EXODUS 14: 15-31
WHAT DOES DELIVERANCE LOOK LIKE?
I. DELIVERANCE SOMETIMES MEANS GOING THE LONG WAY
A. God chooses the long way;
1. Exodus 13: 17 – 18: When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.
2. A few observations from these two verses. After being in bondage 430 years, exactly to the day, (Exodus 12:41), do you think the Israelites were ready to fight? No! Long term Bondage takes the fight right out of you. The fight had been beaten out of them!
3. Yet, did you take note of that last phrase? “The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.” God knows that the way we appear on the outside is possible not the reality on the inside. Men are often like this! They look tough, but they have no “REAL” fight left in them!
4. The bottom line here is that God knows what we are up to and what we are not.
5. He headed his flock straight to the sea?
6. God’s design of the journey is to put the fight in us!
B. God chooses the way of most resistance;
1. How many times did Moses have to say to Pharaoh, “Let My People Go”? SEVEN TIMES!!
2. How many times did God have to PLAGUE PHARAOH? Count them, 10 times God “Plagued” Pharaoh before he would let go, and if we count the Red Sea, a possible 11: Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Livestock, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, and First Born.
II. DELIVERANCE DOESN’T MEAN EVERYTHING WILL GO SMOOTHLY
A. Just because the enemy is beaten, it doesn’t mean he’s through;
1. Just when you think, Pharaoh has had enough, here he comes again. His own advisers had said, Hurry and leave, “for otherwise, we will all die (12:33).” And again, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt (14:25).”
B. Just because God works miracles, doesn’t mean you will always like them!
1. After all the ways God had worked for the people of Israel, wouldn’t you think, they would just have so much faith that they would all completely trust GOD and Moses? Well, they didn’t!
2. 14:10-15, “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “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? 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!”
3. What is up with “Nay Sayers” anyway?
4. Did they not get it? Did they not know what God had done? Did they not understand that Freedom is better than Slavery?
5. We want Slavery and God wants Freedom. We want bondage and God wants Liberty. We want misery and God wants Joy! We want pain and God wants Healing. Do you get it yet?
III. DELIVERANCE IS BASED ON GOD ALONE!
A. GOD GETS INVOLVED!
1. Where does it begin? Was it a mother placing a baby in a basket and sending it down the Nile River (2:3)? Was it a conscience pricked at the treatment of his people (2:11)? Was it a kind father in law who took him in (2:21)? Was it God at the burning bush (3:2)? Was It God hearing the cries of His people (3:7)? Was it God sending Moses to Pharaoh (3:10)? Was it in the Plagues (7-11)? Was it the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (13:21)? Was God telling the People to “Move On” (14:15)? Was it in the Red Sea (14:21)?
2. God uses a man! Could God have side stepped Moses and Aaron? Does God need us? He chose to use Moses!
3. Verse 24 tells us that when God saw Pharaoh and the Army getting close, HE confused them! In verse 25 it tells us that God made the “Wheels fall off so that it was hard for them to drive!” Even the Enemy knows when God is against them. “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt (verse 25).”
B. In the Beginning, middle and End, God Gets the Glory!
1. “But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant (14:29-31).”
2. When God does a thing, it is usually a big thing!
3. God finishes what He sets out to do!
4. Back in Chapter 6, God says to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country (verse 1).” And again He said, “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my won people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians (6:6-8).”
5. God is all about deliverance!
-jlg-