Behold then,” cries the Apostle, “the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness” (Rom. 11:22). Surely the chapter before us presents a notable illustration of the truth of his words. Towards Egypt, severity indeed, but for Israel, goodness, which has kept their heart singing for generations.
THE STAGE IS SET
It would ill repay us to enter into topographical details. The supreme importance of the fact remains, although the exact locality has been probably obliterated by the shifting sand and an alteration of the shore.
At first the direction of the Exodus was southeast, but suddenly the guiding cloud took a course due south, along the western shores of the Bitter Lakes. By this route, five or six days after setting forth, the Israelites found themselves in the extreme point of a wedge. On one side the Red Sea, on the other the wilderness, and in front an insuperable barrier of mountains. There was no natural egress from that cul de sac, except they turned back on their course.
Probably it was the supreme test of Moses’ faith. He knew perfectly well what was happening, and the extreme peril into which he was leading this helpless flock of human beings; but he maintained an absolutely untroubled composure. He knew that God had pledged His word to deliver His people, and if He seemed to take them into an impossible labyrinth, there must be a solution and a way out. He knew in whom he had believed; his heart was fixed, trusting in the Lord.
In the meanwhile Pharaoh had recovered from his extreme alarm. No doubt he realized how great a loss he and his people would sustain in the exodus of so vast a body of slaves. When therefore he heard of the change of route, and knew that Israel was entangled in the land, he marched in pursuit with six hundred chariots and perhaps 100,000 footmen. What chance had these fugitive slaves against that seasoned host?
And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid….And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will shew to you today; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever (14:10, 13).
The salvation of Israel from Pharaoh and his hosts cannot be viewed as an isolated fact. As the Apostle says:
Now these things happened unto them for examples; and they are written for our admonition” (1 Cor. 10:11).
Egypt is the invariable type of the cunning, thoughtless, wanton world, out of which in all ages God is calling His sons. The infant Jesus was called out of Egypt, and to every son of God a similar summons arrives: “Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest.” You too are called to an Exodus. You are called to arise from your enslaving passions, your love of gain or applause, the leeks, onions, and garlics of this enervating world, where self-gratification is the one law of life. You are summoned to come forth to the wilderness, the holy mount, the spiritual rock, the heavenly food. Be loyal to the divine voice; strike your tents, and follow. Though the Egyptians pursue, they shall not overtake. The Lord will be your rear-guard. He shall fight for you and save you; and the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more for ever.
We are justified therefore in tracing an analogy between the deliverance of Israel and our own.
SAVED BY A DIVINE WORK
1. The Movement of the Cloud. It was sundown when the Egyptians, after a hasty march, arrived on the ridges of the desert hills overlooking the Israelite camp on the seashore. They could watch every movement and were sure of their quarry. But suddenly the cloud removed from the head of the Israelite column and settled as a wall behind and around them. This movement spread a thick darkness over the Egyptian lines, and presented an apparently impenetrable barrier to their advance. Israel, on the contrary, enjoyed a brilliant glow of light which turned the darkness of the midnight into broad day. “It was a cloud of darkness to the one, while it gave light by night to the other.”
2. The Strong East Wind. This the Lord used to drive back the upper waters of the bay, while at the same time a strong ebb-tide may have drawn the lower waters southwards as “the waters were divided” (Ex. 14:21), so that a pathway a mile or more in length was cleft across the sands. “With the blast of Thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together; the floods stood upright as an heap; and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea” (15:8).
3. The Storm. When the Egyptians saw the cloud moving forward and realized that Israel was escaping, their rage knew no bounds; and they hurled themselves in pursuit. “The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them” (15:9).
So they “pursued, and went in after them into 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…troubled the host of the Egyptians” (14:23-24).
The Psalmist thus describes the situation:
The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound: Thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of Thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook (Ps. 77:17-18).
Then as the Egyptians, stricken with panic, turned to flee, their chariot wheels sank deep in the softening sea-bed, so that escape became impossible.
4. The Returning Tide. When Moses stretched out his hand over the sea the second time, the wind lulled, and the waters which it had upheld towards the land fell and rushed back, while from the south the tide turned and raced furiously forward. Those who know anything of the treacherous sands of the Wash, where King John lost his treasure, or of the Solway Firth, will be able to form a fairly true conception of the situation. The parted waves leapt together, and, encumbered by their heavy armor, the Egyptians “sank as lead in the mighty waters” (Ex. 15:10).
Explain it as you will, there can be no reasonable doubt that the deliverance of Israel from the clutches of their foes was a conspicuous act of divine power in answer to the faith and prayer of Moses, and through the operation of natural law. “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned” (Heb. 11:29).
Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. In the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against Thee. Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble….Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Ex. 15:6-7, 11).
But no less divine is the salvation of every soul of man. It is from beginning to end of God. The grace that prompts to redeem, the work of the Cross by which our redemption was effected, the tender wooings and strivings of the Holy Spirit which first suggested that we should wish to be redeemed, the patience which has never surrendered the conflict with the evil of our nature—all are of God. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16).
Unless your salvation depends on a divine work, it may well be said to rest on a basis of sand. Unless your righteousness is God’s righteousness, it can never stand the searching scrutiny of the white light of the Throne. Shut in there, between your heredity on the one hand and your temptations on the other, with your old taskmaster-sins blocking your retreat, what hope is there, unless your soul can stand still, and see your salvation achieved for you on the Cross by the Son of God, and accomplished in you by the efficiency of the Holy Spirit? “Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and not be afraid.”
THAT DIVINE WORK BASED ON SACRIFICE
Take you a lamb according to your families and kill the Passover….It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses.
Was not a Lamb slain for us also? We worship Him who by His own blood entered in once into the Holy Place and obtained eternal redemption. Behold the Lamb of God, who was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. There is no other hope against the day of days. Not that we have been moral and blameless in the eyes of our fellows, not that we have met the requirements and standards around us, but that the Lamb was slain for us.
It is enough. We know that blood has been shed for us, and represents the self-giving of the Son of God. We do not attempt to bar the window or lock the iron door between us; we shelter beneath the altar.
CHARACTERIZED BY FINALITY
“The Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Now, at last, the Egyptians, who had made their lives bitter, lay dead on the seashore. They looked for the last time on those hard, cold, stony faces, and then took their journey into a land wherein the Egyptian would have no part.
What is your Egyptian? Some besetting sin that has been your taskmaster for years. Long ago it made you its slave, or perhaps it enslaved your father before you. In former days you struggled valiantly for freedom; but all your efforts were in vain. Of late you have renounced the conflict, and have allowed yourself to yield at your tyrants’ imperious behests. Perhaps you cherish the hope that some day the ebbing forces of your life will emancipate you from your servitude. But it is a weary prospect. Not for you the perfect peace, the erect head, the cheery tone, the victor’s shout, “Thanks be to God, who giveth the victory!”
Now, from this hour, will you not begin to cherish the anticipation of complete deliverance, not hereafter in heaven, but now and here? Not because of your resolutions, or strivings, or agonies, but because you will stand still and see the salvation of God, because the Lord shall fight for you, and you will hold your peace.
1. Sin is not an inevitable part of our nature. It is not indigenous, but an alien and intruder. What smallpox and measles are to the fair flesh of a little child, that sin is to our nature. The Scripture says that it was not present in our first parents. Certainly it was not in Christ, who was perfect man, and it will not be in the perfected humanity of the future. There is no necessity that sin should have dominion over you, any more than that Israel should serve Egypt. Dare to believe that the enemy may die; that the jealousy, envy, passion, greed may absolutely pass out of your experience; and that you shall be able to say with Paul, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
The great message of Christianity is that sin has no business in human hearts. It is an intruder who is to be expelled, and can be expelled. Not that man can be sinless in this mortal life, because even if we are delivered from positive trespass, we shall always be coming short of the glory of God; but that there need be no perpetual conscious self-condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus; because God has sent forth His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, and has neutralized sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.
2. It was on the far shores of the Red Sea that the Israelites saw the dead bodies of their ancient foes. This also suggests the lesson that it is on the other side of the Cross and the grave, in which we have been crucified and buried with Christ, that we really find deliverance. Do not be content to confine your Christian experience to the belief that the Saviour’s Cross is only for your beholding; you must be crucified with Him, lie in the grave with Him, and rise with Him from the dead. Then, standing on the other—the Easter—side of death, you will know that the old Egyptian taskmaster has control no longer.
Begin today. Believe that old things are passed away, and that all things are become new. Not only avoid selfishness, but act unselfishly. Not only fight pride, but assume the girded towel of humility. Not only repress words of criticism, but fill your life with charitable deeds. Not only put off the old man, but put on the new. The easiest way to do the former is by all means to do the latter. You will put off the old best when putting on the new, as the sap of spring, pulsing through the branches of evergreens, pushes off the faded leaves of the previous summer.
Dare to believe that you were never meant to be the man that you have been so long; and next, step out of your grave under the blue sky, and live there as one alive from the dead, yielding your members unto God for ministry in His dear Name and in His power.
Finally, never forget that you were once a bondman. Even if you are now delivered, Egypt still exists and others are there enslaved. Do not vaunt yourself over them, but in humility and tenderness help the captive to freedom and the prisoner to breathe the air of liberty. “Bear ye one another’s burdens” and restore the fallen in a spirit of meekness, considering yourselves, that your life may continue to encourage others into this glorious liberty in Christ.