Exodus-14

Exodus 14:1-5
¹Then the Lord said to Moses, 
²“Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 
³For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ 
⁴And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.
⁵When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 

V.1-3 – God gives Moses instruction of making camp as the wilderness has shut them in.

This was the third camp of those that were in an ‘out of the way’ places but within the Egyptian territory and on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea.  What matters is the effect these stopping points were on Pharaoh that God was creating by leading the people on a seemingly erratic course.  Thus, once again Pharaoh was being duped into a situation of humiliation and enticed to act in a way he thought would be to his advantage.  We see another demonstration of God’s control over Egypt’s impotency.  

V.4 – He will harden Pharaoh’s heart – The Egyptians had their opportunity to acknowledge Yahweh as supreme and let his people go.  They choose not to and thus the 10 plagues.  Here, they demonstrate their continual refusal to accept Yahweh as being in control and go after His people, the Israelites.    They have made their choice, to carry out God’s plan for their disobedience he hardens their heart so they continue in the course they started to their destruction.  Today, in one’s hardening themselves in sin, they are left to continue to their destruction. 
– We see that phrase “God will harden Pharaoh’s heart” is not his preventing their salvation, but granting them there desire of their heart to go against Him. 

V.5 – Pharaoh says:  “What have we done?” –  It shows the court gradually wishing they had kept the Israelites.  The amount of work that was now undone as they were the primary work force as well as brick makers.  The labor pool dropped significantly.   

Their punishment has come full circle from by their being drowned in the sea for drowning the Israelite children in the Nile.

Think about this!  –  What would give him the sense that suddenly he could gain victory over the Israelites when their God had just shown total superiority to him and his gods?  Some understanding can be gotten by looking at the Near Easter ancient view of the Gods.  (One sees this in Greek mythology and stories about gods gathering together to treat mankind as in an arena for their enjoyment.)

Their concept was that the gods and goddesses that controlled the world were arbitrary and capricious, quick to change their actions and attitudes, constantly vying with one another for power, not omnipresent but manifesting themselves at given locations and then leaving those locations unpredictably.    

With this concept of the gods, Pharaoh would assume that after the Israelites God showed His mighty power, he has left them now to wonder the wilderness. That with them being surrounded around such a belief system one could see how volatile the people’s view in convincing them that the Israelite’s god had abandoned them as their gods behaved toward them.  In fact many humans today have a huge “abandonment issue” to content with.   Like many have a ‘strong trust issue’ toward people.  One’s religion can be found to be an aid in mitigating these or building on them. 

Up until this point the military branch of Egypt has not suffered the humiliation that Pharaoh and his staff have.   This would be a time to show His people the control He has of any military force.  That He was there to fight for his people.

Exodus 14:6-14
⁶So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 
⁷and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 
⁸And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 
⁹The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
¹⁰When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 
¹¹They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 
¹²Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 
¹³And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 
¹⁴The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

V.6/7 –  “⁶So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him,…”  –  600 best chariots plus others – would be basically the entire force of Egypt.  He called together the best and brightest of Egypt’s troops.  The irony is that he goes to fight Israel’s God, the very God that had just devastated them.  They did not prove to prevail then, and now he (they) think they can.  It indicates that God’s punishments still wasn’t sufficient for them to turn from their wrong view/attitudes.  Yes, they would learn that He is the ‘Lord of all’ – but not enough awareness to cause a change in their ways.    Apply that today!

V.8-9 – God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, King of Egypt to pursue the Israelites.  God has the same purpose as before to humiliate them and expose the nonsense of their religion and faith they placed on their false gods.  “His army” could well be the combat troops that walked.

V.10-12 – Israelite Panic and Complain

V.10 – reaction of the Israelites were terrified and in shock by seeing the thousands of the army coming toward them, thus they cried out to the Lord.  It was of great shock to the Israelites.   It would seem their view of who God was not yet on target as seen by their reaction. They had created in their minds an idea of what God was, but lacking reality as they were seeking ‘relief’ from their miserable condition.  They panicked when they thought they were confronted with possible death by the Egyptians they would rather return than face death. 

It shows that their level of trust with God at this point by the Red Sea was low.?  Would their level of faith be like a child climbing into the arms of their dad and releasing self to their care?  They were ‘children’ in the faith.  People that removed themselves from work or expecting any hardships.  Just recently God had displayed His power in the 10 plagues.  Most of which he shielded them from experiencing the loss or hardship.  He demonstrated his power to protect.  Yet now they forgot that display of power and most importantly that God was protecting them then.  The attitude of help to them would be if they told self:  “If then, why not now.”  

Their assumption was in error are two levels:

1 – the Egyptians were not there to kill them but to bring them back to their slave condition.

2 – they did not believe that God would rescue them.

Under those misconceptions it is interesting to note that they now viewed their miserable past was worth returning to.  It is like today when we think of the past is better than the present condition that seems unbearable.

This would the first installment of the grumbling theme for the Israelites as they continued their journey.   God knew the condition of their thinking.  He spoke of them as a stubborn people.  God demonstrates His love and patience as he continually provides showing over and over again that He is there for them.  (God shows us the same and yet we really continually need to reinsure our soul of His presence and acceptance of His strength in our lives.)  “attitude”

They had not learned that God’s purpose for bringing them out of Egypt was not just to save them, but to maintain his covenant tie to all his people, past, present, and future.  They. like us, at times miss realizing that our circumstances, like theirs, are not the final standard on which to view the work of God.  

V.11-12 – No graves in Egypt so you’ve taken us out of there so we can die here!   Moses is blindsided!  In this context the Israelites show their faithlessness in light of what God has done to release them.  Thus you can see Moses statement:  “The Lord will fight for you, you have only to be silent.”  What reason had they had to not understand that God has the power to do the impossible in man’s eyes (viewpoint).  It is when we think through literal eyes, that we fail to see God.  Their faith is weak, they quickly fail to remember what just happened.  We need to keep our eyes on what God has done for us. 

Take a minute to personalize your view and concept of God in your life.  Compare a similar episode in Numbers 20:9-11 as they murmured about a lack of water and Moses becomes impatient with them and strikes the rock instead of speaking to it. 

V.13-14 – Moses’ Confident Reassurance of God’s Plan to Trap the Egyptians…

V.13 – ¹³And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 

V.14 – ¹⁴The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”  “have only to be silent” comes from 1 base Hebrew word  (hrs)  H2790

Strong’s H2790.  חָרַשׁchârash, khaw-rash´; a prim. root; to scratch, i.e. (by impl.) to engrave, plough; hence (from the use of tools) to fabricate (of any material); fig. to devise (in a bad sense); hence (from the idea of secrecy) to be silent, to let alone; hence (by impl.) to be deaf (as an accompaniment of dumbness):…

By viewing this speech in line with God’s attributes Moses alludes to five things about God:

1.      God is a dispeller of fear, a comforter of those who are afraid.

2.      God is a deliverer from distress

3.      God invites and expects his people to trust in him  (“Stand firm…you need only to be still”).

4.      God removes danger

5.      God is a warrior against the forces of evil

The timing and application of these attributes are under God’s control, not man’s.  However, in this case Moses could offer strong assurances to the Israelites at this time because God had already said through him his plan to humiliate Egypt yet again for one last time.

Exodus 14:15-20 – God Sends Israel into the Sea to Gain Glory Over Pharaoh and His Army…
¹⁵The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 
¹⁶Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 
¹⁷And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 
¹⁸And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
¹⁹Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 
²⁰coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night^£ without one coming near the other all night.  

V. 15 – We see here a close identification between Moses and the Israelites as their gilt becomes his.     A quick rebuke from God and the action moves forward instructing Moses to tell the people to move forward and for him to lift up his rod above the sea.

V.16 – As with the plagues, the elements obey Moses and an East wind comes up to separate the water.  The East wind is frequently an illustration of judgment against sin.  Repeating the plagues are God’s action to employ the forces of creation against Pharaoh and his people. 

The parting of the waters is an ultimate reversal of Genesis 1:9(ESV)
⁹And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 

 Here is sea is split open that exposes the land beneath it.   In either case the purpose was the ‘dry land’ with this being a different purpose than to have dry land to house animals and humans.   This act is reversed as it bring ‘death’ not ‘life’ to the Egyptians.  Would be the ultimate judgment against them for killing his children’s babies in the Nile. 

Exodus: V.17-18 – ¹⁷And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them…

Purpose:  ¹⁸And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord….”

He was preparing them not to just follow the Israelites, but to die.  Basically. God is not as tame as we sometime want to paint Him.   We recoil over the ‘wrath’ of God and encase ourselves in the ‘love’ of God.  Humanistic thinking!

Exodus V. 19-20 – The Lord goes before them as a cloud and fire.  The angel’s act is a concrete manifestation of God’s presence with his people.  It would be the visual ‘salvation’ on God’s part. 

The fire separates the two groups at day and night.  It holds back the Egyptians as God causes the dry land to occur in the sea. 

Exodus 14:21-22(ESV)
²¹Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 
²²And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 

God is working through Moses as Moses stretches out his arm across the sea.  Israel had light and Egypt had darkness.  The Israelites had light to move forward through the sea, while the Egyptians had darkness and stood still waiting.  You would think they would have remembered the 9^th plague when they were in darkness and the Israelites were not.  Then the next plague was the killing of the first born.  Repeated again would be that after ‘darkness’ there would be a killing – this time the Egyptian armies.

This is a window into the manner in which God has brought Israel back to himself. It is a hint of how God will once again, more than a millennium later, save “Israel” through one who identifies both with the people and with God.

Exodus V.23-28

²³The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 
²⁴And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 
²⁵clogging^£ their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
²⁶Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.” 
²⁷So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw^£ the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 
²⁸The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 

The sea is parted and the Egyptians follow in pursuit as they are hardened against the horrible end that surely awaits them.  They finally grasp the situation as God throws the Egyptians ‘into confusion”  as it takes the form of wheel trouble.  Maybe their wheels come off or at last they get stuck in the muddy road that was one the bottom of the Red sea.  It hits the Egyptians at their symbol of power, their mighty chariots.    They are there where they can’t proceed forward or retreat and they realize that Israelites God is Lord of all as they finally acknowledge:  “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

They were slow learners!  Slow learners were also found for the people at the time of the flood.  Slow learners will again be seen by many people at the final battle of Armageddon. 

Reread Verses 23-25

²³The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 
²⁴And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 
²⁵clogging^£ their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

It seems as if the Egyptians make a beeline for the sea thinking to capture them and if they can walk between the waters, they could too.  Their chariots get stuck (the thin iron wheels sink and horses can’t pull the cart and men on it.  Wheels break.  The camp is thrown into confusion.    They are totally ‘confused’ – God insures victory by the water closing in on them – “not one of them survived”.

Exodus V.29-31

²⁹But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
³⁰Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 
³¹Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

The Lord saved  Israel from “from the hand (yad) of the Egyptians “ RESULT – they were washed on the land by the seashore.

Hand – yad – as saying “from the power of the Egyptians”.  

The Israelites saw the great power of the Lord and now they were off to a new life as a people with their land and national identity.

God graciously brings them out of Egypt, but still these and more incidents of the lack of faith will prove that the people choose various poor responses to God’s love.  They looked at God’s love with a wrong viewpoint.  Do we find ourselves with that same attitude as we pray with a “give me a life free from hardships”?