testament and something in the New Testament. The working of the mighty hand of God in destroying the works of Egypt in the Red Sea is a type, too. Rather than tell you about it myself, though, I will let someone much more qualified that I am do it.
(Read I Corinthians 10:1-2)
Paul, writing to New Testament people 1500 years later, is looking back on the story I just told you and using it to teach a New Testament truth. "All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." The immersion of Israel in the cloud and the sea was a type of New Testament baptism. Just as they were baptized into Moses, we are baptized into Christ.
Paul goes on to describe how, despite the fact that they all passed through the Red Sea, most of them fell away from God in the desert wanderings that followed. Now look at verse 11.
(Read I Corinthians 10:11)
What do you suppose this Old Testament type is designed to teach us? Consider the similarities…
Israel was in bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt. Moses was sent to lead Israel out of that bondage. In order for the people to be delivered, they had to leave Egypt and follow Moses. But even though they were following Moses, they weren't safe yet. Moses took them to the Red Sea. They had to go through the Sea. To put it Paul's way, they had to be baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. The water of the Red Sea simultaneously brought salvation to Israel and destroyed the works of Pharaoh.
Look with me at the similarities between their salvation and ours…
Typically, in this passage in Exodus we see first:
A. Their Condition Was Hopeless Just As Our Condition Is Hopeless.
Israel's bondage was unbearable, but they could do nothing about it. So it is with sin today. Man's condition is hopeless. He cannot save himself. The Bible says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) It also says, "For the wages of sin is death." (Romans 3:23)
All men and women, in the bondage of sin, are under the sentence of condemnation. Satan has them enslaved to do his will just as Pharaoh had Israel enslaved.
We also see in this type:
B. Their Deliverer Was Moses – Our Deliverer Is Christ.
Just as Moses came to Egypt the first time and was rejected, so Christ came to earth and was rejected.
Just as Moses broke Pharaoh’s hold on Israel, so Christ broke Satan’s hold over us.
In order to be delivered, the Israelites had to leave Egypt and follow Moses. In order to be delivered from sin today, people must leave sin (repent) and follow Christ. (You cannot be saved and still live in Egypt, i.e. sin.)
Now let's look at the similarities in their baptism (to use Paul's words) and ours…
Just as Israel was immersed (baptized) in the cloud and the sea when Moses told them to move forward, so today a believer is immersed in the water of baptism. (They passed through the sea, the pillar of cloud covered them.)
Just as Israel was "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea," so, today a believer is "baptized into Christ" (Gal. 3:27).
Just as the power of Pharaoh was destroyed in the Red Sea, so today the power of Satan is destroyed when a believer is baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38).
Just as the Red Sea saved Israel in that day, so today "baptism saves us." (I Peter 3:21). ("Not the removal of dirt from the flesh, i.e., a bath, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.")
Here are some contemporary questions that need to be answered:
"Is baptism essential for salvation?" Well, we need to ask, "Could an Israelite be saved without going through the Red Sea?" Jesus made baptism essential in his statement in Mark 16:16.
"Is a person saved before baptism or after?" Well, were the Israelites saved from Pharaoh before they crossed the Red Sea, or after? (In the order Jesus placed baptism in Mark 16:16, salvation comes after baptism, not before.)
"What of those who refuse to be baptized?" What about those sincere Israelites who might have stayed on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea and refused to cross when Moses said "move forward"?
Before the Red Sea crossing, Pharaoh was alive and an eminent threat to the Israelites. Before baptism, sin is alive in the believer and a dangerous threat.
Just as it would have been ridiculous and suicidal for an Israelite to stand and argue with Moses about stepping forward to cross the Red Sea, so it is today. Why would any sincere believer in Christ refuse to Bible's commands to be baptized to have his sin forgiven?
Conclusion
If you are a believer in Christ, but have never been baptized, you need to be. You are in a terrible predicament. You stand in the space between the devil and the deep Red Sea. If you have friends who are following Christ, but have never been baptized, then they need to be. They’re in the same predicament. They need to escape from Egypt!
What must you do to be saved? You must believe the message of good news about God's salvation and follow Christ out of bondage. You must make up your mind to leave sin behind. That is called repentance. You must take an open stand for God like the Israelites did when they left Egypt. Then you must be immersed in the waters of baptism to destroy the works of Satan in your life. That is New Testament conversion.
Once during the Civil War, when things were at their worst, the Governor of Illinois wrote Abraham Lincoln an utterly discouraged letter. Everything, according to human wisdom, was going to the dogs! Lincoln wrote back: "Dear Dick: Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." That is what we must do when we are in a predicament.
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.
All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.