As we read through the Bible together for the 7th year in a row, I am amazed at the new things which stand out to me even in familiar passages. This week we read Exodus 13 & 14 one morning, and I noticed the particular emphasis that is placed on God’s prediction of events beforehand and the precise fulfillment of those words. The Lord instituted the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was to take place immediate following the Passover celebration each year. In it, each Israelite family was to rid itself of all forms of leaven – anything that would be used to cause dough to rise ? and eat unleavened bread for seven days. And there was a specific answer that fathers were to give their sons when they asked the reason for this practice: “This is done because of what Yahweh did for me when I came up from Egypt.” It was intended to be sign and a memorial, because, “with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt.” So they were to keep the Feast every year in perpetuity.
God is a gracious and loving father looking out for his children.
Moses then led the children of Israel up from Egypt, but they did not go the shortest and straightest route into the Promised Land. I can imagine that this must have frustrated many of them (especially the men), who didn’t want to waste any time getting where they were going. But the Lord had a reason, a very gracious reason, for taking the longer way around: to avoid an immediate war with the Philistines who occupied the coast of the Mediterranean Sea as you go up from Egypt toward Canaan. In fact he says in Ex. 13:17, “The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” This was not an expression of disappointment or irritation on God’s part, rather it was the words of a gracious and loving father looking out for his children. He did not want them to be discouraged by the difficulty, so he chose to lead them along a gradual path through the wilderness.
But there was another reason Yahweh led them inland, away from the sea coast, and that was so Pharaoh would see them taking the longer route and tell himself that Moses had gotten the people lost in the desert. This would cause him to change his mind about letting the Israelites go and prompt him to pursue them to his own peril. In fact, the Lord told Moses exactly how this would all play out in 14:3, saying, “Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.” And Yahweh said he would harden Pharaoh’s heart to pursue the children of Israel, so that God would “be honored through Pharaoh and all his army.”
Now you would think that if God told Moses (and presumably the people through Moses) that he was leading them into the wilderness in order to draw out Pharaoh and demonstrate his glory over the world’s mightiest army, that Moses and the people would be inclined to rest in the knowledge that the Lord had everything in hand. And you would be wrong. Because, although things played out precisely as the Lord had foretold (see 14:5-9), the people became distraught as Pharaoh and his army approached. They complained to Moses, saying, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” (v.11-12). Can you imagine a slave saying he’d prefer slavery to freedom? They could die just as easily in Egypt, but at least there they had some measure of certainty and comfort; at least that’s what they claimed.
Moses assured the people that this was not the day of their doom but rather a day of deliverance, that Yahweh himself would fight for them, and so dramatically that their mouths would be shut. Instead of going back toward slavery and bondage in Egypt, they were to go forward into the water of the Red Sea, and the Lord promised again that he would harden the Egyptians’ hearts so that he would “be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen” (v.17). And again things played out just as God had said: the waters of the sea were parted and the Israelites walked across on dry ground, and when the Egyptians pursued them through the dry seabed, their chariots became stuck and the Lord drowned the army in the sea.
Why did the Lord go to such great lengths not only to rescue the Israelites from Pharaoh but to do so in this way? Why lead them to the Red Sea? Why destroy Pharaoh’s army? And why tell Moses and the Israelites the events before they happened? I think the final verse of chapter 14 offer the best explanation for all of this: “When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.” Our God is not merely powerful, not even the most powerful being in all the universe. He is that, of course, but he is much more. He can tell the future and then take measures to bring to pass everything he has foretold. And he does this, not just to show off the greatness of his power and wisdom, but to cause his people to fear him and believe.
Because we are sinful, we are often fearful and anxious, forgetting that our God has spoken and declared his intention to use all things to bring about the ultimate good of making us like his Son. Remember the deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea and know that the same God who saved them has promised to save you from sin and death and hell. Though he may allow circumstances to appear precarious, he remains firmly in control and will bring about the end he has promised in his word. Fear Yahweh and believe.