The Plagues, the Passover and the Parting of the Red Sea Theme: Moses the Reluctant Prophet

Transcription

1 The Plagues, the Passover and the Parting of the Red Sea Theme: Moses the Reluctant Prophet Scripture: Exodus 14:1-4, Things I d like to remember from today s sermon: This study guide is designed to help you dig deeper into the Bible and to grow in your faith. This week we'll focus on the story of the plagues, the Exodus and the parting of the sea. Use this study guide on your own, with a friend, co-worker, or your family. Enjoy! Meditation Moments for Monday, September 21 The Oppression of the Israelites Exodus 5 Today's reading sets up the events of the rest of the story of the Exodus. Read Exodus 5. Describe Pharaoh. What is he like? How did the Israelites feel in this story? It would be months before God would actually deliver them - during this time, while they were being oppressed even more harshly than before, and when the promises God made through Moses seemed unlikely to occur, what do you think the people thought about God and their faith? Do you think they doubted God during this time? When in your life have you doubted God because of your circumstances, but months or years later you were able to see the deliverance of God in ways you could not see at the time you were struggling? Notice in verses how even Moses doubts God. What can you learn from Moses story about those times in your life when you doubt God? Tuesday, September 22 The Plagues of Blood, Frogs, Gnats and Flies Exodus 7 and 8 Today we will read through two chapters, but they are a quick read. Before reading, look back over your sermon notes. How do we understand the fact that God hardened Pharaoh's heart? Read Exodus 7. Review your notes about the nature of the ten plagues from Sunday's sermon. If these were naturally occurring phenomenon intensified and timed by God, how would this help explain how the magicians were able to bring the same results? Read Exodus 8. How might each of these plagues naturally come forth from the prior plagues? Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 1

2 What is Pharaoh's pattern of behavior already apparent in Exodus 8? Do you know others who respond in this same way during times of disaster - turning to God and then turning away when the danger is passed? What do you learn about God from these passages? Wednesday, September 23 The Plagues of Livestock, Boils, Hail, Locusts and Darkness Today's chapters provide an uncanny parallel with events in America in recent weeks. Read Exodus 9 and 10. As noted Sunday, some scholars believe that the plague on livestock and the plague of boils were a result of anthrax. Imagine how terrified the people of Egypt were. Imagine how the people of Egypt feel as the events of these two chapters unfold - terrifying illness, destructive storms and plagues of insects that utterly destroyed the economy and food supplies of the Egyptians. God is breaking the Egyptian pride. As soon as Pharaoh repents God relieves the plagues. Yet as soon as God relents, Pharaoh's heart becomes hard again. The plague of darkness, as we learned Sunday, may have been the result of a "khamsin" a sandstorm. What do you suppose the Israelites are doing throughout these plagues (still making bricks)? Thursday, September 24 The Final Plague and the Passover Exodus 11 and 12 Today we come to the climax of the story of the Exodus. Read Exodus 11 and 12. Look over your notes from this section of the sermon last Sunday. What did you learn then? How does the death of the firstborn sons relate to the fate Pharaoh had sealed for a generation of Hebrew babies in Exodus 1:22? How many people might have died if Moses had led Israel in an armed revolution? What happened to the Egyptian children in this plague? How might this logic - limiting bloodshed and casualties by a mighty show of force - relate to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan during World War II? What do you learn about the Jewish Passover from your reading? How does the Passover relate to Holy Communion? See Matthew 26:17-30 which we will read again on Saturday. Friday, September 25 Parting of the Red Sea Exodus 13 and 14 Read Exodus 13: The Israelites have left Egypt in the middle of the night. God leads them in a dramatic way. Notice how they begin to make camp in verse 20. They are exhausted and ready to rest, but notice as you read Exodus 14 that God asks the people to pick up camp and to backtrack to make camp so that they are facing the sea. Why does God lead them to a dead end where they would have no way out when Pharaoh came to attack? Do you think God ever leads you to a place where you will have to utterly depend upon him? What is Moses command of the people in verses 13-14? What do we learn about God here? What do we learn for our own lives? Saturday, September 26 Moses in the New Testament Matthew 26:17-30 Each Saturday during this series we will look at a reference to Moses in the New Testament. Today we read about the last night Jesus spent with his disciples in which they shared the Passover Meal, remembering the event from Exodus 11 and 12 when Moses led the people out of Egypt after their houses were passed over during the plague in which the first born of Egypt were killed. Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 2

3 What similarities do you see between the Exodus story of the first Passover and Jesus blessing the Passover meal with his disciples? In the Passover meal the Jews celebrate they eat unleavened bread to remember that the Jewish people had to leave Egypt so quickly the bread they made that night before did not have time to rise. They eat lamb to remember the lambs that were killed so they could put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. What represents these two items in the Communion meal that we have? What do you think it means when Jesus declares that the bread and the wine are now his body and blood? Remember that blood is the symbol of life and healing in the day of Jesus, and even today. How do we receive new life in Jesus through Communion? Family Activity: Both Jesus and Moses celebrated the Passover. As a family, gather together some grape juice and unleavened bread, like crackers, as part of a meal. Read the story of Jesus at the Passover meal from Luke s gospel in Luke 22:14-20 out loud. Jesus said the drinking from the cup is part of a covenant, or a promise, between God and God s people that God will always love and forgive them through Jesus. Talk about what promises we make in our families. Celebrate those promises by praying for each other before you eat. Prayer: Thank you God for the promises you make that you will always love and forgive us as long as come to you with open hearts. Be with us today as remember the life you have given to us and the love and forgiveness you offer. Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 3

4 Theme: Moses the Reluctant Prophet The Plagues, the Passover and the Parting of the Red Sea Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 at First United Methodist Church, Durango Scripture: Exodus 14:1-4, Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses: 2 Order the Israelites to turn back and camp by Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the sea. Camp there along the shore, across from Baal-zephon. 3 Then Pharaoh will think, The Israelites are confused. They are trapped in the wilderness! 4 And once again I will harden Pharaoh s heart, and he will chase after you. I have planned this in order to display my glory through Pharaoh and his whole army. After this the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord! So the Israelites camped there as they were told. 10 As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them. They cried out to the Lord, 11 and they said to Moses, Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? 12 Didn t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness! 13 But Moses told the people, Don t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. 14 The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm. VIDEO Sermon Intro Moses Week 3 The Plagues, the Passover and the Parting of the Red Sea I want to encourage you to take out of your bulletin your Message Notes and your Meditation Moments. There is a space for you there to take notes on anything you want to remember and feel like the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. The Meditation Moments will take you through the complete story of Moses and we are encouraging all of you to read the story of this remarkable man. Every week you will have a chance to read through the life of Moses as it was written by him and the people who loved him. This week you ll have the chance to read the story of the plagues, Passover and the Exodus that we ll be talking about in today s sermon. Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 4

5 You might not be a Christian and so you might not think reading these stories would make any difference, but these stories are great and contain nuggets of wisdom for all of us. They have been handed down from generation to generation through Hebrew storytellers and I think you ll find profound insights in each of them. If you are a Christian then when we read the stories we are looking for at least three things. We will learn something about the human condition as the stories teach us about what it means to truly be human and imperfect. We also will learn something about the nature of God and the will of God and the heart and character of God. Finally, we look at what these stories mean for ourselves today. Those are the same three questions that we will try to answer today as we look at the story of the Exodus. Each week we also will have on Saturday a New Testament reading that refers to Moses so we can see how he connects to the life of Jesus. The Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years, beginning almost 2000 years before the time of Christ. At first they live there as welcomed guests, when Joseph was the Pharaoh s Prime Minister. That lasted for 200 years and there was a change in the power structures in Egyptian culture and the Hebrews were no longer welcome guests, but instead were feared by the new leadership, yet they were a necessity to the Egyptian economy. Over time, the Israelites became more numerous and multiplied and they were even more feared by Pharaoh. The Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves which made them the underclass of Egyptian society, becoming slave labor for Pharaoh s massive building projects. They made the bricks out of which many of the buildings were built that we can still see today in Egypt. Finally, the Egyptians were not only slaves but they were beaten and oppressed in horrific ways by the slave drivers. When the Israelites appear to be coming to numerous the Pharaoh ordered that all of the Israelite boy children be drowned in the Nile River. During this whole time the Israelites were calling out to the Lord, Please save us. If you are there, if there is a God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then please deliver us. God heard the cries of his people and sent Moses as the reluctant prophet and leader. We learned last week about Moses being called by God in the burning bush and how Moses complained about being chosen, but finally relented and went to confront Pharaoh. Moses was uniquely prepared for this task because he grew up in Pharaoh s palace, having been rescued out of the Nile River by the Pharaoh s daughter after Moses mother put them in a basket as a baby boy to Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 5

6 save him from being killed by the Egyptians. Today we come to the story where Pharaoh finally relented and agreed to let the Israelites go from their bondage and depart Egypt a free people. We call this the story of the Exodus. Exodus = departure or exit It is in the book of Exodus in your Bible, the second book of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament that we find the story and we remember the Israelites being set free. There are over 1 million Israelites at this point which makes this a story of massive proportions as they exit the country. There are three components to this story which includes the plagues, the Passover and the parting of the Red Sea. The Plagues Let s begin with the plagues. My guess is that most of us have heard about the plagues at one point or another in our lives. You probably could name one or two of the plagues but I thought we would have a little fun with this as we show you a video montage of the plagues from the 1998 movie, The Prince of Egypt. We are going to call this, name that plague. As you watch the scenes you will hear Moses singing to his brother Ramses who is the current Pharaoh and the Pharaoh returning his answer of not willing to let the Israelites people go. VIDEO The Plagues This was the great battle with Pharaoh and with Moses as God s representative of the Israelites. Pharaoh considered himself to be a deity of sorts and he was in a conflict with the God of Israel and the ending of this battle resulted in the freedom of 1 million Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Typically, if you are thoughtful person and you read about the plagues, then three questions come to mind. The first question, especially if you are not a believer, but even if you are you might have this question, is usually this one. Are these plagues a bit far-fetched? Did God really bring all these plagues to pass? Are they a little difficult to believe? They strain the limits of credulity for those who are thinking and a bit skeptical at heart. Did this really happen? The second question we ask has to do is something that we find in the Scripture passage before us today where it says on several occasions that, God Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 6

7 hardened Pharaoh s heart. If God is hardening Pharaoh s heart and all of these plagues happen because Pharaoh refuses to repent and let God s people go, that doesn t seem like a very good deal for Pharaoh or the Egyptians. It makes God seem rather mean and cruel. What does it mean that God hardened Pharaoh s heart? Doesn t that violate the principle of free will? That leads to the last question which typically comes from the last plague, the death of the firstborn of Egypt. We ask this question as we see innocent children dying. How could God be so harsh? How could God bring such terrible tragedies the land, especially too many of the common Egyptians who seemed to be innocent? These are the kinds of questions that we come to when we study the plagues and I will share with you some thoughts about how I wrestle with these questions myself before you move on to the story of the Passover. Let s start with the first question. Are these plagues a bit far-fetched? Actually, they are not far-fetched at all. Each of the plagues was a naturally occurring event which took place in the land of Egypt, some of them still to this day. They happened with some regularity and what was miraculous was not that they happened but was their intensity and their timing. The Egyptians had seen every one of these plagues at some point in their history. GRAPHIC 1 Water of Nile into blood Some of us remember the scene from the 1956 version of the life of Moses, The 10 Commandments, featuring Charlton Heston. This was the first plague, as the waters of the Nile River turned into blood. In all likelihood, it was not turning the water into blood but into what looked like blood. That was something the Egyptians were used to, which is why it may not have had much of an effect on Pharaoh. Every so many years, whenever there were heavy rains on the northern plateau in Africa water would pull away the red clay into Nile River with that look like blood. Hey, have we experience something like that here in Durango in the last month or so? It didn t look so much like blood as it did orange goo, but we know Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 7

8 what it s like to have a river turn colors, don t we? This same thing happened in the Nile River regularly until the river was cleansed after the rains ceased. Sometimes the Nile River also produced in algae which would starve the water of oxygen and turn the river reddish in color. When the water was starved of oxygen, the fish would die, which is what we find happening in the very first plague. The water turned red, it became undrinkable, it didn t support life and the fish would begin to die. We might actually anticipate the next plague because one of the creatures that lives in the water which could get out of the water is what? GRAPHIC 2 The Plague of the Frogs Did you know that there was a Lego set for the 7 Plagues? Now I have heard of everything, but this phenomenon does make sense. When there is no oxygen in the water and the fish are dying because the water goes bad than the frogs begin to leap out of the river. This happens at times in Egypt to this day, as frogs leave the Nile River because the water has gone bad. During this plague a huge number of frogs come up on land and make their way inland. Eventually the frogs would die when they didn t have water, so what do you do when the frogs die? You pile up the millions upon millions of frogs and wait for them to decay. During this time they didn t understand about germs and bacteria and so they had no problem piling up dead things in one spot so it s not surprising the very next plague was the plague of gnats or mosquitoes. The mosquitoes give way to larva that feed off of the decay and then we get flies. GRAPHIC 3 The Plague of Flies Yes, they even had that one in the Lego set! These are actually the big flies which bite and they swarm around the land. There is a stench around the land as more bacteria grow which then would affect the livestock. Many scholars have said for decades that the bacteria which grew and caused the plague of disease was anthrax which infected the livestock and the cattle and caused mass extermination. When the livestock died during that plague of disease they burned them in the very next plague was the plague of boils. The ashes from those piles of livestock which were burned were then cast into the atmosphere and the plague of boils sounds an awful lot like what anthrax causes when it spreads through human population. The plague of hail is also a natural phenomenon that we have experienced in the United States and indeed all over the world. The plague of the locusts Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 8

9 comes and even in our lifetime this has happened in Egypt where locusts come and devour the crops. After the crops have been devoured there is dryness and a dust which kicks up dirt and brings the plague of darkness. Finally, after all of these plagues, perhaps there was something airborne which affected the youngest and the most vulnerable. All of these plagues were natural occurrences but what was unnatural was their intensity and their timing. Some of the timing makes sense with several of them but to have 10 of them happen in one year it makes it harder to argue that it s all coincidence and natural occurrences. We read in the story is that God is bringing all of these things to bear upon Egypt to bring pressure upon the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free. That brings us to the next question which is the idea of God hardening Pharaoh s heart. How do we make sense of that? Would God really do something like this to bring such harsh punishment upon the people? What does it mean that God hardened Pharaoh s heart? Many people have said to me that they find it very difficult to believe in the Old Testament God. Most people are fine with the New Testament God who comes in the person of Jesus and sacrifices himself and talks about loving your neighbor and loving God. The God of the Old Testament with boils and locusts in the deaths of firstborn children is hard for many of us to swallow. What I want to remind us is that we have to read the Old Testament stories within their context. For more than 100 years God has watched as Pharaoh after Pharaoh demanded that Hebrew boys be drowned in the Nile River. God has watched as the oldest and the most vulnerable were killed off so that Egypt wouldn t have to see them because they were no longer useful. How would we feel as a nation in the United States if a foreign power ruled over us and chose to kill every other one of your children? What would we want to have happen to those rulers? It s really pretty amazing that God did not strike Egypt from the face of the earth given what was happening. When you look at the Israelites who have been beaten and crushed and killed for more than 100 years you don t look at the story in the same way. We also must recognize that most rulers in the ancient near East during this time had gods that called on them to crush people and kill entire civilizations. If your God couldn t match the other gods and it was really worth nothing to anyone. When you look at it through that lens then what you begin to see is the Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 9

10 mercy of God. We might even wonder why God didn t do something harsher and sooner than he did when he rose up Moses to lead the Israelites. Instead what we find is God sending Moses to Pharaoh and warning him that Yahweh, the Lord God, his commanding that you let the slaves go because they are his people. He gives them a verbal warning but the Pharaoh just laughs and asks, Who is this Yahweh that I should listen to him. I am God. Leave my presence. In fact, Pharaoh then makes them work harder and the Israelites suffer even more after Moses approaches them the first time. Moses then brings his brother Aaron and God is going to give a little demonstration of power by taking the staff and turning it into a snake which slithered around. In this particular case it says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart and just scoffed at what he called sorcery. He once again said he would not let the Israelites go. Moses then goes to Pharaoh and says, Look brother, Yahweh is not messing around. You better listen to him and let his people go or else he will turn the river into blood. Pharaoh simply laughs and says, I have seen that before when the heavy rains come. It s really no big deal and it will wash away within a few days. I m not to worry about it. God then says to Moses not to bother going back to Pharaoh but simply to raise his staff in the air. Pharaoh is not bothered by mosquitoes because he has protection in his palace. Finally, after the frogs and the flies, God has Pharaoh s attention. He calls Moses and says, I ll make you a deal. You pray first and get the flies to go away and then I will let you people go. So Moses prays and the frogs disappear but Pharaoh then forgets his religion because the crisis has passed. He promises Moses again and so Moses prays and the flies disappear but Pharaoh again refused to fulfill his end of the bargain and will not let the Israelites go. He has a change of heart and it reminds us of what we do sometimes when we have a bit of Pharaoh inside of us. We are faced with a crisis we get on our knees and we suddenly have a deep religious experience. We cry out to God and make a bargain that we won t cuss anymore or drink or smoke or will go to church every once in a while if God will just come through for us this one time. The crisis passes and God has come through and then suddenly we forget all those promises. Which of us has not made those kinds of promises in crisis? It is exactly what Pharaoh does. Five times Pharaoh was given a chance to repent and let the Israelites go and five times he goes back on his word. I had a parent come to me recently and Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 10

11 talk to me about their son who acts a lot like Pharaoh. Over and over and over again God has given him a chance. Every once in a while he asked like he is going to follow the right way and then he turns back again to destructive patterns. He received God s mercy once more and then he turned around and goes the other direction again. If you look at this story with this perspective than what you see is the mercy of God and not the wrath of God. Finally, God says, Enough is enough. I m not playing with you anymore. I m done with you telling me one thing and then doing something else. From that time forward the Scriptures says that God hardened Pharaoh s heart until the full justice of God was on display and there was no turning back from this point. That brings us to the final plague which is the death of the firstborn children. This is the plague that finally would bring Pharaoh and the Egyptians to a place of repentance and genuine humility. GRAPHIC 4 The Passover This plague took place on the night of the Passover so let s take a closer look at this part of the story. The Passover is a pivotal celebration in the life of Jewish people today. It remembers the events that took place the night the Israelites were set free from slavery out of Egypt. This was the central, saving act of God in the Old Testament. This is the foundation upon which all of Judaism is built. Every year our Jewish friends have the feast of the Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread which happens around the time that we celebrate Easter. There are amazing parallels between the Passover feast and what we celebrate as Christians at Easter and I want you to listen for those parallels in the story. God tells Moses that since Pharaoh won t listen there is no other way to free his people but to send the Angel of death through the land which will take the life of every firstborn child in the land of Egypt. He then tells Moses, I want to save my people so you are to take a lamb which is one year old and perfect, without defect or blemish. You are to slaughter that lamb and take the blood of the lamb and place it in a basin. Take a branch of hyssop and dip it in the basin of blood and then wipe the blood on the door posts of each Israelite family. This night, when the angel of death comes by and sees the blood of the lamb on your door posts, he will Passover your home and protects those inside. After this night, Pharaoh will relent and set you free from slavery. Do you remember what John the Baptist called Jesus when he saw him from the distance for the first time? Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 11

12 Behold the Lamb of God take away the sins of the world. Do you remember when Jesus chose to celebrate the Last Supper? It is no coincidence that the timing of the death of Jesus happened during the feast of Passover. Jesus has his disciples prepare the Passover feast ahead of time and it is while they are having that feast that Jesus takes the unleavened bread and blesses it and breaks it. Remember the Israelites used unleavened bread as they were forced to leave Egypt so quickly their bread was unable to rise and they had yet to put the yeast in with the dough. Jesus took the bread and reminded them that they ate that bread because of God s saving act 1300 years ago but he told them that God was about to do something else in the world. As Jesus breaks the bread he says these words. This is my body, broken for you. He then takes the cup of wine and says these words. This is my blood, poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. The next day Jesus is crucified on the cross, the perfect Lamb of God, whose blood takes away the broken places between us and God and us and each other. God reconciles the world as Jesus pays the price for our brokenness and reconnects and saves God and God s people. Jesus re-creates fellowship and draws humanity to himself. He not only saves the Jewish people but the world through the death of Jesus on the cross. Maybe you remember that when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he said, I thirst. Those standing by took a hyssop branch in vinegar and placed it to the lips of the Lamb of God. All of these symbols and images were meant to recount what happened at the first Passover and help us see that God was doing a new thing. We celebrate the Passover just as those who followed Moses out of slavery 2300 years ago but we celebrated the way Jesus invites us to do so, when we have Holy Communion every month. Sometimes we ask why we only celebrate Communion once a month in our church. Many traditions celebrate communion every week and in the early church they celebrated communion daily. Some of you have asked why we don t celebrate communion more often and we are actually talking about a way to offer it weekly here the church, but it is also is important to remember that Holy Communion is rooted in the Passover feast which was only celebrated once a year in the Jewish tradition because that way it was clearly marked as a special Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 12

13 occasion. So we have the extremes of only celebrating it once a year in the Hebrew tradition to then the early church celebrating it daily to some churches celebrating it weekly to here in our church celebrating it monthly, which is what many United Methodist churches do. Jesus said, Do this in remembrance of me. Moses said, Do this in remembrance of the saving act of God. Some of you ask about children taking Holy Communion and what age a child should be before they take their first Communion. In the Roman Catholic tradition there is first Communion in second grade and some of you have asked why we don t do that here in our church. One of the reasons that we invite children of all ages to come to the table is because the Passover Seder was not reserved for people second grade and older but was celebrated by all ages. In fact, the Passover Seder was a teaching opportunity for small children to learn the story so that when small children sat down at the table to eat this meal together the adults would say, When you eat this lamb I want you to remember this story, and they would tell them the story of the Exodus and that first Passover. They would eat food which reminded them of both the bitterness of slavery and the deliverance of God. This is what we ask you parents to do with your small children as you bring them forward for Communion. Hopefully we are teaching them before they come forward or at least after we eat, what the bread and the cup stand for and that this is how God saves us. We eat this meal and we remember Jesus and his sacrifice. After that first Passover, after the angel of death had come through Egypt and there was great wailing and morning for the loss of their firstborn children, Pharaoh finally summoned Moses and commanded him to take away the Israelites for good. In the middle of the night those 1 million Israelites began to march out of the land of Egypt towards the wilderness and the Promised Land. Can you imagine this, picking up all of their earthly belongings with wagons and livestock and children in tow, heading out of Egypt which had been their home for several generations towards an uncertain future? It was dark, but a pillar of fire would lead them along the way, the glory of God showing them their future. A pillar of smoke would lead them during the day and by three or four in the afternoon the next day they were exhausted. They set up camp and this takes us to the final part of today s story. The parting of the Red Sea Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 13

14 They put up their tents and started campfires and began to prepare the evening meal. God then comes to Moses and says, Tell the people to pack up because they can t stay here and spend the night. Moses replies, What you mean they can t stay here? They have already set up camp. Do you want me to make them take all of this stuff down and start over again and begin walking? What should I tell them? Why do we need to keep going? It s been a long night and we are tired! Moses moves into wining mode again! God then tells Moses to tell the Israelites to break camp and go back the way they came! Moses complained bitterly that he cannot ask them to go back because they just left Egypt. This is really a strange story at this point. It becomes almost as surreal as the Bronco game that many of you watched on Thursday night which left the Denver Broncos fans happy and the Kansas City Chiefs fans mourning. Moses goes back to the people and tells them, We need to break camp and head back the way we came for little while, but don t grumble against God because you have seen God s mighty acts of deliverance. Because they had seen God deliver them they began to march their way back the way they came, backtracking towards Egypt. God led them to a large lake which was called Timsah. In our Scriptures this body of water is probably mistranslated as the Red Sea. The actual Hebrew words are... GRAPHIC 5 Yam Suph = Sea of Reeds Exodus Journey Map Reeds do not grow in the Red Sea which is salt water. Reeds only grow in fresh water and most scholars agree that when the Israelites made their way to camp it was near the Lake Timsah. To the north of them are the fortresses of Pharaoh. To the south of them is the desert in which they would die for lack of water if they were to go there immediately. Behind them is Egypt and it is here they begin to set up camp while the sun is setting beautifully in the West. They then see dust coming up from the ground as they look to the sunset. What is it? Is it a dust storm? No, it is Pharaoh and his charioteers which are coming out to retrieve the Israelite slaves because once more Pharaoh has changed his mind. He is not going to let the people go and he will actually kill them in this place rather than let them go. The people come to Moses and they cry out in fear, Why did God lead us Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 14

15 to this place? Were there not enough graves in Egypt that he would lead us to this place to die? Moses, there is water behind us and we cannot go around this lake tonight. There are reinforced fortresses to the North and there is a desert wasteland to the south. They will kill us in this place. Moses, what are we going to do? Moses says to the people, I know the situation looks grim, but God led us to this place and God must have a plan. God will protect us but we need only to be still and watch for God to work. By the time Pharaoh s army arrived at Lake Timsah it was dark. The pillar of fire they had been following moved around behind them, forming a wall between the Israelites and Pharaoh s army. Then God caused the strong easterly wind to blow which blew right down the center of the lake. The waves began to move violently in the middle of the lake as the wind peeled back the waters. All through the night that easterly wind blew and parted the waters, creating a swath in the middle of the lake. Half the water moved to one side and half the water moved to the other and the strong wind dried out the mud at the bottom to make a path for the Israelites to cross. As the sun came up the next morning, the Israelites looked, and to their surprise they were able to walk through that water on dry land. The column of fire protected them from behind as they walked through the path to reach the other side. They watched as the column of fire moved away and the armies of Pharaoh began to walk through the same pathway towards them. As the armies walked through the lake the waters began to crash back down in upon them and the horses and the riders and the armies of Pharaoh fell into the sea and were never heard from again. We can explain the 10 plagues as natural phenomenon all we want but we cannot explain this in any way except for the supernatural power of God which worked to bring his people out of slavery and into freedom. It begs the question. Why did God do this? Why did God bring them to a place back the way they came where they would be in danger like this? Why would God put them in a place where there was no way out with water on one side and Pharaoh s Army on the other? I think that God led them to this place so that it would be clear that everything that happened at this point was not simply natural occurrences, or of their own wisdom or of some great feet of Moses even. We are meant to see that what happened in the saving act could be explained in no other way but the power of God, so that we could see the hand of God at work and the people of Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 15

16 Israel would never forget it. That brings us to this final question. What s the message in the story for us today? There is a very profound message for each one of us, that when we give our lives to Christ, when we trust God with our lives, we are saying, Lord, I give you my will. I will do whatever you want and go wherever you want me to go. We allow ourselves to be led by God and there are times that God will lead us so that our back is against the Red Sea and Pharaoh s army is marching towards us. There will be places in life where there seems to be no way out and we begin asking, God, where are you now? Why did you lead me to this place of all places? What were you thinking? We have doubts and questions and we become afraid. From the time that Moses went to the Israelites and returned to them and confronted Pharaoh until the time they were finally set free was 11 months. Things got worse before they got better. Sometimes, when we are following God, things get worse before they get better. I was visiting recently with someone from our church who works in the oil and gas industry and they were telling me how they came to Durango because of a job and in the process they found our church and it was the first church they ever have been a part of. They found God here and their life had been changed because of relationship with the living God they never had before. Then their company downsized and they lost their job as that industry has had a downturn over the past couple of years. You begin to wonder if you missed something or if God was really working at all, but more likely the answer is that God has a plan and a dream that we just can t see. There are times where God places us in a situation and we are up against a wall and God longs for us to hear his voice saying what he said through Moses to the Israelites, Just be patient. We watch and continue to trust and we will begin to see the mighty hand of God delivering us. Sometimes it s in those moments when we feel most hopeless that we can begin to trust and watch and wait that God does his best work in our lives. Years later we look back and we can say, Was that not amazing? When I least trusted and I was most afraid God did this amazing thing and deliver me and I can see it now. I believe that is the significance of the story of the parting of the Red Sea for us today. My hope is that we can begin to look at things like the 10 Plagues and see them as a sign of God s mercy and not God s wrath. God is a God of Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 16

17 justice and also God of mercy. For us who are Christians, the Passover points towards something greater that would happen when Jesus became the Lamb of God who takes away our brokenness and delivers us from the slavery of fear and death into life that is abundant and eternal. We only need to accept his gift of sacrifice and grace which is free to receive that life. Finally, whatever our circumstances, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don t need to fear evil, for God is with us. God will make a way when there seems to be no way, so hold on and keep the faith and trust that God will deliver. Let s pray Prayer Some of us are sitting here today and it may have been a long time since we got serious about our relationship with God. We been coming to church and we have been sort of a Christian, or maybe this is our first time in church in years. God is calling us and inviting us today to be one of his followers, to surrender our lives and our will to him, to say, Jesus Christ, I need you and what you did for me. I want to follow you and be one of your disciples. I want to know that you re leading me wherever I go. All we need to do is say that and make that our prayer today. Many of us have been like Pharaoh and we have had religion when it s convenient or when we are in a crisis, and then we forgot about what God has done for us and how God delivered us. God is saying today, Please come back. Please come back and continue to follow. Finally, some of us today are in a place which seems dark with little hope. Please remember this, that God can make a way. Let s all pray together and invite God to help us in our lives no matter where we find ourselves today Oh God, we thank you for your mercy and your grace, that you are patient with us when we have fallen and turned away from you, that you were patient with even Pharaoh and tried and tried to move him away from pride and towards repentance and humility. Help us O Lord to be faithful to you, to follow you, to long to know you and to do your will. For those of us who are in a place of struggle, where it seems like it s dark and there is no way out, may we hear your word of hope today so we might trust you and wait patiently for your deliverance. Be faithful to them oh God and make a way. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 19-20, 2015 Page 17