Once again, as we come to look into God’s Word, I remind my heart, and I remind your heart, that there is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable—a principle that you cannot take for granted. If you take it for granted, God will not use it anymore.
That principle is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit. It is not only a principle of Bible study, but as you go on in the Lord, you will see more and more that it is a principle of life. It is how we are to live: totally dependent on God’s Holy Spirit.
Before we go to prayer, I would like to share a verse from John 4. This is the story of the woman at the well. John 4:10:
Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God,
and Who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink;
thou wouldest have asked of Him,
and He would have given thee living water.”
Such a tremendous truth. In nature, thirst seeks after water; but in grace, water seeks after thirst. Our Lord Jesus is seeking for the thirst.
When He asks anything of you, it is so that you would turn around and ask Him to give you what He asks of you. He said, “Give Me a drink,” but He really wanted her to say, “Give me a drink.”
So, whatever He asks of me—if He asks me to love my wife as Christ loved the church—I need to turn around and ask Him to work that in me. Everything that He requires, He then says, “Now, you ask Me.” If you knew the gift, and Who it is, you would ask, and I would give you living water.
The Lord desires to provide everything He requests of us. Let us pray together and ask Him to find and satisfy the thirst.
Our Father, we thank You that You are the living water, and You seek for thirst in order to satisfy our thirst. We pray tonight that You might manifest Yourself. We ask You to take the veil away. We know only You can reveal God to our hearts.
We know that when we see Him in reality, we will become like Him. So we trust You tonight. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts. Now we commit this session unto You, in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I thank you again for the privilege of allowing me to come and share the little of Christ that God has begun to make known to me.
As one given the privilege to teach, I take great comfort in Matthew 15:13—or at least one little part of that verse:
Every plant which My heavenly Father planted not shall be rooted up.
I love that truth. Everything that is not from Him will not survive; it will be uprooted.
Now, I believe Psalm 119:128 with all my heart:
Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right;
and I hate every false way.
Though I hate every false way, I know that I am not infallible. I want to present before you Christ in all His loveliness and all His beauty. I desire that, but it is possible that I might misspeak or misrepresent Him in some way.
I have the assurance that if He has not planted it, He is going to uproot it. So you are safe. You are safe.
I thank God that he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is not in danger from anything Ed Miller says. He who hungers and thirsts after righteousness will be filled. So I pray that God will protect you from anything I say that might be flesh and blood, and that we would hear from Him—that His Holy Spirit would unveil the Lord Jesus in a fresh way.
In our weekly studies in Delaware, we are going through the redemptive history of God’s people, Israel. We are presently in the Book of Joshua. So far, we have been looking at just a little block of redemptive history, covering about fifty years. That is all we are looking at.
We have called it redemption from and redemption unto: redemption from Egypt and redemption unto Canaan—redemption from Egypt and all that is pictured by Egypt, and redemption unto Canaan and all that is pictured by Canaan.
As you know, there is a salvation from and a salvation unto. Many of God’s people have experienced salvation from, and they have yet to see, by the Spirit of God, salvation unto.
When God’s people were delivered from Egypt—and we sang about it tonight—they sang a song. They sang a song of victory, the Song of Moses. In Exodus 15:17, at the end of that song, we read these words:
Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance,
the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in,
the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.
As soon as they were delivered out, they sang a song and ended with, “You will bring us in.” I love Deuteronomy 6:23:
And He brought us out from thence,
that He might bring us in,
to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers.
He brought us out in order to bring us in.
That land of Canaan, as we are studying it, was a marvelous picture of the Lord Jesus Himself. He is our inheritance. The land of milk and honey pictures Christ.
As they were to enter that land, we enter Christ. As they were to conquer in that land, we conquer in Christ. As they were to discover their portion in that land, we discover our portion in Christ. As they were to settle down and live in and off the land, we are to settle down and abide in Christ—live in Him and off of Him.
That little section of history, out of Egypt and into Canaan, is what we are looking at.
Again, just being delivered from is only a little part of our redemption. Praise God if He has brought us to that place where we have been delivered from. You could name all the things, but especially delivered from me—delivered from self. Praise God for delivered from.
But in the picture, the absence of Canaanites was not victory. They had to possess the land. The land is the picture of Christ.
Many times Christians think that the absence of legalism is victory. It is not. Some people have just thrown the law out. I have seen it: “We do not need the law anymore.”
Victory is Christ. It is a Person. It is possessing Christ. These Old Testament pictures wonderfully illustrate that.
In the little study we are doing in Delaware, we are considering the journey from Passover to crossover—from Egypt to crossing the Jordan River. We begin with the idea of Passover: they were redeemed by power and by blood.
Power is illustrated by the plagues, and blood is illustrated by the Passover lamb and the blood applied to the doorposts and the lintel. They were redeemed. They were God’s people. Bringing it up to the New Testament, they were born again. They were Christians.
Deuteronomy 1:2 says that it is an eleven-days’ journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, to Kadesh-barnea. After their stay at Sinai, which was the will of God, it was only eleven days into the Promised Land. It should not have taken them another thirty-eight and a half years. It was only eleven days. He saved us out to bring us in.
I want to describe this little block of redemptive history. It is only fifty years, but as I understand it, I see four stages of maturity in Christ.
We do not have time to look at all four. I will mention the four, but we are going to look at the first one and the last one.
In every case, they are redeemed. They are already saved, redeemed by power and blood. But in the first stage, illustrated by the crossing of the Red Sea, God’s people are redeemed and running. I want to look at that this evening.
Right after that, they were redeemed and rejoicing. That is the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:
In Thy lovingkindness Thou hast led the people whom Thou hast redeemed:
Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to Thy holy habitation.
Then, in Exodus 14:30-31:
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians;
and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.
And Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians,
and the people feared the Lord:
and they believed in the Lord, and in His servant Moses.
So we have redeemed and running, redeemed and rejoicing. But you know the sad story. They turned back at Kadesh-barnea, and now they were redeemed and wandering.
Each of these descriptions describes an experience in a Christian’s life: redeemed and running, redeemed and rejoicing, redeemed and wandering. Finally, when they came to the Jordan and entered the land of rest, they were redeemed and resting.
There is a big step between redeemed and running and redeemed and resting. In the privilege you have allowed me to have tonight, I would like to look at the first: the crossing of the Red Sea, redeemed and running. Then, Lord willing, tomorrow, we will look at the crossing of the Jordan: redeemed and resting.
That is the outline of what is on my heart.
We are going to pass over those other two stages, though I encourage you to meditate on them, because there is much instruction about our redemption. Tonight, let us look at this record.
I want to call attention again to what I have already mentioned several times: these people are saved. They are God’s people. They are Christians, and they are crossing by faith. Now, they are running. They are struggling, but they are crossing by faith.
How does God deal with His people when they are redeemed and running? You can ask that question for each of those descriptions.
Hebrews 11:29 says:
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land:
which the Egyptians assaying to do were swallowed up.
Nothing could be clearer than that verse: they crossed by faith. There should be no question in anyone’s mind that Israel crossed by faith. It is spelled out for us.
But what kind of faith was it? We know it was genuine because God says so. God said it was real faith. You can choose whatever word you want to describe it. I am just calling it struggling faith. They had faith, but it was a struggling faith.
I once heard Dana Condon—and I know you all know that dear brother—I once heard him make this comment: “Assurance and confidence are nothing more than faith with a history.” Faith with a history.
Before faith has a history, sometimes it lacks assurance, and sometimes it lacks confidence. The more faith trusts in the living God and sees how faithful God is, the more assured and the more confident that faith becomes.
When they came out of Egypt, it was faith without a history. They had tasted a little, but they were new. They had just been redeemed by power and blood. So they had struggling faith.
This is illustrated in several ways. When they came to the shore of the Red Sea, listen to Exodus 14:10:
As Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes,
and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them;
and they were sore afraid:
and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.
Do not get me wrong. On the level of earth, I think they had a lot of reason to be frightened. The Bible does not only say frightened; it says very frightened.
When God led them to this place—they were guided there by the cloud—He knew what Pharaoh would think. Exodus 14:3 says:
Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel,
They are entangled in the land,
the wilderness hath shut them in.
God set them up. I know God set them up; it is in the record. They were shut in.
When God led them east, it meant that between them and the Sinai desert there was a barrier: the Red Sea. They did not have engineers to build a structure to cross—a bridge or something like that. They did not have boats. They did not have a plan.
“How are we going to proceed? How are we going to carry on?” They had no preparation for that. On the low level of earth, where none of you live, I know, they were shut in. They were stuck. They had an impossible situation.
They had just left Egypt, and God was right about Pharaoh. He thought they were wandering aimlessly around. That is what they thought too.
Because they were trapped, they thought they were dead ducks. Egypt changed its mind and started coming after them. In front of them was water; on the sides were mountains; behind them was Egypt, with six hundred iron chariots and many other soldiers. In front of them was the Red Sea. Of course they were scared. Who would not be? They were anxious.
I call attention to that because Hebrews says, “By faith Israel crossed the Red Sea.” Then I read the record, and I see that they are fretting. They are anxious. They are nervous. They are scared—very scared.
Would you not think, because we see so much, “If I am anxious, if I am worried, if I am fretting, if I am afraid, I am not trusting God. I am not believing. I do not have faith”?
Well, they were anxious. They were afraid. And God said they crossed by faith. There must be a way in which anxiety does not contradict faith.
Not only were they afraid, but let me show you their mental state. Exodus 14:11-12:
Is it because there were no graves in Egypt,
that thou hast taken us away to die in the wilderness?
Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us forth out of Egypt?
Is not this the word that we spake unto thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?
For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
This is the redeemed on the run. They are redeemed, but they are running. Their human reasoning expresses itself in one of the most repulsive forms because they are questioning the wisdom of God. They are questioning God’s leadership. They are blaming Moses.
“Why in the world did you bring us out here? We never should have come here. This is a terrible idea. The whole thing is stupid. This is dumb. Why in the world are we in this predicament? We should not be here.”
They were a little sarcastic. It was sort of like, “Nice going, Moses. What, not enough graves in Egypt? You had to bring us out here to bury us out here?”
Their attitude was, “Moses, we told you before. You should not have butted in. We would have been better off staying in Egypt.”
Then I come to Hebrews: “By faith Israel crossed the Red Sea.” And I am thinking, “Faith? They had fear. They had anxiety. They had mental reservations. They had doubts.”
That did not contradict the fact that they had faith. I want you to know and believe with all your heart that struggling faith is not unbelief. Struggling faith is real faith, and God accepts it as the real thing.
The difference between struggling faith and unbelief is made clear in Matthew 26:41, when He told Peter:
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Judas betrayed the Lord. He did not have a willing spirit. Struggling faith has a spirit that is willing. Therefore, it is real faith. God sees it as real faith.
I am not encouraging anyone here—not encouraging myself—to trust the Lord and be worried, to trust the Lord and fear, or to trust the Lord and question Him. I am not saying that.
I am saying that when you are redeemed and on the run, you may experience this: “I am still afraid. I still have a lot of doubts. I do not know what is going on.” But do not let that contradict the fact that God sees your heart. He sees real faith, and He counts it as real faith.
I want to show you from the record what struggling faith looks like. Hopefully, you can say, “That is not me.” Or maybe you will say, “Well, maybe that is still there.” But praise God for His grace. Praise God for His mercy.
I want to give three little pictures. I love word pictures. Picture Israel standing on the shore of the Red Sea, looking over their shoulders, terrified because the Egyptians are coming.
Then take another scene. They are halfway across, walking on dry ground, with two walls of water on either side of them. Hold that for a moment.
Then they crossed at night. It was a stormy night, and they could not see. They did not know what was in front of them. Were there wild animals over there? They had heard about giants and Canaanites and all of that.
I want to take those three scenes and picture the past, the present, and the future. Egypt, which is their past, is coming to take them again into condemnation. Those who are redeemed and running have a temptation to look at the past.
The walls of water picture the pressure of the present—the fear that those walls of water might come crashing down. The darkness before them pictures the future: going into the unknown.
Egypt pursuing represents the past. Exodus 14:22 says:
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 right hand, and on their left.
That represents the pressures of the present.
Then, in Exodus 14:19-20, we learn that the angel of God and the pillar of cloud moved behind Israel, coming between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel. There was cloud and darkness, yet it gave light by night. Thus, one did not come near the other all night.
It was dark when they were crossing.
Psalm 77:16-20 describes that night:
The waters saw Thee, O God;
the waters saw Thee, they were afraid:
the depths also trembled.
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.
Thy way was in the sea,
and Thy paths in the great waters,
and Thy footsteps were not known.
Thou leddest Thy people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
I do not know if that is only poetry, or if it describes the night itself—a violent storm. We know it was dark for the Egyptians. It seems there was wind and a violent storm, perhaps an earthquake, a tempest, thunder, and lightning. You have three million people crossing over on that stormy night.
When you are redeemed—saved by power and blood—you are tempted to look back at Egypt: “They want to take me back to bondage.” You are tempted to look up at all the pressure on both sides of you and say, “I do not know if I am going to make it through this. That is going to come crashing down.”
When you are redeemed and running, you are afraid of tomorrow. You are afraid of the future. What lies ahead? The unknown.
What I would like to do is show you, because the record illustrates it, how God deals with those who are redeemed and running when they look back. What does He do when they look at the walls of water? How does He deal with the darkness of the future?
He loves those who are redeemed and running. He would rather see them redeemed and resting, but along the way, He meets them always, ever as they are, where they are, to bring them to the place He wants them to be.
How does God deal with those who are redeemed and running when they look back over their shoulders? Egypt wants to come again and turn them back into slaves.
The redeemed were marching out as conquerors. This was not a prison break. This was not an escape from some penitentiary. Exodus 13:16 says:
With a strong hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt.
And Exodus 12:36 says:
The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they let them have what they asked.
And they spoiled the Egyptians.
They were marching out as conquerors. They were not sneaking out in the dead of night. Exodus 14:8 says that the sons of Israel were going out boldly. That is how it started: “We are marching out. We are conquerors. We are plundering the Egyptians.”
Then they heard the sound of chariots, and all of a sudden their boldness turned to mush.
Exodus 14:5-9 records that Pharaoh changed his mind. He made ready his chariot, took six hundred select chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over them. He chased after the children of Israel, and they overtook them camping by the sea.
Then Exodus 14:10 says:
As Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes,
and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them;
and they were sore afraid:
and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.
They looked back, and they were very frightened.
Maybe you have experienced it. I hope it is not true in your life, but thousands of Christians are living in bondage to the past—as victims of the past, in condemnation. They see those horsemen coming and the chariots coming, and they tremble.
They look back. Egypt represents all that slavery and bondage: past sins, past blunders, past disappointments, and perhaps even past victories. They say, “There is nothing we can do about it. The past is past. We cannot undo what has been done. We have to live with these terrible consequences.”
“I cannot forgive others for what they have done to me. I cannot forgive myself.”
By the way, there is nothing in the Bible that says you have to forgive yourself. If the Lord has forgiven you, do not worry about forgiving yourself. Just lay hold of His forgiveness.
But what about the guilt, shame, and condemnation of the past? How does God deal with that?
Exodus 14:19-20 tells us that the angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel.
Brothers and sisters, especially if there is someone truly redeemed who still has struggling faith—redeemed and running—and feels like a victim of the past, you are never a victim of the past. You are always at the mercy of the Lord. You are not at the mercy of anything that has ever taken place.
What does God do? Notice this: He puts Himself between their past and them.
When they look back at the past, they can only see the Lord. The bright side of that cloud was on God’s people, on their side. I have often heard people say, “Look on the bright side.”
Someone says, “There is no bright side to my history. There is no bright side to my past.” No, read it carefully. There is a bright side to the Lord. It was the Lord who gave the light. There is a bright side to the Lord.
As I stand before you, I do not have a perfect past. As I stand before you, I have perfect peace about my imperfect past, because I look back and I can only see Jesus.
You can look back and only see Jesus.
Does that mean the past is going to stop chasing you? No. Read the record. It is not going to stop chasing you. It means it is not going to get to you, because it has to get through Jesus to get to you. So it is not going to get to you.
But if you read it carefully, you notice that the Egyptians—the past—were driving them. You say, “Yes, I know. My past drives me too. It drives me crazy. It drives me nuts. It drives me to drink. I know about it driving me.”
No, no, no. Read the record. The Egyptians were driving them deeper and deeper into the will of God. The Egyptians were driving them to the Promised Land. God turns that curse into a blessing. The past is now actually bringing them closer to the Lord. In fact, that is the shortest route to Jesus.
If you are a Christian, I tell you with all the conviction God has put in my heart: no matter how ugly or repulsive your past has been, you are not at the mercy of your past. You are a Christian. You are at the mercy of the Lord.
You have made a dumb decision. You are not at the mercy of that dumb decision. You are at the mercy of the Lord. You have done something to hurt somebody. You did not mean to, but it happened. If they are Christians, they are not at the mercy of what you did. They are at the mercy of the Lord.
We need to see how God deals with that. The past will never reach you. It will drive you closer and closer to Jesus.
How does He deal with imperfect faith when it is tempted to look back? He puts Himself between you and your past, so when you look back, all you see is Jesus. Oh, may God burn that into our hearts.
The redeemed and running not only have the problem of being tempted to look back. Again, Exodus 14:22 says:
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 right hand, and on their left.
How high were those walls of water? The Bible does not tell us, and the commentators are wrong. The more I go on in the Lord, the more that becomes my hobby: to see how much I can disagree with my commentator.
When Jacob mentioned his son Reuben in his dying blessing, he said, “Reuben is as unstable as water.” Water is unstable.
How do you picture those walls? Like the walls of Jericho? Walls of water? Like two piles of snow on your driveway, piled up on the sides with a path through the middle? Like water behind aquarium glass?
I do not know how you picture it, and I do not know if I am right. But I picture it more like Jell-O—some kind of unstable thing.
What was holding those walls up? Listen to Exodus 14:21:
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea;
and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night,
and made the sea dry land,
and the waters were divided.
It was wind holding that up. Exodus 15:8 says:
With the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were piled up.
The Lord just breathed. But I do not see it as solid. I see it like this, and that is why I think it is such a great illustration.
I do not know a greater illustration of the past trying to get you than Egypt coming after you with those chariots. I do not know a greater illustration of the pressures of life than those wobbly walls, when you have to pass through and it seems they are threatening to come crashing down on your head.
If you do not know what I am talking about, let me apply it. I am talking about all the pressures we know: health, finances, relationships, family, schedules, deadlines, sin, the desire to grow, concern for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren—pressures, pressures, pressures.
There you are. How does God deal with that? First of all, let me call attention to what has already been said and read. It is God, not Satan, who piled up those pressures. God is the One who put those pressures in your life.
You say, “I am having a hard time. I do not know how to deal with pressure.” Well, good. You are not supposed to know how to deal with pressure. You are supposed to know how to deal with Jesus. I am supposed to know how to deal with Jesus. It is not the same thing.
He arranged the pressure. By His power, it stays there. He is the One holding it up, and He is going to allow you to pass through that pressure.
Did you notice that it is redemptive? The same pressures that scare you killed them. It was the same water, the same pressure. It is redemptive, positively and negatively.
Some people look at the pressure in your life and say, “How in the world can you have peace at a time like this? How can you give thanks for something like this? That pressure in my life would kill me. That would wipe me out.”
On the negative side, those who are not responding—you know, the savor of life and the savor of death—to them, those pressures are finally going to come down and sweep them all away.
But you do not have to be stuck in the mud. You do not have to have your wheels fall off.
The Lord deals with your pressure by keeping it up. He gives His power to hold that pressure back. He uses it redemptively, and finally, He is going to lead you through it.
But how? Exodus 14:21 says that Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land.
The only way you are going to get through the pressures of the present is by learning to walk on miracle ground—ground that He has already dried up.
It was a miracle walk for them to get through that pressure. Their part—their whole part—was to walk on dry land.
I can imagine that in some future age, a child would say to his grandfather, “Tell me again about crossing the sea. How did you do that?”
“Oh, son, you should have seen me. It was amazing. I walked on dry ground.”
“Wow,” the kid says. “I have been doing that since I was three years old.”
What is difficult about walking on ground that He has dried up?
All those pressures that seem so scary for those redeemed and running—when faith has a history, when you begin to trust the Lord and see His faithfulness—you are not going to look back so much. When you do, you will see Jesus.
In those pressures, you say, “All right, Lord, I do not understand. It is redemptive. You are going to use it. I am going through.” And He will take you through. You are not going to get drowned. You are not going to get stuck.
This is how God deals with that pressure.
The redeemed and running are also afraid of the unknown future. It was dark, as I suggested. They did not know what was over there. Were there diseases over there? Wild animals? We know there were people who hated the Lord over there.
Just as God deals with the past by showing you His presence, and as He deals with the present by showing you His power, let us keep the alliteration going. How does He deal with the future? I am suggesting: by His word of promise.
Exodus 14:15 says:
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto Me?
Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they go forward.
One of the principles of Bible study that has been very helpful to me is suggested by Arthur T. Pierson: first mention, last mention, and full mention.
The first time something is mentioned in the Bible is unusually important because it often spells out the way it will be developed. The last mention is also significant. Then there is full mention—some place in the Bible where the subject is dealt with fully.
The first time you ever see the words “go forward” in the Bible is right here. It is a simple question: what did it take that day for them to go forward? The answer is, it took a mighty miracle. That is what it took.
We talk about going forward in the Lord. What will it take to go forward in the Lord? The answer is a mighty miracle of God.
For those whose faith has not yet had a history, that is frightening. The impossibility of crossing the Red Sea without a miracle is just a tiny picture. It took a mighty miracle.
But I will be honest with you. Compared to the miracle I need to live a holy life, to be conformed to Jesus, to turn the other cheek, to love Lillian as Christ loved the church, and in everything and for everything to give thanks—the impossibilities of those things—I would rather face ten Red Seas.
I would rather run face-first into those iron chariots than try to obey anything in my own strength. How I need a miracle of God to go forward. How you need a miracle of God to go forward—to walk on ground that He has dried up.
So the Lord says, “Go forward.”
I want to show you a marvelous sermon Moses preached to those who were redeemed and running. It sounds more spiritual than it is.
Exodus 14:13-14:
Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not,
stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which He will work for you today:
for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today,
ye shall see them again no more for ever.
The Lord will fight for you,
and ye shall hold your peace.
How many times that text has been used—and what a text it is. “Stand still. See the power of the Lord. God will fight for you.”
When you are redeemed and running, that is a wonderful message. But not as you hear it, and not as I heard it.
I remember in those days when I first heard it. It was brand new to me: “Stand still. See the salvation of the Lord.” The way I heard that was, “I am passive. I do nothing. I sit down. I wait for God. If He does not come, nothing happens.”
And nothing happened.
Do you know what God said right after Moses said, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord”? Here is the next verse, Exodus 14:15:
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto Me?
Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they go forward.
Amazing verse. It sounds so right: “Just stand still, and you will see the salvation of God.” God says, “Moses, why are you praying that? Why are you telling them that at this point? Tell them to go forward.”
How do I face the unknown future? You go forward by a mighty miracle of God.
You say, “Well, I need to be strengthened first. I need God to make me adequate.” Dear friends in Christ, give up on that dream. He will never make you adequate. He wants you to know His adequacy.
He is not going to make me adequate. He is not going to change me. I am me. Flesh is flesh; it will forever be flesh. He wants me to come to know Him. I proceed as a worm, and I thrust them out. I go forth in my weakness. So He says, “Go forward.”
As I get ready to close, I want to show you a couple of things that bring this drama—and it is a drama—to a conclusion.
Exodus 15:9 records the enemy’s declaration:
The enemy said, I will pursue,
I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil;
my desire shall be satisfied upon them;
I will draw my sword,
my hand shall destroy them.
No wonder they were scared. There is an enemy out there, and he has declared, “My hand will destroy them. I will pursue them. I will overtake them. My hand will destroy them.”
But in this drama, there is another hand. Exodus 15:6:
Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power,
Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy.
And Exodus 15:10-12:
Thou didst blow with Thy wind,
the sea covered them:
they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand,
the earth swallowed them.
There is a hand that says, “I will destroy them.” There is an enemy that hates your guts, hates my guts, and he is real. There is a real enemy out there.
But there is another hand, and it is the hand of the Lord. Although they are redeemed and running, they cannot understand the message of grace, “Stand still,” not yet. They will get it when they have a little history.
Pharaoh has his hand and says, “I will destroy you.” God has His hand and says, “I will deliver you.”
But there is another hand in the drama. Exodus 14:15-16 says:
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto Me?
Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they go forward.
And lift thou up thy rod,
and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it.
We are very close to “By faith they crossed the Red Sea.”
Satan’s hand: “I am going to destroy.” God’s hand: “I am going to deliver you.” Moses’ hand.
When God said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand,” I do not know what version of the Bible you are using, but here is what Moses did: he cupped his hands like this, bent over, and began to bail.
You do not have that version, Jerry? You know that is not in your Bible. But I wonder how many of you have been doing that.
“Stretch forth your hand.” What does that mean?
When Moses stretched forth his hand, there was no effort on his part. He was going to do it again, you know, when he was enabled to be propped up.
Listen to Exodus 14:21:
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea;
and the Lord caused the sea to go back.
There is a hand that wants to kill you. There is a hand that wants to deliver you.
But this hand will not move until this hand moves. God says, “You stretch out your hand.” Then, in union with God—I cannot do it by myself. He will not do it by Himself. But in union with me, He will do it.
How does He take me forward? The answer is, “You stretch out your hand, and watch Me stretch out My hand.”
That is like Peter in Acts, with the crippled man. Peter reached down and lifted him up with his hand. Later he prayed, “Lord, keep stretching forth Your hand to deliver.”
We have the wonderful reality of faith here: if I do not stretch out my hand, God is not going to stretch out His hand. Later on, when faith has a history, you will return to that great sermon: “Stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord.” But at first, you do not understand that. You just think it means nothing—I have no part.
God brings us to this impossible place because He wants to take us forward. He sees your faith. It is real.
You say, “Yes, but I am so nervous.” So what? You say, “I am scared.” It does not matter.
“I am nervous about the past.” Look at Jesus. He puts Himself between you and your past.
“I am scared about this pressure. I have so much pressure in my life, you would not believe it.” He will hold it back by His power. He will hold it back. He is going to lead you through it. He is going to lead you through.
“But I do not know what the future holds. Tomorrow is so dark out there. It is so scary.” He says, “Go forward.” By a mighty miracle of God, go forward.
And they did, and you know the story. That is how He deals with those who are redeemed and running.
Lord willing, tomorrow we will look at that great step: redeemed and resting, when we cross another body of water—the Jordan. Salvation from: redeemed and running. Salvation unto: redeemed and resting. That is pretty good.
Our Father, thank You for Your Word. We always have to say, “Not what we think it means.” You have inspired the pages of the Bible. You put these stories there for our hearts and for our instruction.
Would You work in every heart everything You have inspired these facts to mean? We give You the thanks, in Jesus’ name.