Crossing Your Red Sea

Westhill Community Church

Sunday 20 February 2022

Crossing Your Red Sea

Reading: Exodus 14: 1-18

Today we are starting a new series of Bible topics, focussing particularly on the Old Testament. Romans 15: 4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” The Old Testament is an important part of God’s message to us, particularly to build our expectation and confidence in what he intends to accomplish in us and through us today.

Now when God reveals his purposes to us very often he uses pictures and images. This was exemplified time and again in the ministry of Jesus, who so often used parables –verbal pictures – to illustrate his teaching. God paints pictures in the creation around us. And God also paints pictures on the pages of history.

This story we have read today of events that took place thousands of years ago, part of the early history of the nation of Israel, is one such example. It is a picture of what God wants to do for us and in us. Oh, it was real enough for the people who experienced these events. They experienced the purpose and power of God in such a way that they were never the same again. For them it was real. But for us it is a picture of a reality that is even more wonderful and life-transforming.

Let’s recall the historical context. Jacob and his growing family had made the trip from Canaan to Egypt at a time of famine. There they were welcomed, and amply provided with all they needed, for Jacob’s son Joseph, despised and rejected by his brothers, had become Prince of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh in power and influence. They settled in the land of Goshen, a fertile place, and thrived in every way. Year after year, decade after decade, they grew in number, until over 400 years had passed by. But their growth in size and prosperity did not go unnoticed, and as they increased racial tensions increased too. In time all the people of Israel, now a great nation, were made subservient to their Egyptian masters, effectively working as slaves. And then it was that God sent Moses with the message that he had heard their cries, was going to set them free and would lead them back home to the land he had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Humanly speaking this venture was completely unrealistic, and nigh on impossible. The Israelites then were not a tribe of migrants or nomads, used to living in tents and moving at a moment’s notice. They had settled in Goshen, and lived there for 400 years. It was their home. We get a glimpse of the initial response of the people to Moses in our reading today – ‘Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians”?’ (Ex 14: 12). But that was as nothing compared to the response of the Egyptians themselves.

‘Off goes Moses to Pharaoh, says “Let God’s people go, go, go!” “Oh Moses you’re a terrible bore, I’ve told you before it’s no, no, no!”’

And as time went by it seemed that Pharaoh became increasingly obstinate and entrenched in his response. And then, even when eventually he ordered the Egyptian army to stand down and let the people of Israel leave Egypt, he had second thoughts. Before long the army was dispatched to pursue the people and recapture them. According to the passage we read today they caught up with them near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. The Israelites were trapped, and facing what seemed like inevitable catastrophe. To coin a phrase, it seemed they had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. And there and then God stepped in to demonstrate that what is impossible for us is entirely possible for him. He totally shattered the power that had been controlling the people and holding them in bondage, and set them free to worship him, love him, and serve him alone.

Historians and Bible scholars have no clear understanding of where this actually took place, for the place names mentioned have long since passed into obscurity. The best we can say for certain is that the Israelites crossed on dry ground through one or other of the two gulfs at the northern end of the Red Sea – either the Gulf of Suez or the Gulf of Aqaba. Tradition favours the former; the small amount of archaeological evidence seems to favour the latter. But for today this is not important. For today the question is, what does God want to teach me here and now through this ancient story of miraculous deliverance? What present reality does he want me to experience for which the crossing of the Red Sea is a powerful picture or parable?

I believe there are two answers in particular we should consider. The first is that God wants to set us completely free from those things that would bind us and hinder us, in order that we may fully experience his purpose for our lives: not just wants to do so – will do so if we ask him. The second is that God delights to accomplish what to us seems impossible. Where there is no way he makes a way. When the battle is lost he gives the victory. When we are overwhelmed by a raging sea he plants our feet firmly on the shore. When we have no more strength so much as to walk he enables us to fly on eagles wings.

For the people of Israel the Red Sea was the physical means of their deliverance. The power that previously enslaved them was destroyed. In a very real sense it was as if they themselves had passed through death in order to experience a new life of freedom on the other side. This speaks so powerfully of the provision God has made for each one of us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ that person is a new creation: the old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5: 17). Elsewhere it says, “Offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom 6: 13-14).

It may not be fashionable today to speak of a sinful nature that controls us and determines the way we speak and act. But if we are honest most of us can empathise with the apostle Paul when he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. … So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

In his literary work The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the famous Russian philosopher, said this: "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

I hesitate to share something from my own experience, but I do so because it may help some understand better the wonderful provision of deliverance God makes through his grace. In my later years in primary school I developed the habit of swearing profusely, using all manner of bad language. I think the seeds must have been sewn when I was much younger when some of the other children in my street said they didn’t want me to play with them. Maybe from then on I tried to do things that would give me more street credibility. For whatever the reason swearing became my habit, but only at school mind you, never at home. But then when I heard Jesus’ call to follow him I realised that I should stop using bad language. The problem was I couldn’t stop. No matter how hard I tried I would get home from school downcast, knowing once again I was a dismal failure. Then one evening, as I poured out my heart to God, he worked a miracle – a Red Sea moment. Overnight he set me free from this bad habit that had held me like a vice and caused me such distress.

Maybe you are experiencing similar struggles in your life. The wonderful truth is that God can and will break the chains that bind you if you come to him in humility and simple trust. At the heart of the Christian message is a very simple truth, that even a young child can understand. God sent Jesus into this world in order to die, and then raised him to new life, never again to be subject to death. In dying he settled the cost of all our shortcomings and failures, small or great. And through his resurrection he provides the power to enable us to live lives that please God. The great nineteenth century hymn-writer and poet Cecil Frances Alexander expressed this very simply in the well-loved hymn “There is a Green Hill Far Away”:

“He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good.”

As Moses led the people of Israel down into the depths of the Red Sea and up the other side to a new life, so Jesus enables all who put their trust in him to leave the old life behind and live a new life in partnership with him.

The second thing I believe God wants us to learn is that he delights to accomplish what to us seems impossible. Now notice something remarkable about the account we read today of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. The record says very clearly that God deliberately instructed Moses to lead the people into a place where they would be trapped by the Egyptian army. Why would he do that? Why on earth would a loving God put his people through such an experience? The answer is a God who longs that we would know him better; a God who delights to demonstrate to his people beyond any shadow of doubt that he is with them and for them; a God who is determined to demonstrate to the unbelieving world that he is indeed the Lord. God said to Moses, “I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord” (Ex 14: 4).

This is one of the ways of God, as he teaches us to trust him fully. This is why Jesus delayed travelling to Bethany when Lazarus was sick. He could have gone earlier and healed Lazarus before he died. But God took those early disciples to a place where humanly speaking there was no hope, in order that when he intervened they would have no doubt that he is the sovereign Lord of all, and that he was with them and for them. This is why the twelve disciples experienced such a fierce storm on the lake that their lives were threatened, and all while Jesus slept like a baby. When they woke Jesus in terror he expressed somewhat incredulously, “Oh you of little faith, why are you doubting?” So what did he mean? What did he expect them to be doing? I think he expected them to say to one another, this boat is inevitably going to break up in this storm, so it’s only by God’s power that we are going to be saved. It’s going to be so exciting to see what God does about it. And then perhaps they should have joined together in a hearty song of worship and trust. Maybe,

“We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll.”

They could have said to one another, as Moses said to the people in our reading today, “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today … you need only to be still” (Ex 14: 13-14). And, of course, they didn’t need to wake up Jesus at all.

Jesus rebuke to the disciples in the storm is very similar to God’s rebuke of the people of Israel in our reading. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. Then the Lord said, ‘Why are you crying out to me?’ (Ex 14: 15). What did God expect them to do instead? I think God expected them to say to one another, “It’s impossible for us to get out of here, and the Egyptians know it. So clearly God is going to do something spectacular. This should be really exciting!” And then they could have started singing,

“My God is so big, so strong and so mighty; there’s nothing my God cannot do.”

Brothers and sisters, at some points in our walk with Jesus God is going to bring us through Red Sea moments, both individually and corporately as a church. These will be times when the road ahead appears to be blocked, when the enemy seems to have won, when what we are hoping for and praying for seems like an impossible dream. But they will be times when God works miracles to accomplish his purposes and bring glory to his name. Some of us are even now going through such times. And one of the reasons why God brings us through such moments is so that people who doubt him will come to know that he is God. If the problems you face are dissolved quickly and easily then unbelievers do not say, “God must have done it.” If your vision is achieved swiftly and easily few people say, “It was a miracle.” But when the situation you face is impossible to resolve and God steps in with miraculous power then those looking on have no option but to acknowledge that the Lord has done it.

Now let’s be clear about one thing. God works his wonderful power on behalf of those who belong to him, but not so that we can have more of the things of this world, or necessarily have an easier life. It is so that we can have a deeper relationship with Him, and that very often – most often – means leaving other things behind. You see, we make much of the deliverance accomplished for the people of Israel as they passed through the Red Sea, and the freedom that they were entering into, and rightly so. But they also had to leave much behind. Later on, during their travels through the wilderness, the people of Israel complained to Moses. “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Numbers 11: 4-6). You see, every one of us will have one final Red Sea moment, if Jesus doesn’t return in our lifetime. And that moment will be on our deathbed. Then the ultimate enemy will overwhelm us, and we will have no way out. We will lie helpless as death relentlessly drags us down into the grave. And it is then that we will experience our final, most glorious and most triumphant Red Sea deliverance. Jesus will lead us through the sea of death into his glorious presence, to the heavenly home he has prepared for us. So remember, our Red Sea moments are always to bring us into a deeper relationship with God.

Now my final question is this. When we experience apparently insurmountable problems, and disaster looms do we respond like the people of Israel, and like the disciples of old? In both cases the Bible says they were terrified. The Israelites cried out, “Why have you brought us into the desert to die?” (Ex 14: 11). The disciples cried out, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4: 38). In both cases the response to them was the same: have faith in God.

If you belong to Jesus; if you have reached out to him to seek his forgiveness for all that is wrong in your life, and to trust him to make you what he wants you to be, then you can be certain without any doubt that God will never leave you nor forsake you. It matters not whether you are a good Christian or a poor Christian, very wise or very foolish, extremely obedient or often wandering astray. The Bible says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). And again, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8: 38-39). Peter said, “Through faith you are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet 1: 5). Paul said, “The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thess 3: 3).

As we hold fast to these truths, allow them to fill our hearts and minds, there will be no place for panic and distress when we are faced with apparently insurmountable problems. Some of us have come to this service carrying burdens of unbelief, doubt, fear, worry, or anxiety. Yes, you are a Christian, but you are doubting whether God is really concerned for you and your circumstances.

I carried a bag with me as I came into church this morning. It is a heavy bag, because it is full of heavy stones. This one is labelled “worry.” Here is another labelled “anxiety,” and another labelled, “fear.” Here is “stress.” Every single one of them springs from my lack of trust that God is watching over me, protecting me and leading me. You know, I don’t think I want to carry this burden any more. I’m going to put this bag at the foot of the cross and leave it there. And I invite you this morning in this time of quiet reflection to place your burdens at the foot of Jesus’ cross and leave them there. Oh, we may be tempted to pick them up again in the future, but this moment can be a turning point, a moment of decision, a time when we say to the Lord, “I don’t want to carry this burden anymore. Please take it from me, and give me the grace from this time on to leave it with you.”