The Great Escape

  

This message was preached by Andrew DCruz via zoom at Word Of Grace Church on November 29th 2020. for the audio please click here. 

Exodus 12:31, 13 & 14 The Exodus and Crossing of the Read Sea

 We will be looking at a very interesting part of the journey of the Israelites entering the Promised Land.

Significant event before the Exodus: The Passover.

Exodus 12 is a dark and grim time in Egypt.

 “The Exodus” starts at verse 31 of chapter 12 where Moses and Aaron were summoned to Pharaoh’s palace where Pharaoh says “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go worship the Lord as you have requested… And also bless me.”

 Pharoh. was not the only one who wanted the Israelites to leave. The Egyptians urged the Israelites to leave as well, saying “For otherwise, we will all die!” (v33)

 

The Israelites, upon leaving, took articles of gold and silver from the Egyptians because “The Lord had made the Egyptians favourably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for….  (v35-36)

Result: Egypt was plundered!

 

How long were the Israelites in Egypt for? 430 years! (v40)

 

1. 430 years in slavery is a long time. This means that at least 2 if not 3 generations were born in slavery. Those born in slavery did not know freedom. They did not know anything but slavery!
   Parallel: We were all born in the slavery of sin. It didn't matter that we were “just born”
2. The mentality of the Israelites coming out of Egy. was one of dumbstruck/awestruck/is this a dream? Experiencing freedom for the first time in their lives.
3. Later on we see more of the slave mentality. Infant thinking. Unable to have the faith for yet another miracle.

 

Exodus 13:

Consecration of the Firstborn:

Similar to tithing. The first male of every offspring was to be set apart as it belongs to the Lord (13:2)

 

Redeem every firstborn among your sons: We were bought with a price. The Egyptians lost their firstborns and Israel’s first borns were redeemed by blood through the sacrifice of the firstborn of every animal for the firstborn for each son (13:15)

Parallel: Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, was sacrificed not just for the redemption of the firstborns, but for the second and third, born, the male and female.

 

Crossing the Sea

God knew the mentality of the Israelites. He knew that they were not ready for war. The renewal of their mind was not complete. The trust that Jesus has your back, that he has called you for a purpose, that you were redeemed for a reason, was not fully clear to them yet.

 

“God did not lead the people on the road through the Philistine country even though it  shorter, For God said, “if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egy.” (13:17)

 

Amazing presence of God:

“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so they could travel by day or night.

Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” (13:21-22)

Parallel - In the OT there was no Holy Spirit. After the ascension of Jesus to heaven, he gave us the HS which lives in us day, and night.

 

The Israelites saw with their own eyes a physical manifestation of God! The God they worshipped was not an “out of context, theory only” God. They saw the pillars of cloud and fire.

 

Exodus 14:

 

God’s great plan: Then the Lord said to Moses “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this. (14:2-4)

 

Egypt was a superpower during that time. They had the military equipment, the fast chariots and horses, steel weapons and were a mighty force. The Israelites up until this point were slaves. They did not know how to fight. They did not have any sophisticated weaponry.

 

As soon as the Israelites saw the Egyptians their first response to the crisis was to be terrified. The next response and probably the worse of the two, was to blame Moses, saying “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (14:11-12)

 

Moses had the vision and faith to trust in the Lord, and said: “The Lord will fight for you”.

There are multiple instances in the Bible where the Lord chooses to use dire situations for his glory, so we may exalt him and praise him. Those situations seem impossible for us to overcome, but by the grace of God, we would not be able to do it.

 

The Israelites needed to see victory, but a victory that was permanent. A victory which showed them that the Lord their God was with them. For the battles yet to come were far greater. The battle of the mind in the desert, the battle of taking hold of the promise of God and invading Cannan. The battle of Jerico.

 

15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. (14:-15-16)

 

The Lord has a sense of humour. It was “obvious” to him that they would have to go through the red sea.

Explain my life situation: Press 7 instead of 0 like as if it's obvious.

 

The purpose of the red sea:

1. Show the Israelites that the Lord is the deliverer
2. Show the Egyptians that the Lord is the only true God.
3. Gain glory through the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.

 

Events that happened:

1. Angel of the Lord separated the Israelites from the Egyptians. ‘Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.’
2. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.
3. The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.
4. During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.
5. The recognition: And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”
6. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.”
7. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
8. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

   Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

The Deliverer

 This message was preached by Colin DCruz via zoom at Word Of Grace Church on November 22nd 2020. for the audio please click here. For the worship please click here.

 As Christians, when we look at the cross, we know that Jesus dies on the cross for us and that we are saved through His sacrifice. We look back at the cross and call Jesus as our Savior.

In Old Testament, the Jews also called God as Savior.

Psalm 18:46 - The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!

On what basis, were the people in the Old Testament calling God as their Savior? Today, we are going to look at the greatest event, a mega event. God delivered His people from Egypt. Even today, people look back at this event.

If we look at Exodus chapter 2, we see that the Israelites went to Egypt during the time of famine. The plan was that a family would go to Egypt and eventually they would multiply into a great nation.

Moses was born during the time of slavery.

In Old Testament, the time period is much longer. Can you imagine the number of years from verse 1 to 11?

Exo 2:1 - Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son.

Exo 2:11 - One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

 The duration between these 2 verses was 40 years. Do you know how? Let’s look at Acts chapter 7.

Acts 7:23 - “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites

In the same chapter i.e., Exodus 2, let’s look at verses 24 and

Exo 2:24 -  He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 

After killing the Egyptian, Moses fled to Midian.

Exo 2:29 -  When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

Moses who left Egypt returns to Egypt after another 40+ years.

Exo 7:7 -  Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

From all these verses, we can say that the Israelites were under slavery for a very long time.

Exo 2:23-25 - 23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

As the Israelites suffered under slavery for a very long time, they cried out to God and God heard them. He remembered the promise He made to Abraham. He has a deep concern for His people.

From Exo 3:1 to Exo 3:14, we see that while Moses was tending to his father in law’s sheep, he met with God. There God tells Moses that He heard the cries of His people and that He is going to deliver His people from slavery. Not just that but God also says that He is going to send Moses to deliver His people. After Moses wrestles with God for a while, finally, He agrees to go to Egypt to deliver the Israelites.

1.    God hears the groaning of His people

 

We must understand that God has His own time for everything. Our role is to continue to be faithful in seeking Him and trusting in Him

In verses 7 and 8, we see that God had a plan for His people.

 

Exo 3:7-8 - 7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

 

In verses 19 to 22, we see that God knew that the King of Egypt will not let His people go unless a mighty hand compels him to do so. But when the time comes for the Israelites to leave Egypt, God is not going to let them leave empty-handed. They are going to be wealthy.

 

Exo 3:19 – 22 - 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. 21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbour and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”

 

In the verses Exo 4:1 to Exo 4:7, we see that God gives Moses signs so that the Israelites could believe him.

God tells Moses to throw the staff on the ground and then it turns into a snake. When Moses took hold of the snake it turned into a staff.

God tells Moses to put his hand inside his cloak. When he does, his hand gets leprosy. Again when he put his hand inside the cloak, the leprosy goes away.

 

God also tells Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness.

 

Exo 4:27 -  27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

 

In Exo 5:1 to Exo 5:8, we see that Moses and Aaron meet Pharaoh and tell him to let God’s people go. But Pharaoh says no to them and also passes an order that the Israelites will not be provided straw in order to make the bricks and expects them to meet the same target every day.

In present days, we see that most of the companies and offices make employees work more and more to meet unrealistic targets.

 

In Exo 7:10 to Exo 7:12, we see that Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh in order to ask him to let God’s people go. When he doesn’t agree, Aaron throws the staff on the ground which turns into a snake. Pharaoh’s magicians do the same too and their staffs turn into snakes. But Aaron’s staff swallows all the other snakes.

Pharaoh still doesn’t agree to  let God’s people go.

 

2.    God sends 10 plagues

 Think about this – Did God really need 10 plagues to set His people free? Absolutely not. There’s a greater purpose.

·       God’s name to be glorified

·       God delivers His people

·       God judges the gods of Egypt

God sends 3 cycles of plagues –

-        The first cycle affects both Egyptians and Israelites

-        The second cycle affects only the Egyptians

-        The third is the Final plague

The first plague – The Plague of blood

All the water in entire Egypt turns into blood.

Exo 7:20-21 - 20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

Through this plague, God destroyed the economy and source of livelihood of Egypt. 7 days passed away and when Moses asked Pharaoh once again to let God’s people go, he said no.

The Second Plague – The Plague of Frogs

Did you ever think “Why frogs?”

This is because the Egyptians worshipped frog goddess called Hekkath.

Exo 8:6 - 6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.

Pharaoh asks Moses to take this plague away and Moses pleads with God. God agrees and all the frogs get killed. But Pharaoh once again disagrees to let God’s people go.

The Third Plague – The Plague of Gnats

The Fourth Plague – The Plague of Flies

The Fifth Plague – The Plague on Livestock

The Sixth Plague – The Plague of Boils

The Seventh Plague – The Plague of Hail

The Eighth Plague – The Plague of Locusts

The Ninth Plague – The Plague of Darkness

In all the 9 plagues, Pharaoh agreed to free God’s people but immediately change his mind and decide not to let them go.

The Final Plague – The Plague on the Firstborn

Exo 11:4-8 - 4 So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. 7 But among the Israelites, not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.

The Lord said to Moses that He’d kill every firstborn in Egypt.

In Exo 12:3-32, we see that God commands His people, each family to sacrifice a lamb, and put the blood of that lamb on their doorposts. The blood on the posts will be a sign and God would pass over those houses without killing the firstborn.

3.    God keeps His promise

 

Exo 12:31-32 - 31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”

 

Finally, Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron to leave the country along with everything they had.

 

Exo 12:35-36 -: 35 The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36 The Lord had made the Egyptians favourably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

 Not only did the people of Israel get delivered but they left Egypt with wealth just as God promised to them.

 God has kept His promise given to Abraham, his son Isaac and his son Jacob.

Lessons we have learnt:-

-        Israelites were slaves.

All mankind was born as slaves to sin.

-        The lamb that was slain so that death could pass

Jesus sacrificed His life so that we could live

Does the blood of Jesus cover you?

If yes, you will not be judged. If no, you will be judged.

Have you received Jesus as your personal savior? If yes, you are saved.  If not, this is the time to put your faith in Jesus.

Besides being saved, it is also an important walk of faith and obedience so that we can inherit the promises of God.

    Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.