Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090830.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part I: God's Deliverance Of Israel From Egypt, Exodus 1:1-15:21
I. The Removal Of Israel From Egypt, Exodus 12:37-15:21
2. God's Leading Israel Into Great Conflict To Display His Greatness
(Exodus 14:1-22)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    There are times when we run into conflicts that are staggering, far to great or too many for us or seemingly for anybody else to handle:

    (1) Consider the national health care debate. David Goldhill, a business executive wrote in "How America's Health Care Killed My Father" in the September 2009 The Atlantic that "(c)onfiscating all the profits of all American companies, in every industry, wouldn't cover even five months of our health-care expenses." He claims we need a consumer-based system, that the current insurance-based system or a government-run one that many elected officials want will not work!

    However, he admitted that "(m)oving from the system we've got now to the one I've outlined would take a long time", and due to the rapidly rising costs of health care, such a change seems pointless!

    Meanwhile, division over the issue grows daily: the August 22, 2009 issue of The Economist, p. 25 claimed that "a government-run health-insurance plan . . . is wildly popular with the political left [but] conservatives and business lobbies loathe it." Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat from Wisconsin, claims: "Nobody is going to bring a bill before Christmas, and maybe not even then, if this ever happens. The divisions are so deep: I've never seen anything like that." (David Hogberg and Sean Higgins, "Dems Appear To Face Slim Odds Of Passing Health Care Overhaul," Investor's Bus. Daily, 8/27/09, p. A1).

    (2) On Tuesday, August 25th, 2009, I heard a woman call "The Talk of Connecticut" show to express great frustration at how elected officials were handling tax revenues. She was upset that they could vote themselves massive pay raises unconcerned about the will of the people simply because special interest groups kept financing their reelections to do their bidding instead of representing rank-and-file voters. The absence of term limits insures such a deadlock, but few congressmen want to vote for term limits to end their time in office!

    (3) On top of all this, people in our own Church body right now face great conflicts at the personal level! One member reported he has faced eight conflicts of potential great import in his life in just the last two weeks! It even led him to dream of another conflict that, upon waking, he realized was thankfully just a dream and not a real conflict!



    Thus, we ask, "If faced with great conflicts, how are we to respond, and why?!"

    Need: "I face great conflict(s), so how am I to respond, and why?!"

  1. GOD LED Israel into a STAGGERING CONFLICT, Ex. 14:1-4a:
    1. The Lord had Moses change Israel's direction so she would camp by the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez, Ex. 14:1-2. [Critics say Israel did not cross that sea as it is too deep, requiring a miracle, so they crossed a shallow lake north of the Gulf, and "Red Sea" in the Hebrew text lit. means "Sea of Reeds", meaning a lake. Yet, Numbers 33:10-11 NIV uses the name in a context that can refer only to the Gulf of Suez.]
    2. The reason God led Israel there was to let Pharaoh think Israel was cornered so he might bring his chariot army against her, Ex. 14:3-4a.
  2. God's PURPOSE in ALLOWING this conflict to arise was to use it to DISPLAY HIS GREATNESS, Ex. 14:4b, 17-18, 31; Jos. 2:9-10a:
    1. God wanted to show His greatness to the Egyptians, Ex. 14:4b, 17-18.
    2. Others would see His greatness, too: (a) Israel would revere and trust in God and in His servant, Moses (Exodus 14:31) and (b) other nations would revere Him through this event, too, Joshua 2:9-10a.
  3. The WAY God displayed His greatness is described as follows:
    1. After God had hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would muster his chariots to attack Israel at the Red Sea (Ex. 14:5-9), the arrival of the Egyptians terrified Israel, so she complained to Moses that he had led her into the situation to be slain in the wilderness, Exodus 14:10-12.
    2. Moses told Israel not to fear, but to stand still and see God's deliverance, for He would destroy the Egyptians, Exodus 14:13-14.
    3. Moses himself in turn privately faithlessly complained to God, for the verb, "cry" in Exodus 14:15 is in the second person singular (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, 14th ed.). Opposite such unbelief, God had Moses lift up the rod he had used to perform other miracles that the sea might part for Israel to escape through it on dry ground, Exodus 14:15b-16.
    4. God promised to harden the hearts of the Egyptians to pursue Israel into the seabed that He might use it glorify Himself, Exodus 14:17-18.
    5. The Angel of God, the Preincarnate Christ, moved behind Israel in the cloud to shield her from the army, bringing darkness to the army to keep it still through the night until the seabed had dried, Ex. 14:19-20.
    6. When the seabed was dry, Israel crossed it to safety, Exodus 14:21-22.
    7. God then removed the darkness holding back the Egyptians, and they pursued after Israel, going down into the dried seabed, Exodus 14:23.
    8. In the morning watch, from 2 a.m. to dawn (Ibid., ftn. to Ex. 14:24), God revealed Himself to the Egyptians as Israel's God, Ex. 14:24-25:
      1. He impeded their chariot wheels, producing panic (hamam, T. W. O. T., vol. I, p. 220), Ex. 14:24-25a ESV. Psalm 77:15-20 claims God sent a severe storm with lightening and thunder, terrifying the horses, softening the seabed and causing the chariot wheels to clog with mire! (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 132)
      2. When the Egyptians realized God opposed them, they tried to flee, but the storm, terrified horses and mire made it futile, Ex. 14:25b.
    9. At dawn after several hours of traumatic chaos for the Egyptians, God had Moses stretch out his rod to bring the sea walls crashing down on the Egyptians, violently destroying the whole army, Exodus 14:26-28.
  4. This event is rich in implications in view of Biblical History:
    1. God judged the Egyptian chariot army with terror in the Red Sea for its having terrorized Israel beside the Red Sea, Exodus 14:10, 25!
    2. God judged Egypt for mistreating Israel's men in bondage in the mire of making bricks for many years by getting Egypt's chariot army mired in the Red Sea's seabed in terror for several hours, Ex. 5:14; 14:25-27!
    3. Pharaoh had directed that Israel's sons be drowned in the Nile (Exodus 1:22), so God fittingly judged Egypt's sons to drown in the Red Sea!
    4. God destroyed the wicked world in the Genesis Flood with rain and water though saving Noah's family through it by the ark, so God also destroyed the wicked Egyptians by the rain and flood of a sea though saving Israel through it by parting the sea and drying up its seabed!
    5. In the Tribulation Period, Satan, the red dragon (Rev. 12:9), will try to destroy fleeing Israel, the woman (Rev. 12:5-6), with a flood like God destroyed the Egyptians at the Red Sea, Rev. 12:15. However, God will cause the earth to part to swallow up Satan's flood, Rev. 12:16.
    6. Finally, at His Second Coming, Christ will again part a geographical obstruction for Israel to escape from her foes like He did at the Red Sea and in the Tribulation Period: He will part the Mount of Olives to form a valley for Israel to flee from the Antichrist, Zechariah 14:4-5.
Application: If facing great conflict, know that GOD has LET it occur to DISPLAY His GREATNESS, and (1) trust in Christ to be saved, John 3:16. (2) Then, may we (a) keep doing God's will with the "rod" [spiritual gift and calling] He gave us, (b) and may we stay calm (c) and watch for God's solution that (d) will glorify Him.

Lesson: God arranged for Israel to face staggering conflict that He might display His great glory to all involved in resolving the conflict!

Conclusion:

 Last Sunday after our morning worship service, one of our longtime members shared an encouraging report in Fellowship Hall.

She told how twenty-seven years ago when I was the new Pastor of Nepaug Church, a woman in New Hartford visited our Church and heard preached the Gospel of faith alone in Christ alone!

She then thought it was "too narrow" a Gospel, and chose to attend another church in the area in her quest for spiritual fulfillment.

Well, she has apparently not found fulfillment in the churches she has since tried, and while traveling in the Midwest, she learned that many churches there surprisingly taught our same "narrow" Gospel!

She recently asked our longtime member if that Pastor with the young son, younger daughter and new baby was still at Nepaug Church! Our member answered yes, though his children had since then grown up.

Apparently, this lady has never forgotten that sermon with its "narrow" Gospel, and, regardless of the struggle over it in her soul for all these years, she is still considering whether to accept it to find the spiritual fulfillment she has long sought! The Holy Spirit has never ceased to work to convince her of the truth as John 16:8 says.

This report evidenced to me how God is greater than any of the conflicts we face! I certainly do not have any human power to impress anyone to accept our "narrow" Gospel. However, we have an infinitely great God Who has the power and the will to make people never forget that Gospel when it is preached so they can some day hopefully come to believe in Jesus Christ for eternal salvation!



So, if facing great conflicts in our lives, may we realize that GOD is GREATER than what we face, so that we can TRUST in Him for RESOLUTIONS and for the deliverance we seek.



May we heed God's Word to Moses and Moses' word to Israel as she stood between Pharaoh's chariots and the Red Sea! May we (1) LIFT UP OUR ROD, that is, may we stay busy in God's will using His spiritual gift for service, and (2) FEAR NOT, (3) STAND STILL and (4) SEE the SALVATION of the LORD!