Exodus chapter 14 the Bible reads in verse 1 the Lord spake unto Moses saying
speak unto the children of Israel that they turn and in camp before Pahiroth
between Migdah and the sea over against Baal Ziphon before it shall ye
encamped by the sea for Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel
they are entangled in the land the wilderness hath shut them in and I
will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them so at the
beginning of the chapter here God is actually instructing Moses to walk into a
trap with the children of Israel he's basically telling him camp in this
certain place where you're gonna be stuck where you're gonna have the
water behind you and the wilderness is gonna shut you in because if you put
yourself in that position then Pharaoh's gonna think to himself oh we
got him now you know they're trapped and then I'm gonna harden Pharaoh's heart
and he's gonna go after you guys and so one of the things we can learn from
this is that you know God sometimes wants us to be in situations where
we're under attack or God wants us to be in situations where things are
difficult or maybe even they look hopeless because he wants to be
glorified he wants to do something great and so when we find ourselves in
a bad situation or we find our back against the wall so to speak
sometimes that's exactly where God wants us it doesn't mean that we're
out of God's will or that we've made a mistake necessarily a lot of times God
puts us in those kind of positions sort of like the guy in John chapter 9
where the disciples asked Jesus why was this man born blind did he sin or
did his parents sin and he said well no this guy was born blind for the
glory of God he was born blind just so that I could heal him of being
blind so here God's putting them in a position that's hopeless so that he
can do a miracle and so that he can wipe out the Egyptians so he said in
verse four I'll harden Pharaoh's heart and he shall follow after them and I
will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may
know that I'm the Lord and they did so and it was told the king of Egypt
that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned
against the people and who turned their heart against the people God
did right God hardened his heart and so God is stirring them up to do this
and they said why have we done this that we've let Israel go from serving
us and he made ready his chariot and took his people with them and he took
600 chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt and captains over
every one of them and the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of
Egypt and he pursued after the children of Israel and the children of
Israel went out with an high hand but the Egyptians pursued after them all
the horses and chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his army and
overtook them and camping by the sea beside Pihai Roth before Baal Zephon and
when Pharaoh drew nigh the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and
behold the Egyptians marched after them they were sore afraid and the
children of Israel cried out into the Lord and they said unto Moses
because there were no graves in Egypt has thou taken us away to die in the
wilderness wherefore has thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of
Egypt is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt saying let us alone
that we may serve the Egyptians for it'd be better for us to serve the
Egyptians though that we should die in the wilderness and so we got to
remember when we're reading this that it's a picture of the Christian life
you know first Corinthians chapter 10 tells us that when they cross the Red
Sea it's a picture of baptism they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea and at the rock that followed them was Christ and on and on
so this is all symbolic the Passover is a picture of salvation the blood of
the Lamb is applied and they're spared death and the Red Sea leaving
Egypt is a picture of you know going out from among them and being separate
leaving the world and the worldly way of life and going into the
promised land which represents the victorious Christian life serving God
being in the will of God okay so what we see here is that the children of
Israel get to a point where they're in adversity and they're starting to want
to go back to Egypt or wish that they had never left now we see this
again and again in the book of numbers and onward where they they start to
think hey I think things were better back when we were in Egypt now of
course when they're in Egypt their lives were made bitter with cruel
bondage their life was horrible and they of course they don't want to go
back there but this is how they feel in the moment and so the way we
would apply this to ourselves is that sometimes when we're living the
Christian life when we're going through a bad time we might be tempted
to think to ourselves that the worldly days were better you know why
did I even get in church anyway if this is how things are gonna end up
you know why am I even serving God I thought if I live for God I'm
supposed to be blessed and it and you know it's supposed to be better and then
people could have this wicked thought but let me tell you something first of
all is that when if you ever long to go back to the old sinful life I
guarantee you if you go back it won't be the same as it was when you left
it okay even if it were the same it it was bad then and it's gonna be bad
again okay because you know the children of Israel are totally wrong
about it being better in Egypt Egypt was terrible okay but they they're kind of
idealizing it in their mind a little bit like oh you know maybe it wasn't so
bad being back there when reality was horrible it was torture okay so we
need to always remember that the worldly life is not what it's cracked
up to be the sinful life is not what it's cracked up to be don't ever be
tempted to go back to that okay also why are they even tempted to go back
to that because they're they're saying oh we're gonna get destroyed we're
gonna get wiped out yeah but have you died yet no you're not dead so they
they're talking about what's going to happen and you know what a lot of our
biggest complaints in the Christian life aren't even things that happen it's
just things that we think are gonna happen or we say might happen or
something it's all these hypotheticals of well this is
probably gonna end up happening it's like when David got discouraged what
did he say well I'm probably gonna perish by the hand of Saul someday
it's not gonna perish by the hand of Saul he's already been anointed king of
Israel the Holy Spirit's upon him God's gonna get him all the way to the
finish line but what did he say well you know what eventually Saul's
gonna get me and then that's when he ends up defecting over to the
Philistines getting out of the will of God so we don't want to have this
attitude that says life in Egypt is better no it's better to die for
Christ than to go back to that way of life you'd be better off dying in
the Christian life be better off just completely being wiped out as a
Christian then the then the best day of worldliness okay then the pleasures
of sin for a season it's all vanity and vexation of spirit back there in
the world okay and second of all quit complaining about stuff that hasn't
even happened yet all right when it happens then we'll talk but all this
hypothetical doom and gloom there have been so many things that I've worried
and stressed about stressed out about and then they didn't even happen what
a waste of your nerves you know to worry about that stuff and it doesn't
even end up happening so they're saying you know man I wish you would
just left us in Egypt why just let us serve the Egyptians it's better than
dying in the world no actually you're better off dying in the wilderness
amen I'd rather die on the battlefield than to be serving the
devil for the rest of my life so it says in verse 13 and Moses said unto
the people fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which
he will show to you today for the Egyptians whom you've seen today you
shall see them again no more forever the Lord shall fight for you and ye
shall shut up right he's saying you shall the Lord shall fight for you and
you shall hold your peace and the Lord said unto Moses wherefore cryest
thou unto me speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward but but
lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it
and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of sea now
don't miss this profound truth okay notice the order go forward and then
you're gonna put out your rod and you're gonna part the Red Sea right
they're told to move forward before the sea is parted which shows that
they're not all the way up at the brink of the sea they're not all the
way to the edge they're not all the way with their back against the wall
they're not all the way up to the sea and this is the way the Christian life
is we have to keep going forward and as long as we can take one more step
forward or three more steps forward we just need to take those steps and not
try to look too far in advance okay so here's the thing yeah the Red Sea
is in front of you it looks like an insurmountable obstacle but the
command is go forward anyway keep going forward go until you can't go
anymore and they have not yet done that they've stopped and he says tell them to
go forward and then you're gonna do this miracle you're gonna part the Red
Sea and they're gonna go across on dry land so Bible says that the Word
of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path and so God's
Word does not illuminate the entire journey before us we don't know
what's gonna happen six months from now we don't know what's gonna happen
a year from now two years from now five years now but God always shows us the
next step we know what we're supposed to do today we know what we're supposed
to do tomorrow and each day that comes along we know what to do and God keeps
revealing the path to us as we go but he's not gonna just show us the
whole thing and so a lot of times people will quit because again
hypotheticals oh three months from now this is gonna happen six months
from now or I'm always gonna be in this situation I'm gonna spend the rest of
my life in this situation you don't know that you don't know what's a day
is gonna bring forth so all you need to do is just keep going forward go
forward go forward go for it and don't like plan it out and decide why
it's doomed and then quit just keep taking the next step and watch how
God will open things up for you that you didn't even see as a possibility and
obviously the Red Sea is an extreme example because how can you cross this
gigantic body of water but yet God opened it up and the things that we're
facing in our life are typically not even a Red Sea they're they're just
little minor obstacles little minor bumps in the road and we just need to
keep going forward go forward go for it and God's gonna open up the way
before us don't try to think too far in advance take no thought for the
tomorrow the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself you know this
isn't one of those job interviews of like hey where do you see yourself five
years from now or something I you know I have no clue you know it's a
good thing I don't have to do any job interviews anytime soon because you
know what I'm not thinking about five years from now ten years from now 15
years from now because of the fact that I'm just following the path in
front of me I'm just kind of seeing where that the journey leads and
that's the way this whole journey is because they don't even know where
they're going he's taken them to the promised land the land flowing with
milk and honey where's that they don't know and they end up wandering around
in the wilderness and going all over the place okay look at Abraham he's
told he's gonna go into a land that I will show you he doesn't know where
it is he doesn't know where he's going but he just keeps following
there's the cloudy pillar now leading the children of Israel they're
supposed to follow the cloudy pillar and they don't know where they're going
but they always know what the next step is and when the cloudy pillar stops
it might stop for a week it might stop for a month it might stop for a
year they don't know they're supposed to just follow and that's a picture of
the Christian life we are supposed to just do the next thing that God
commands us to do and we may not have all the answers about the way the
rest of our life is gonna turn out but we just need to do the part that we
can see right here I know I'm supposed to do this and then do that and and
watch as the way becomes illuminated before you so he tells them go forward
and then you're gonna lift up your rod verse 16 and stretch out thy hand
over the sea and divide it and the children of Israel shall go on dry
ground through the midst of the sea and I behold I will harden the hearts
of the Egyptians and they shall follow them and I will get me honor upon
Pharaoh and upon all his host upon his chariots and upon his horsemen and the
Egyptians shall know that I'm the Lord when I've gotten my honor upon Pharaoh
upon his chariots and upon his horsemen and the angel of God which
went before the camp of Israel went behind them removed and went behind
them and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood
behind them and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of
Israel and it was a cloud of darkness to them but it gave light by night to
these so that the one came not near the other all the night so this is a
really interesting thing that we see all throughout Exodus numbers where you
have the cloudy pillar in the daytime and then at night it's like a pillar
of fire okay and this cloudy pillar goes before the children of Israel to
lead them but at this point the cloudy pillar removes and actually goes behind
them and then it also talks about the angel of God verse 19 which is a
reference to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is the messenger of God
angel simply means messenger and that's why you'll see times where the
angel of the Lord is worshipped in the Old Testament where there's an angel
of God that's worshipped or you know he comes to them and and and tells
them you know put off your shoes from off your feet I'm the captain of the
Lord's host place you're on his holy ground that angel of the Lord that met
Moses in the burning bush that was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus
Christ they went with Jesus into the Promised Land and so we see here
that the angel of God switches from leading them to getting behind them
and protecting them from the Egyptians and then also the cloudy pillar moves
behind them and it's stood between them and the cloudy pillar representing the
presence of God the glory of God the power of God is between the Egyptians
and the Israelites and to the Israelites it actually provides light
right it gave light to these but then it's total darkness on the side of the
Egyptians you know that's sort of like the Word of God isn't it because the
Word of God illuminates our life it shines the light on our life and it's a
lamp to our feet and a light to our path God's Word is light but to the
unsaved to the unbeliever to those that reject the Word of God they
cannot understand the Word of God the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him neither can he
know them because they are spiritually discerned and so it is a wall of
darkness to him it darkens him especially the reprobate mind because
the Egyptians here that are following after and pursuing the children of
Israel they don't just represent unsaved people they actually represent
reprobates because if you remember these are people whose hearts God
hardened so God hardened the Egyptians hearts so that they would follow so
this picture is the reprobate mind the one who has been hardened and
blinded by God and so God's power God's glory the Word of God the Spirit of
God is a source of darkness unto them but it's a source of light unto
God's people and it says so that the one came not near the other all the
night so God's able to protect us from persecution all right so they're
being persecuted right now and again this is all symbolic obviously these
stories actually happened but they are also allegorical as well and so it's a
picture of the Christian life you know we're trying to do something good in
our Christian life we come up against an obstacle and God tells us go forward
keep going go through the obstacle keep pushing forward he's gonna open it
up for us and then the devil's crowd right the reprobates the sons of
Belial they come after us and persecute us and try to torment us and
what does God do God gets behind us and he protects us okay so we need to trust
that the Lord is going to protect us from persecution so many people today
are afraid of persecution and of course the Bible commands us not to be
afraid of persecution he says fear none of those things which thou shalt
suffer we are not to fear persecution we're to fear God only and do what he
says and not worry about the persecution because God is more than
able to protect us and again 99% of the persecution that Christians are afraid
of is hypothetical it's a boogeyman that never even actually ever catches
up to them I mean think about pastors are so afraid of persecution but have
they ever even really been persecuted in the United States of America very
little persecution has hit any of us but yet everybody's just shaking in their
boots of persecution what in the world I mean what are you even afraid of how
do you know that God's not gonna prevent all that persecution before it
even happens and look if you think that you can be a godly fired-up
red-hot soul-winning Christian in 2019 and not face any persecution you're
crazy because we're living in a nation that's being given over right now I mean
there are just so many reprobates and so many haters of God it's just it's
getting hostile toward Christianity and it's that's the trend okay so if you
think that you're gonna be able to just be fired up and serving God and
just doing great things and it's and there's gonna be no opposition you're
crazy it's just not gonna happen it never happened in the Bible like that
it's certainly not gonna happen in our country today you have to be ready the
Bible says he had all the will of God in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution but you just got to go forward go forward and let God fight
your battles for you let God protect you and look I'm speaking from
experience you know here I am I've been pastoring for what 13 and a half
years now is that right or is it more or less 13 and a half years now I've been
pastoring and look I have angered the devil's crowd a few times am I right
you know I mean I've angered the synagogue of Satan I've angered
Sodom and Gomorrah I have angered the devil's crowd at you name it I've
angered this false religion I mean I've angered the Hindus the Muslims the
Catholics the Orthodox I've angered every just about everybody that you could
mention 70 avenues are mad the Mormons are mad Jehovah's Witnesses are mad
that black Hebrew Israelites are mad I mean look I've angered the devil's
crowd okay I've angered the US government I've angered the Jews I mean
I've angered everybody okay the SP LC and just just a couple weeks ago the ADL
wrote a whole article about how my channel needs to be shut down on
YouTube and how dare YouTube still host this guy's channel and whatever
and you know yet here I am here I am and you know what I'll tell you what
the cloudy pillar has protected me from like 99% of the persecution you know I'm
I mean knock on wood but I have experienced I think very little actual
persecution that actually hit home you know what I mean now the enemy has
thrown a lot of punches but very few of them have landed over the last 13
and a half years that's what I'm saying so what would it make any sense for me
to just go through my life just scared of persecution when you know the
vast majority of the time it's like that dream where you're trying to
punch somebody and you can't really get any power behind it who's ever had
that dream before pretty much everybody all right it turns out I'm
normal so you know that dream where you're just punching somebody in the
face and your punches just have no power that's basically how the you know
how the the the the sons of Belial when they persecute Christians that's most
of the time how it is if you just stand your ground it all just kind of
bounces off okay and so the point is don't live in fear of that stuff you
know and and don't think that you can compromise with the Egyptians like don't
send out the white flag you know you're at the Red Sea your backs against the
wall the Egyptians are bearing down on you don't say like hey let's negotiate
just go forward don't take one step backward in your Christian life do not
backslide go forward move forward keep going forward okay why because the
Egyptians are impossible to compromise with they're impossible to please
they're implacable okay that's a word that's a vocabulary word that every
Christian needs to know I know it's not a common word and some people
thought I meant implacable like it can't put you anywhere you know but
it's implacable all right if you don't know what that word means you
look that up in the dictionary and figure out what it means and realize
that the children of the devil are implacable the reprobate of Romans 1
are implacable implacable means you cannot placate them you cannot please
them you cannot satisfy them implacable means that no matter what
you offer to do as a compromise they'll always take more you give them an inch
they're gonna take a mile you give them a finger they're gonna take the
whole hand they will never ever be satisfied and look just this week I saw
some news article about all these transvestites protesting chick-fil-a in
Toronto Canada who saw that what in the world I mean this this chick-fil-a
isn't exactly faithful word Baptist search all right I mean they
basically they're like they were reportedly said that they support
traditional family values I was like oh man wow they didn't even say anything
negative about the bundles of sticks out there but they basically just said like
well you know we just support you know the Bible's view on marriage or
the family and then it's like people are just enraged that they're serving a
chicken sandwich to them right I mean that's what this award look Toronto
Canada today is freaking out because the owner of a chicken restaurant said
something didn't even say something negative just said something positive
about the Bible's view on the bank now you tell me that we can
compromise with these people you can't even be quasi Christian you can't
even just have a halfway normal view of the family without these people freaking
out and and okay that's Canada but we're just one step behind Canada
okay we're a couple steps behind Canada but anyway you know that's the
future I mean give me a break that doesn't that just show you how
implacable they are eat chick-fil-a Baptist is not even acceptable you
think faithful word Baptist is ever gonna be anywhere near acceptable on
these people it's never gonna happen so give up on trying to compromise with
the devil's crowd give up on trying to make them happy give up on meeting
them in the middle get as far away from them as you possibly can go out of
Egypt with a high hand and don't look back and go forward and let God be
your rearward to fight your battles and protect you from behind he's got
your back amen you just got to go forward all right and so these people
are implacable if they won't even tolerate chick-fil-a and then I saw
another article this week this lady who is in the Congress of Finland and I
don't know what they call their Congress I don't know if they call it
the stewarting or Parliament or whatever they call it but this
legislator this government official this woman in Finland this is all she said
she just got up and said how is it consistent with the Lutheran Church's
beliefs to support a gay pride parade when their doctrine is supposed to be
based on the Bible so she's saying how is it consistent for the Lutheran
Church of Finland to support this when they're supposedly based their beliefs
on the Bible and then she just posted some verses from Romans 1 and you
know what they're trying to they're trying to prosecute her criminally
they're not just trying to say she's bad or she needs to step down or we
don't like her they were literally listing the criminal codes that she was
violating by saying that just by even saying anything negative toward this
queer community I mean is that just bizarre I mean so this is it just goes
to show you how extreme the censorship is how extreme the devil's crowd is
they are implacable they're not gonna stop and so we need to just go
forward and leave them in the dust and trust God to have our back as we go
forward amen so the Bible says here that they came not at them all night
verse 21 and Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused
the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea
dry land and the waters were divided and the children of Israel went into
the midst of the sea upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto
them on their on their right hand and on their left now the reason that God
gives this detail of the waters being a wall on the right hand on the left is
because people will try to explain away this miracle in fact if you look
in the back of your Bible and it has a map of the Exodus you know some
Bibles have maps in the back I promise you none of them show them
actually crossing the Red Sea I've never seen a map in the back of any
Bible that shows the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea and if you look in
the back I mean if somebody has one raise your hand and tell me about it
but the ones that I see they're crossing like the Bitter Lakes or the
Reed Sea do you see that everybody who sees like a Bitter Lakes crossing
or a Reed Sea crossing yeah look at all these look at all these maps
several hands does anybody have one where they actually go across the big
body water the Red Sea none of them they all have them crossing because
this is what the scholars have told us that you know they actually cross the
Reed Sea so they want you to think it's like a wetland now reeds are like
tule's who knows what I'm talking about is there a better word for a reed
or a tule is that what's that cattails yeah that's another name for
it it's like yes swamp lands or right now when I was a kid you're you know
around like I remember around like 1991 1992 and you know there's a lot of
environmental stuff going on as always and the big thing in the California
public schools was like we got to preserve the wetlands who did who went
into those wetlands and when all those field trips yeah it was just a
huge deal the wetlands you know and so man I learned a lot about those
wetlands because it was like we're we got to save these suckers you know so
we'd take all these field trips to the wetlands and so we learned about the
tule's or the reeds and I used to have piano lessons on a street called
tule court also so I remember that but you know the reed shaking with
the wind right the wetlands so they want you to believe that they didn't
cross the Red Sea they actually crossed the Reed Sea and it was like a
wetland okay so that's why it wasn't really that big of a miracle okay but
here's a huge miracle then why did Pharaoh drown in a wetland
it's just some stupid little wetland then why you know they say oh it's
only up to their waist or something well then how come Pharaoh's army is
drowning in three feet of water it doesn't make any sense right and so
the Bible's really clear that there was a wall of water on each side okay
so this time Hollywood got it right for once with Charlton Heston in the
Ten Commandments they actually one time got it right now I'm not saying
the rest of the movies accurate but you know they actually show a wall of
water on each side that's literally what it was like it was there I mean
if you were if you were crossing the Red Sea with the children of Israel
you it was like going to the aquarium I mean you literally had a
wall of water on this side and a wall of water on this side that's what
the Bible says so when he parted the Red Sea I've seen other like
scientists try to explain how the wind can sometimes blow the sea aside but
that's why the Bible says they went on drying the ground because even if a
strong wind just naturally were to create some shallowness it wouldn't be
dry that fast would it this is a supernatural parting of the Red Sea
wall of water on each side and walking on dry ground in the midst so
don't downplay this miracle it was the Red Sea I don't care what that map
shows it was the Red Sea and they had a wall of water on each side and it
was extremely deep which is why the entire Egyptian army is going to drown
in it okay so every detail in the Bible matters the wall on each side is
to let us know what this was like and the Egyptians pursued and went in
after them to the midst of the sea even all Pharaoh's horses his
chariots and his horsemen and it came to pass that in the morning watch the
Lord looked upon the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire
and of the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians and took off
their chariot wheels now here's another thing make no mistake about
this crossing the Red Sea took a long time it took a long time it wasn't a
small body of water it wasn't some bitter lakes Reed sea crossing it took
a long time to cross because think about it there had to be enough time for
all the children of Israel which were literally about two million people
because later they're gonna number the men of war as 600,000 you have at
least two to three million people crossing the Red Sea how long does it
take two to three million people to get from point A to point B it's
gonna take time take a long time but not only that there had to be enough
time for the Egyptians to go after the children of Israel and the children of
Israel are still in the sea and the Egyptians are coming after them but
have not yet reached them so it has to be a really long path through the
sea in order for the tail end of the children of Israel to still be
leaving while Pharaoh and his hosts are coming in and then there has to
be enough time for all the children of Israel to get out Pharaoh and his
hosts are still coming and there has to be enough time for all of Pharaoh's
entire army to get in the Red Sea before any of them reach the other
side because it's not like a few Egyptians made it to the other side and
started killing Israelites none of the Egyptians make it to the other side
but yet all of them get into the sea so do you see how that proves this is a
wide distance because in order for two or three million people now and of
course we know that the two or three million people they're not necessarily
trained in any kind of fighting whatsoever they don't necessarily have
any weapons or have any way to fight but still Pharaoh's army had to be
pretty considerable in order to strike fear in two million people right yeah
they have a pretty decent-sized army I mean the Bible does tell us okay he
had 600 chosen chariots but then he also has all the horses and all the
infantry he's got a huge army and this massive army has to all get into the
Red Sea none of them make it to the other side but they're all in that
shows that they had to go miles this isn't even just one mile this is
many miles we don't know how many miles but it's something that probably took
the children of Israel all night to get across and it took the Egyptians
you know time to get into it took them hours to get into it it took hours and
hours to cross because their gigantic body of water okay and so don't fall
for that little lake or whatever that they show it being crossed if it was
that stupid little lake they could just go around that lake the reason
that they had to cross the Red Sea is because there was nowhere else to go
they're stuck their back is against the sea there's no way around it
because this massive body of water and there's only one way forward through it
okay so we see that all of the Egyptians get into it and then God
starts to slow him down to make sure none of them get to the other side
he actually removes the chariot wheels it says in verse 25 he took off their
chariot wheels that they drave them heavily so again what I'm showing you
here is that everybody had to get in but nobody gets to the other side now
obviously chariots are really fast so I mean how many miles per hour can one of
these battle chariots go I'm not sure who would like to guess who thinks they
have a pretty good guess of how fast one of Pharaoh's chosen chariots I
mean these are like his best guys fast horses you know right riding a
chariot how fast do you think they're going what do you look whatever it is
though it's a lot faster than anybody who could go on foot right so let's say
they're going 20 miles an hour 25 30 miles an hour whatever whatever the
speed okay however fast they're going it's obviously a lot faster than a
marching speed which is like four miles an hour okay so they're gonna be going
at least you know five times as fast or more so basically God wants to give
time for all the infantry 100% of the infantry to get into the sea but not
enough time for the chariots to just blow through it but again it must have
been many miles or else those chariots would have just cranked through it in a
matter of minutes okay so they all get in the sea God knocks the wheels off
and once God takes the wheels off their chariots that's when the Egyptians
know that they're in trouble at that point because they they knew that it
was something supernatural when the wheels begin to fall off and so the
Egyptians said verse 25 halfway through let us flee from before the face of
Israel for the Lord fight it for them against the Egyptians and the Lord
said unto Moses stretch out thine hand over the sea that the waters may come
again upon the Egyptians upon their chariots and upon their horsemen and
Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea and the sea returned to his
strength when the morning appeared and the Egyptians fled against it and the
Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea and the waters
returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of
Pharaoh that came into the sea after them there remain not so much as one of
them everybody dies everybody gets wiped out but the children of Israel
walked upon the dry land in the midst of the sea and the waters were
wallowed to them on their right hand and on their left that's obviously
retrospectively saying that and then verse 30 thus the Lord saved
Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the
Egyptians dead upon the seashore they saw the dead bodies of the Egyptians
washed up on the shore and Israel saw that great work which the Lord did
upon the Egyptians and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord
and his servant Moses now the reason that God makes such a big deal about
this is because this is going to be something that they need to keep going
back to because of the fact that in a very short period of time the
children of Israel are gonna be murmuring they're gonna be complaining
they're gonna be disobeying and so God's really trying to emphasize what
they saw they saw a wall of water on each side you're not gonna forget that
going across the Red Sea on dry ground would be an amazing experience
and then to see the dead corpses of the Egyptians washed up on the shore
knowing that God has fulfilled his promise he has completely wiped out the
enemy you've been protected you've been saved you've made it through isn't it
hard to believe that these people would ever doubt Moses again because I mean
it said it now he says they believed God and his servant Moses they feared
God they believed the Lord but they also believed Moses so I mean
these people are sold that Moses is the man of God Moses is telling the
truth I mean is there any doubt how can there be any doubt but yet time dims
the memory doesn't it a few months go by a couple years go by and I mean
they're just constantly forgetting the Lord's works and so we need to take a
lesson from this and realize that you know what it's possible for us also to
backslide if we stop reading our Bible if we stop meditating upon the
things that God has done in his word and then the things that God has done
in our lives if we stop thinking about those things if we don't constantly
meditate on those things and dwell on those things we'll forget about
those things have you ever thought about something like oh I'm never gonna
forget this but then you forget it don't you we as human beings are
extremely forgetful we are forgetful creatures and we only remember things
when we make a point to remember them or if we just constantly keep
recalling them and bringing them up right even that word recall is another
word for remember you know Rick it's like you have to call it back up
again right you got to bring that out again and you have to remember you
know because you got to keep bringing it back to mine and so don't ever
forget about the victories that God gives you in your life you know we've
all had times when God answered a prayer in an amazing way right I mean
and and and probably if you're to stop and think about you get oh man I
totally forgot about that remember there was that one time that my back was
just totally against the wall I thought I was completely doomed and
then boom God came through I mean there are tons of times like that in
my life but do I remember all of them do you remember all that we need
to remember how God has bailed us out he's had our back he's done
miracles in our lives that way when we face the next hurdle we're not we're
just gonna remember hey I've already done this I've already been through this
it's gonna be the same as every time and we should get the longer that
we're saved we should just get better at handling persecution should get
better at handling opposition setbacks even catastrophe in our lives we should
get better at handling it because we should say you know what God's done it
before God's gonna do it again and you know I've never seen the righteous
forsaken I've never seen his seed begging bread God will always always
take care of us the angel of the Lord and camp it round about them that
fear him and so we have nothing to worry about and I'm not saying nothing
bad is gonna happen in your life but anything that that's bad that happens
God has it under control just like bad things are gonna happen the children of
Israel where they don't have any food they don't have any water they get in
battles but God always sees them through it it's always part of his
plan but how many times do they just freak out instead of just going
forward so we need to always keep in memory the Word of God because even
we weren't literally here for this this should become a part of us as well you
know the Red Sea crossing even though we weren't there we should read it in
the Bible and apply it to ourselves as if we were there you know and we
should take all the Bible stories and apply them to our own life but then not
only the Bible stories should they give us confidence like oh look here's
where God delivered this guy God delivered these people God deliver this
guy well God's gonna deliver me too okay that's one thing but then number
two let's also look at our own lives and think about all the times that God
has delivered us in our own lives you say well God's never done
anything for me well you know serve God a little longer and build a track
record okay you know what I mean because I guarantee you if I were to ask
for a raise of hand hey who's been saved for a long time and had some
really great answers to prayer you've had some horrible situations where God
just miraculously pull you know probably every hand would practically
go up and if you have if you're not there yet then you know what keep
serving God and and build some experiences you know maybe you just need
to pray more and get some answers to prayer get some confidence builders
so that you'll have those things to look back on you know tribulation
worketh patience patience worketh experience experience leads to what
hope right because if we have the experiences of God delivering us then
we have hope he's gonna do it again that's what the children of Israel for
God we don't want to forget that so let's have hope based on their
experiences and let's also have hope based on our own experiences and spend
our lives going forward no turning back don't look back just go forward speak
unto the children of Israel that they go forward okay then I'll remove the
obstacle but first go forward let's borrow it in a word of prayer father
we thank you so much for this great chapter Lord I pray that we would just
apply it to our lives Lord help us never to fear the devil's crowd help
us to realize that you have our back all the time let's not think about
serving them or going back to them or making a deal with them or placating
them Lord help us to just turn our back to this world the world behind me
the cross before me no turning back and help us to go forward Lord and I
pray that you would just part the Red Seas in our life and in Jesus name we
pray amen