Hebrews Lesson 191 March 25, 2010

^NKJ Psalm 119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!

Open your Bibles to Exodus 14.

Since we're talking about Israel I thought I would give you an update (a little report) on my trip. This last weekend I went to Washington DC for the annual AIPAC policy meeting. AIPAC (for those of you who don't know) is the American Israel Policy Affairs Committee. It has been in existence for about 50 years or so; and it is the largest lobby organization for the support of the state of Israel in the United States. It is a bipartisan or nonpartisan actually - a nonpartisan organization. So they always have an equal number of speakers from both parties that come. It's always interesting.

This was the second year that I had gone. It seems like things happen in and around and as a result of the AIPAC Conference. So I knew it would be interesting this year to go because just prior to the AIPAC Conference (about a week before), Vice President Biden had been in Israel. This is when the word came out about these new home starts (homes that were going to be built) for Jews in East Jerusalem. He got upset about that although there has never been to that point any official agreement about home starts or new construction in East Jerusalem.

Agreements had been reached regarding the West Bank and during the last year or so (since Netanyahu has been a prime minister), they've made a number of advances in relationship to trying to help build the economy and the infrastructure in the West Bank. There have been a number of checkpoints that were shut down (taken out of the way) mostly to enable goods to flow into the West Bank. They went through a list of different things that had been accomplished during the last year in terms of building, the allowing goods to go into the West Bank that the structure within the West Bank - new shopping centers and malls and Cineplex’s and different things like that have been built. Most of that was covered in the introduction.

You can go online to AIPAC.org and click on the link to of the conference and watch the videos that they put up related to the speakers in all of the plenary sessions. There are about five plenary sessions; and that’s when they bring in the big name speakers. They're pretty interesting. Then during the afternoon there are breakout sessions, and those are also interesting. I went to one on what’s going on with Hezbollah. I went to another one on what’s going on with Hamas and Iran and the connection there. Then two of the other breakout sessions I went to were really the same topic, and that was the topic of friends of faith, understanding our evangelical allies. I’ll say more about that in a minute.

The opening plenary session dealt with this whole theme of economic development in Israel and how much Israel has grown economically (businesswise) - all that they have accomplished in the last 62 years since they were declared their independence in 1948. It was pretty interesting. There were two panels. The first panel focused more on various business related issues and the second one dealt more with foreign policy and some other things. Both of those sessions were led by Dan Senor.

Dan Senor started off working for a Republican congressman from somewhere up north (Michigan I think). Then later he did some work with the Fox News. He was involved as a correspondent with the troops when they went into Iraq. In 2001-2002 he held a position in the Bush administration. So he's had quite a bit of experience. He is also very involved within the Jewish community. He has just published a book called The Start of the Nation - the Story of Israel's Economic Miracle which I would encourage you to read. It’s fascinating what that little nation does. I mean this country is not any bigger than New Jersey, and they have the second highest number of new business start ups in the world next to the United States.

They invest more money per capita than any other nation in the world on research and development. The number of things that have come out of the technology and business in Israel has just been phenomenal. And the way they have developed a culture that promotes risk taking and venture capital type projects and things of this nature are really interesting. It has a whole section on the how the interplay between the military and how the military decision making (the structure of the chain of command in the military), how that operates and how that trains because of the universal military service for all the young men and women of Israel and how that builds and teaches them about leadership and risk taking and initiative. Then when they get out of the military then there is a smooth connection between the military and business so they transition into business very smoothly.

What they've learned in the military also has application in business; unlike in the United States when most people in business don’t have a clue what goes on in the military. In fact military officers in the US are taught to downplay and minimize their military experience when they retire out of the military and go into business because it doesn't communicate. In fact people who have been in the military for 40 years have to somehow act as if they haven’t been in the military in order to communicate to the business community here. We just don't have a good connection between the military and business.

People in business never were in the military so they really don't understand how the skills transfer over. For example you get the young captain now who's been over in Iraq a couple of times. He’s functioned as a mayor; he’s function as a water eservice project manager; he’s functioned as sanitation director. I mean he's worn 15 or 20 different hats; yet when he gets out the fact that he was an infantry captain is all that a business looks at and they don't understand the dynamics of what was going on.

I found that to be a fascinating type of session and personally just as a as a pastor and a leader I thought that things like that are good for me because it puts me out of my normal field of operations and challenges me and gives me new ideas and new things to think about.

The sessions in the afternoon related to the evangelical support for Israel were also very interesting. I was only going to go to one of them simply because there may be an opportunity for me to address and speak to some Jewish groups. So I wanted to find out what kind of questions are being asked, how are they being answered, what are the issues just for my own personal education so that I don't answer a question wrong or do something silly.

I had gone to the same session last year and had met one of the individuals who was on the panel this year, Susan Michael, who was with the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem which is a pro-Israel group that has a ministry there in Israel. They’re not dispensational, but they are pre-millennial, and they are much in support of Israel. She was on the panel last year and they had some good discussions last year and I had some email interchange over the last year which established a certain measure at least knowledge of who I was and credibility. That was good because in one of the questions that she fielded -- and she had to field several of the tougher questions because the two evangelical pastors that they put up there to help her in my opinion did not have what they needed training background education or whatever to answer some of the questions -- by a Rabbi: what is the rapture and how does that relate to evangelical support for Israel?

The answer to that is basically the one she gave. It has nothing to do with evangelical support for Israel. You don’t want to get trapped in a situation like that talking about the details of Christian doctrine when people don't have a frame of reference for understanding those kinds of doctrines because all it's going to generate is confusion - 1 Corinthians 2:14.

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So you don't get trapped in that. She did a great job. She said, “You know there's all kinds of prophecy interpretations and Jews have many different interpretations of prophecy and Christians have many different interpretations of prophecy.”

Most of the prophetic interpretations related to Israel that evangelicals rely on are found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah – Old Testament books and yet these positions have nothing to do with why evangelicals support Israel. They support Israel because of Genesis 12 because God said:

^NKJ Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

And they just want to be blessed. So she did a great job.”

Then she said, "But you know that there are a few groups that have some odd views, but that doesn’t represent mainstream evangelicals. I understand there's a film that's being passed around the Jewish community that has surfaced and has been having some sort of negative impact in Israel called Waiting for Armageddon."

Now those of you know that features a lot of people we know and love from his congregation because that documentary was filmed using a lot of people here, some from Preston City and was put together by some people and came out was released from a year ago at the Jewish Film Festival in New York. It really twists and distorts our position. When she mentioned that, that was the first time I’ve heard anybody but us aware of that. I just wanted to sort of sink through the floor. But she knew me. When I walked in, she had recognized me and said hello and called me by name and introduced me to a couple people. So I knew that if she had seen it she would've made a connection. She hadn't seen it.

After everybody had left we went out and sat out and had a cup of water and talked about some things. I asked her what impact that was having, and she said she really didn't think it was having much but she only had a couple of e-mails last year about it. Then suddenly in the last two or three months it seems to have become known in Israel. Some questions were being raised, and they were getting some e-mails. At that point I told her what the background was: that I was in it and several people in our congregation were in it and others were in it and identified who everybody was and said nobody in that group holds to some of these views that it's suggested or implied that we hold to. She understood that, just like last year was the first time I understood that there is a the anti-Zionist crowd in America whether they are liberal or whatever they are the ones that are anti-Israel want to drive a wedge of suspicion and distrust between Jews and evangelicals because they are a number of those in Israel who do look with suspicion upon evangelical support. They’re not sure what the motive is.

On the other hand there are a number that recognize this as very good, very wonderful. Among many of the people there at the conference John Hagee has a very good reputation, and they are very pleased with the support that comes from evangelicals.

But one of the lies that is put out there is that the reason evangelicals want to get all the Jews back in the land is they are consumed with prophesy and they want to get all the Jews back in the land because then Jesus will come back and at the Battle of Armageddon all the Jews will be killed. So they're really anti-Semitic.

What the editors of that film did was make it sound as if that was what we believed. The first time I got through seeing the trailer for it, I thought they made us look like a bunch of anti-Semites. So it's time for a little damage control. That's why I was talking to Susan. She was leaving the next day to go to Jerusalem and have meeting with the Board of ICUJ and the executive director there. They're constantly fighting this kind of attack in Jerusalem. In fact I had several e-mails from her today, and they’re discussing various options that we could use for damage control. Even last year when we saw it come out I did meet with some people here in Houston about producing another video that would be a rebuttal – not in a negative sense but a positive statement of what we believe not specifically going after that because I don't think that's the way it should be done. It shouldn’t be a specific attack on what they've done, but it should be a positive statement of what we believe and why we support Israel and understanding, bringing into it a lot of factors related to the history of Christian Zionism – things that I’ve taught in the Israel Past, Present and Future series and things like that.

There's always something interesting going on and so that affects us in our little corner of the world. But of course the major story that was impacting things at AIPAC was the relationship between Netanyahu and President Obama. Netanyahu gave a rousing speech on Monday night, which was excellent; and you could've seen me in the crowd. I was the little white dot that took up one and a half pixels off in the far left corner. That conference center is about a hundred yards long on the inside and so they pack about 8,000 people in there and the logistics of serving 8,000 kosher meals in about thirty minutes is pretty remarkable.

Of course before that (after the morning meeting) when Secretary of State Clinton spoke. Now that was interesting because the Chairman of the Board for AIPAC came out and spoke before she did. So while she is back behind the curtain waiting, he is lowering the boom on why Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is the undivided capital of a nation, and you don't treat Jerusalem as if it is a settlement. It's not up for grabs like settlements in the West Bank. Then she came out and she in her speech said a number of things that of course were very welcome to hear. So there were a lot of periods where she got her little standing ovations. But when it came to dealing with the issues of what was going on in Jerusalem response was a little tepid. Since her speech and when Netanyahu came out that night emphasizing again that Jerusalem is not a settlement—since then he met twice the next day with President Obama where he was treated as if he was a servant who needed to come in the back door. No pictures were taken of them meeting together.

There are several articles that have come out in a variety of different publications—the London Times, a couple of different articles today articles yesterday) – and numerous Jewish leaders, from Ed Koch who is the former mayor of New York to a number of others who come out and the congressman as well coming up—just decrying the way the White House and the administration is dealing with Israel.

The last thing we need is a president who is an anti-Semite. A week before the meeting Benjamin Netanyahu's brother-in-law in Israel stated that he believed that President Obama was an anti-Semite.

Today I saw a picture in the article in one of the articles in The London Times that was a poster in Israel. It had a young boy looking at this poster and it's a picture of President Obama probably when he was in Cairo last year receiving an award from someone dressed in full Arab garb. The caption on the picture said, "Beware there's a Palestinian agent in the White House."

This is really escalating; and we always have to remember that there are many different forms many different ways in which anti-Semitism rears its ugly head. Since World War II and the Holocaust to be anti-Semitic is not acceptable. It's not politically correct; but to be anti-Israel and anti-Zionist is politically acceptable. So anti-Zionist is the new anti-Semitism. Don't let anybody in confusion saying that it's not because Israel has a right to be a nation. It was founded with more legal pronouncements than any other nation in history. The UN made a number of statements that were recognized and voted on by the UN and by the international community. So when they declared their independence on May 14, 1948; it was with the full backing of the international community. Since then they have come under attack again and again and again and the UN has put out more negative resolutions against Israel than – hardly any against the Arabs but numerous (dozens and dozens of) negative resolutions against Israel. All of this anti-Zionism is just veiled anti-Semitism.

The Jews have a right to have a nation. They have a right to the national homeland. Anybody who has a nation has the right to defend itself. Yet when it comes to the nation Israel when they have rockets launched at them indiscriminately day in and day out—thousands of rockets as Hamas and Hezbollah have done—their reaction is with a restraint that we would never have in this country.

Look what happened on 911 and we sent armies into two nations: into Afghanistan and Iran in response to that. Israel isn’t any larger than East Texas and if the Mexican government launched one missile into East Texas, I can pretty much guarantee you that the Texas National Guard would be a victorious army standing on the shores of the Pacific in about 30 days, because that's how this country is. But you can’t apply that standard to Israel. Israel lives by a standard unique among all nations in the world, and that is just an example of the fact that we live in the angelic conflict, and we live in the devil’s world, and they are the target.

So it was fascinating. One of the great things that I appreciate about going to that conference is the personal contacts and communication that I have with a number of people and several people this year that I've met last year met again this year, some new people that I met this year would ask me privately the same questions: why do Christians support Israel? What do Christians think the Bible says about the future for Israel? What do you think is going to happen over there? What is this thing we hear called the rapture? Why do you think that Jesus is the Messiah? Those are interesting questions to get the opportunity to answer.

Let us turn to Exodus 14 so we can focus on some doctrine this evening. This is one of those fabulous stories (great stories, great drama, history) as we see the great underdog of the Jewish nation leaving slavery in Egypt. Then the pharaoh changes his mind and starts to pursue them and wipe them out. Now all of this is in the context of our study of Hebrews 11; and we have come to those verses in Hebrews 11:23-29 which focus on the faith of Moses.

Actually, the first example is the faith related to his parents – by faith his parents hid him. Secondly Moses refused to be identified as Egyptian royalty because he considered the reproach of Christ to be of greater value than the riches of Egypt. Then by faith Moses left Egypt.

^NKJ Hebrews 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

In the Old Testament it’s occupation with God. He is so focused on God's will and God's plan that that blots out everything else. In the New Testament we have occupation with Christ. You see all of this within the context of Hebrews 11 is leading to that key verse for occupation with Christ in Hebrews 11:1-2 – fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Moses manifests that same kind of faith.

Then the next verse (verse 28) talks about “by faith Moses kept the Passover.” We looked at the last few weeks recognizing that the Passover stood for all of the 10 plagues (the 10 judgments) God brought against the Egyptians culminating in that great final plague where the firstborn (and this would include the firstborn males of Egypt and Israel; not the females but the firstborn males. That’s the role of primogeniture. Inheritance went to the firstborn male in the house. That is the focus.

We studied the 10 plagues culminating in the final plague, the death of the firstborn. Then that brought us to a study of the Passover the last time seeing that in the New Testament the Passover becomes the type of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 5:7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

Peter recognized this in 1 Peter 1:18-19 that we were saved (redeemed) by the precious blood of Christ as of the Lamb without spot or a blemish, connecting the Lamb sacrificial Pascal lamb to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Then recognizing this was God's plan from the beginning:

^NKJ Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Once the Passover occurred and God redeemed them from Egypt and the pharaoh let them go, then there are going to be some challenges because the redemption pictures salvation. But what follows salvation is spiritual growth and learning to trust God. Israel has to learn to trust God to give them the victory in the spiritual life. The same thing is true for us that after we are saved we have to learn how to walk; and we walk not by sight, but we walk by faith.

^NKJ 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

We have to learn how to walk depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ and not get our eyes on circumstances, not get our eyes on our emotions, not get our eyes on any of the details of life; but remember that no matter how horrible things may look either from a personal vantage point or from a national vantage point that God still has a plan and God is still in control. His plan for your next twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years may not be the plan that you had; but that’s what we have to learn to do. We have to get over it and orient our thinking to His thinking and become oriented to His plan for our lives and the mission that He has given every believer to be an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We just don't know where that ambassador ministry is going to take us. It may involve a ministry in our neighborhoods. It may involve ministry at a place of our employment. It may involve ministry with people we just run into at the grocery store or some other place. And it may be that you're spending 40 years of training in Bible class so you're going to have a tremendous ministry in prison the last five years of your life. We never know just how that is going to play itself out.

There are numerous examples throughout history of believers who have gone through just that kind of thing; and we don't want it to be true but God is always going to give us the grace and the ability to handle whatever situation and circumstance comes our way.

So the last example of faith in the life of Moses is stated in Hebrews 11:29.

^NKJ Hebrews 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.

Now the subject is “they.” It's not just Moses. It is the entire body of Israelites; "they" as a corporate group. They are identified with Moses in his faith because that's where they want to be identified. This is one of those passages that indicates the almost universal salvation of the Exodus generation. They trusted God to deliver them at the night of the Passover. They are trusting God at the Red Sea. Again and again and again they trust God; and then they turn right around and they disobey Him; and they are as rebellious and as grumpy as they can be. They want to go back to Egypt because they want to go back to get their garlic and leaks. They want to go back and have something that tastes a little better than the angel food that God has been giving them. They show that they're just not grace oriented at all. They have no appreciation for all that God provided for them.

^NKJ Hebrews 11:29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.

This emphasizes God's judgment on the Egyptian army; that it was completely wiped out at that particular time. This finished the process of destroying the entire culture and civilization of Egypt at least for a time.

Now let's look at the description is this in Exodus 14. We'll start off just a little before that. Let's go back to verse 17 of chapter 13.

^NKJ Exodus 13:17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, "Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt."

Here is a map. I’m going to go back and forth between several different maps to point out some different things in here. I know that a lot of people are geographically challenged. I love sitting and pouring over maps. What we have here is a pretty accurate picture of the ancient world. Here is Lower Egypt. Remember Upper Egypt is upper because of elevation so that's in the south where the Nile begins. Then Lower Egypt is really northern Egypt. This is the area here where they have marked the cities of Pithom and Ramses.

This is the Red Sea. Actually the term Red Sea is a late term. The term in the Hebrew is Reed Sea. It becomes the Red Sea. We're not sure where or when or how it becomes Red Sea but that is a name that does go back into antiquity. Then often the term Red Sea is associated with both of these gulfs. The gulf here on the left is actually the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf on the right over here, if you're Arab, it’s the Gulf of Aqaba; if you are Jewish, it is the Gulf of Elat. Elat is right at the northern tip here of the Gulf of Elat. This is the southern tip of the modern state of Israel.

So we're not sure. The Bible doesn’t really specify exactly where this sea is that they crossed. One thing we do know is from ancient records is that if you see up here where the Mediterranean Sea is, it comes much further south than it does at modern times. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea, it is much further up today than it was in the ancient world. The Gulf of Suez went much further north than it does in modern times. This area between the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Suez is where they dug out the channel that is now the Suez Canal. So the topography today is not what it was in the ancient world. There were a series of lakes between these two areas, a series of waterways. We’re not exactly sure what they looked like because there’s no evidence that survived from that time in history; but it seems that when you read the account here in Exodus 13 that the Israelites don’t go very far before they cross the Red Sea.

Now some have suggested that the Sinai and the crossing of the Red Sea was somewhere over somewhere in this area on the Gulf of Elat over here and that over Jabal al-Lawz right in this area here is where Mt Sinai was actually located and then Midian was over in this area. That is not demonstrable. They would've had to go a long way from Egypt before they crossed the Red Sea whereas the text seems to suggest that it was something that happened very early on, before they made some lengthy travels.

So usually you see this map here if you can see the little yellow triangles with a black dot. Every one of those yellow triangles with a black dot represents and has a name next to it related to a mountain. But each of those triangles with a black dot indicates a different location (possible location) for Mt Sinai that’s been suggested. So there's no certainty. The traditional site is down here – Jebel Musa. It's down here in the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula; but that doesn't really fit the description in the biblical text.

Here is another map showing the routes. This is the highway. It was the way to the land of the Philistines across the north here. But Sinai was not part of Egypt; it was the area that was between Egypt to the west and Philistia to the east. There were several fortifications along the way to protect travelers and to protect the trade routes for the Egyptians. That was not the way for the Israelites to travel.

So this is another shot of the Red Sea from Mt. Zephahot and gives you a little the idea of the rugged terrain that they were going to show through. So they’re not traveling very fast if they're having to go through that kind of terrain. You are fortunate if you're moving three or four miles a day when you have a couple of million people that you're trying to take care of.

Let me back up to a map here. Let us read along in the text. So verse 17:

^NKJ Exodus 13:17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, "Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt."

They did not go by the way of the land of the Philistines. They went much further south to avoid any confrontations with Egyptian military forces.

^NKJ Exodus 13:18 So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.

^NKJ Exodus 13:19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you."

That is Joseph had made them swear to take his bones back to the land.

^NKJ Exodus 13:20 So they took their journey from Succoth and camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness.

That is this area just to the west of these lakes connecting be the Gulf of Suez to the Mediterranean. You can see it a little better in this map. Up here you have the location of Pithom and this black dot here is a location Succoth. This places them in this area very soon after they left Egypt.

The Lord is leading them in somewhat of a circuitous route through the desert. We think of wilderness, we think of something a little bit different in American history. Wilderness is really a desert, the desert area. The Lord is taking a circuitous route in order to confuse the Egyptians in their pursuit.

In verse 21 the Lord is leading them. That is a key principle that we have for divine guidance is that God always leads us. He leads us today by His Word. He leads us by His revelation. He’s not going to stick a tower (a pillar of fire) out in front of you or a cloud out in front of you. He's put the Word of God out in front of you. That is what gives us guidance today. That is the light that He has given us.

^NKJ Exodus 14:1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

² "Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea.

³ "For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, 'They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.'

They're wandering around; they’re lost.

^NKJ Exodus 14:4 "Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD." And they did so.

I want you to note as we read through this section all the times pharaoh’s name is mentioned because all of a sudden he stops being mentioned once they start the pursuit across the Red Sea which I think is significant. Up till then it is pharaoh and his army, pharaoh and his army, pharaoh and his army. Then it’s just his army. I think that solves the question of why we don't have a record of a pharaoh being killed at this time is because he didn't follow his army into the sea.

^NKJ Exodus 14:5 Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, "Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"

Typical of anybody who gives something up that they really enjoy. Five minutes later they’re doing it again. Just think of anybody who’s tried to quit smoking or tried to go on a diet or any number of other things we try to give up and then the next day we're doing it again. That's what happened with them. They gave up their slaves and now all of a sudden they’re having to wash their clothes and go to the grocery store and all the other things.

So they decide, “Why did we give it up?”

People have a very short attention span, especially when there are spiritual issues involved. So pharaoh got his army ready.

^NKJ Exodus 14:7 Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them.

So he takes his entire chariot corps with him out to pursue the Israelites. Here we have the illustration of the different types of chariots that the Israelites have. So this is their light cavalry in pursuit of the Israelites. We’re told in verse 9 that they pursued them.

^NKJ Exodus 14:9 So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon.

So once again we're back here in this same area located right up here. They have their backs to the sea.

^NKJ Exodus 14:10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.

They were what? They were afraid. I'm emphasizing this because when we get over into Psalm 78 what do we learn? They’re not afraid once they start trusting God. The only way to deal with fear is to trust God and realize that God is greater than anything that we could possibly fear. So initially they're afraid, and what do they do? They cry out to the Lord. That’s what we are supposed to do whenever we encounter any kind of a challenge (difficulty) in life.

Then they begin to complain. See, that’s what we do.

“What am I supposed to do? I got to turn to God.”

Some times we do it the other way. We start complaining, and then we turn to God. But we’re not any better the Israelites were so we don’t want to look down our nose at them and act as if they’re complete losers. We're told that they start complaining with Moses –“that you just brought us out here in the desert so we can all be slaughtered by the Egyptians.”

^NKJ Exodus 14:12 "Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?'

Excuse me this still the Israelites speaking in verse 12.

For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness."

This is another problem that we see that’s going to plague this generation: they don't have a capacity for freedom. They can't handle the freedom; and they would rather stay slaves. They keep the slave mentality, which means that they can’t handle responsibility. This is a major problem we have with this nation. We have raised several generations now that have become increasingly more pampered, more spoiled, and more unwilling to deal with the realities of life.

It is not the parents fault. I know some of you and you had children that are in spiritual rebellion. Just as there have been generations in Israel's history where the children were in spiritual rebellion, the parents were not blamed. It is each generation's decision. I have become aware almost on a weekly basis of numerous families (numerous parents) who did all they could: praying for their children, taking them to church, teaching them the Word. Then when their children get into their 20’s and 30’s they turn their back on everything that their parents taught them and reject all their values and reject Christianity and just live like the world. They have a slave mentality. The younger generation coming up even though there are some bright lights that I see it now and then and am very happy with; there are also more and more than just don't want to exercises initiative, take responsibility and take ownership for their lives. They want the government to take care of them. They want somebody else to take care of them; and they just want to live a life of pursuing personal pleasure and comfort.

Francis Schaeffer warned of that 30 years ago, that that was going to be the death knell of Western civilization and the United States. That same mentality characterizes the Israelites. It is a slave mentality; refusal to accept responsibility for their own actions.

But notice Moses’ response. He doesn’t rebuke them for being slaves, for being wrong, for griping and complaining. He points them to the Lord.

^NKJ Exodus 14:13 And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD,

That word salvation isn’t spiritual salvation. That has to do with deliverance from this crisis in their life.

which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

^NKJ Exodus 14:14 "The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace."

This is a great promise. This is one of those a tremendous promises that we have in Scripture that we can apply today. The same Lord that fought for them is the same Lord that fights for us. God plus one is a majority and God is greater than any problem that we will ever face. The same God that was greater than all of the might and the power of the pharaoh is greater than all the things that are arrayed against us today. We can trust Him and rely upon Him and He is working.

There are all kinds of things going on in this country that I think are there because God is not finished with the United States of America. God is not finished with us. There may be times of discipline and hardship because of the people in this nation who have rejected Him and rejected His values and rejected absolutes. But nevertheless God is still in charge.

^NKJ Exodus 14:15 And the LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

^NKJ Exodus 14:16 "But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

Now what is interesting is there always seems to be people who try to explain the supernatural events with some sort of naturalistic explanation: that there was a great wind or there was a volcano or earthquake or something of this nature. That is not the case. This is a situation where God intervened supernaturally. He suspended the normal laws of physics and geology and meteorology and caused the water to divide and for the ground to be dried up perfectly so that all of these people could cross over. It would have taken them forever if they've been trudging through the mud, not to mention how miserable it was.

The parting of the sea as we see in this particular illustration is typically depicted for example in DeMille’s The Ten Commandments as being rather narrow opening. I think this opening was at least a mile wide if not two or three miles wide. If you're trying to move two million people across that distance in a short amount of time, then they have to have more than a four-lane highway. They have to have an extremely wide avenue. This opened up a huge area that was dried out instantly and the people made their way across the sea. As they did, pharaoh’s heart was hardened.

^NKJ Exodus 14:17 "And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen.

Now for a lot of people this sounds kind of strange. How did God gain honor over pharaoh? How is God glorified in this? Well, let me tell you. Forty years later when the Israelites crossed into the land at Jericho and the word was getting out among the Canaanites that the Israelite army was coming, they remembered this story and they were scared to death. That is what honors God, recognizing that He is the real creator of the universe and the one who is in charge. The point of this was to demonstrate that God was who He claimed to be.

^NKJ Exodus 14:19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.

^NKJ Exodus 14:20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.

It took nearly the whole night for everybody to get across.

^NKJ Exodus 14:21 Then 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 into dry land, and the waters were divided.

During the night, it takes the whole night to blow it all back (separate it) and then they cross in the midst of the sea.

^NKJ Exodus 14:22 So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Then afterward the Egyptians pursue them into the midst of the sea and then we're told – notice verse 23.

^NKJ Exodus 14:23 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

The Egyptians pursued them. It's not for pharaoh and his army any more. The Egyptians pursued them and all pharaohs’ horses - not the pharaoh and his horses, not the pharaoh and his chariots. We lose that terminology. All the pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen were destroyed during that particular time. They were unable to follow the Israelites into the Red Sea.

Psalm 136:15 describes this same event and talks about God overthrowing pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea. But the word for overthrowing is naar meaning to shake or shake out or to destroy and does not mean necessarily that the pharaoh was drowned in the sea when the waters covered them as described in verses 27 down through 28.

So the conclusion is given in verse 31.

^NKJ Exodus 14:30 So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

^NKJ Exodus 14:31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.

Again, an indication of their salvation. This whole event is picked up in the New Testament and used as an illustration of a spiritual reality for the Church Age believer. It shows that there is a parallel between these two events. In Israel you have the redemption of the people from slavery in Egypt which is parallel to the redemption of the believer from slavery to sin. We’re born in bondage to the sin nature. Romans 6, Paul says, “But we were saved (we were delivered) therefore no longer live as slaves to unrighteousness but live as slaves to righteousness.” So there is a shift that takes place when we are saved. We’re freed from the tyranny of the sin nature. We still sin, but it no longer has that same dominion just as the Jews no longer were under the dominion and tyranny of the pharaoh that they wanted to go back there just as you and I want to go back to the sin nature have control over us. Redemption is pictured there with the picture of the Passover.

Now the next thing that happens is there is an identification that takes place with Moses and this happens at the Red Sea. We see this in 1 Corinthians 10:2.

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 10:2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

By means of Moses - that's the phraseology here. The Greek preposition en indicates means or instrumentality - by means of the cloud and by means of the sea. Now “all” indicates the Israelites.

Baptism's literal meaning is immersion (to dip or plunge something into something else, usually something that is wet). But baptism had a significance that went beyond the simple idea of immersion because if you notice here those who went into the sea (the ones who got wet, the ones who were immersed in water with the Egyptians) not the Israelites. But the Israelites are the ones who are baptized into Moses.

The significance of baptism is always identification with something for the purpose of showing interest in to a new aspect of life (a new dimension, a transition) into something new, a totally new condition. So in many passages you will get the meaning or the sense of baptism if you simply substitute the word identify with the word baptism. For example, we are all baptized into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We are identified with that death, burial and resurrection. In the same sense here in 1 Corinthians 10:2 the Israelites were baptized or identified with Moses’ faith so that his faith and their faith in God are all one and they are identified. The event that does that is the cloud and the sea. The cloud is a reference to, I believe, the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ who is represented in the pillar of fire and the cloud who is leading them and the sea which brought judgment upon the nation.

Now this is a really important verse for understanding these baptism passages and especially the whole concept of the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit. Now I want you to notice here that you have the word baptize; that is a passive. So somebody performs the action. Who performed the action of that verb?

Well, the grammatical subject is “all”; but we're not told who performs the action. God is the one who performs the action; He is an unstated subject.

Now the thing into which the baptism identifies is indicated by the Greek preposition eis. This is true with all of the baptism passages. The instrument that’s used to effect or to bring about this identification is always indicated by an “en” preposition. It's a formula that we have. Now this helps us understand what this pictures because the picture of a baptism into Moses is a type of the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit.

When the Israelites were on one side of the Red Sea they were still in the territory of Egypt and they were fleeing slaves. But when they come out on the other side, they've been identified with Moses and they are a new nation.

Now we see the same kind of formula in other baptism statements.

For example Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist is speaking and he says:

^NKJ Matthew 3:11 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance

This is an active voice verb. The one who performs the action is John the Baptist (first person pronoun I). He's baptizing you. That is, the people with water. That is indicated by the Greek preposition en plus the noun for water. The purpose for the new state is indicated by repentance. That is what they’re being identified with. Why are they coming down? Because he preached a message saying, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The instrument is water that is used to identify them as one who had repented of the legalism of Judaism and was identifying with a changed heart towards God understanding repentance. You have to go back to Deuteronomy 30 and the call and the statement that God made in the future of the people would turn to God or repent. He would then restore them to the land and establish the kingdom.

The first part of that verse deals with John. Then he says in reference to Christ:

but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John uses water. Jesus is going to use the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 10, God used the cloud and the sea to effect that identification. We see God will baptize you (en pneumati). That is with fire.

The point I'm making is you always have to identify these prepositions. The en clause is always going to represent the means or instrument; and the eis clause is going to always indicate the goal, the direction, the new state in which they are identified.

Now we see the same thing in Jesus’ statement in Acts 1:5. He said:

^NKJ Acts 1:5 "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

Then the verb is active. John is one who did the action with water (by means of water). The trouble that we get into in English is some translators use the proposition “with” to translate en; others use the proposition “in” to translate the Greek preposition en. People came along and said, “Oh! Over here it is “baptized with the Spirit”; over here it’s baptized into the Spirit. We have two different baptisms.” But in the Greek it was all the same phrase – one baptism.

^NKJ Acts 1:5 "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

And then in 1 Corinthians 12:13 we're told.

^NKJ 1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free -- and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

The “by one Spirit” doesn’t mean the Spirit baptizes us. It didn’t mean that in Matthew 3:11. It didn’t mean that in 1 Corinthians 10:2 or in Acts 1. The Spirit isn’t the one who baptizes is into Christ. Jesus is the one who uses the Spirit to bring us into identification with His death, burial and resurrection. That is depicted by the verse that we looked at in 1 Corinthians 10:2.

So when we think of Passover, what do you thin about? You think of redemption. Passover is next week. When you think of the Red Sea (passing through the Red Sea), you should think of identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection so then after that we are something new. We are a new creature in Christ. Old things have passed away.

So let's close by going back to Hebrews very quickly and just wrapping up what we've done here. We've gone through this section here with Moses, the second longest section next to the one dealing with the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Joseph dealing with Moses and his faith, the faith of his parents to save him (to deliver him) during the time when pharaoh was seeking to kill all the young children in the land, all the young boys.

In verse 24, Moses by faith refused to be identified with the royal household the pharaoh. Then in verse 26 he refused to stay with the riches of Egypt, preferring the reproach of Christ. Verse 27 is the third example – by faith he left Egypt because he didn’t fear the anger of the king. Then the fourth example by faith he kept the Passover. Fifth example, by faith he passed through the Red Sea. That ends the major section here in Hebrews 11 in dealing with all of these examples.

Now we’re going to have a few more examples but the writer runs through them very quickly. He's going talk about Jericho, Rehab, talk about judges in verse 32. The whole point of this is that we can follow them in trusting God. Just because it's Old Testament doesn't mean it doesn’t relate. The example of faith in the promise of God is just as integral to the spiritual life of the Church Age believer as it was to the spiritual life of the Old Testament believer. We have more, but the basic issue in the Christian life is still trusting in the promise of God. It's like the old hymn, “Trust and obey, trust and obey for there’s not other way to be happy in Jesus Christ than to trust and obey.” Nothing else works without basic trust in the promise of God and that produces our ability to relax and to enjoy all that He has for us even when everything's falling apart around us.

Let’s close in prayer.

Illustrations