Dr. John Oswalt, Exodus, Session 7, Exodus 12-14

[Music] [Applause] this is dr. John Oswalt in his teaching on the book of Exodus this is session number 7 Exodus chapters 12 through 14 let's pray together thank you Father for this day thank you for the beautiful sunshine the cool breezes thank you for all the ways in which you show your love to us and we receive it with thanks and joy Lord you know every concern that we bring to you in a room full of people like us there are many issues health issues financial issues issues of family and the list goes on thank you that you know these and you care about them and you are reaching out to deal with them we would pray especially this evening for our friends the rulers pray that you would touch both of them her as she is caregiver and him be with them Lord we would ask you to restore them to whatever degree of health is possible in these days thank you for them and we pray your comfort for them thank you again for this marvelous opportunity to study your word once again we ask you Holy Spirit come open its truth to us open our hearts to that truth and help us to be more nearly the people that you need for us to be in this world in these days in your name we pray amen all right we are looking at chapter 12 verse 43 through the end of chapter 14 this of course is the Red Sea crossing and there's something very appropriate that we would be looking at this passage here on Monday of Holy Week because there's a great connection between the exodus and the resurrection the of course you have Jesus and the Passover meal in the Upper Room all of those factors so there's something wonderfully appropriate for us to be talking about that here and we begin with the end of chapter 12 and we have more Passover regulations and so my question to you is why do you think that these regulations were not given with the others back there in Chapter 12 all the way chapter 12 verses 1 through 20 any thoughts about why these regulations should be separated from the others [Music] yes yes it's sometimes a good idea to spread things out yes you're exactly right if you look at those verses verse 43 these are the regulations for the Passover meal no foreigner may eat it any slave may eat it a temporary resident or hired worker may not eat it verse 48 a foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover must have all the males in his house circumcised so I think that Ruth is exactly correct we have had the Exodus not the crossing of the sea yet but the departure from the land and we're told if you look at 1238 many other people went up with them in the the King James translates it pretty literally and it's called a mixed multitude a mixture of people people who perhaps were Semites but were not of the family of Jacob maybe some Egyptians went along they had seen what this God could do and they thought maybe it'd be a good thing to be on his side so I think that's exactly right these these restrictions that are given here are in the light of these other people who have joined the Exodus group here are some additional things that need to be said about it so that if you as a foreigner are willing to accept the Covenant obligations as indicated by circumcision then you in effect are joining the coven and that's very significant I think the Covenant was not ethnically based the Covenant was not merely for the physical descendants of Abraham yes that's where the core focus was but anybody who wanted to accept the Covenant obligations could do that and that signals for us the truth that God is not merely interested in the physical descendants of Abraham he's interested in bringing the world into the Covenant and so here is the evidence of that and that's going to increase as we go through so that if you look over at Isaiah chapter 56 Isaiah 56 which is on page 693 verse three let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say the Lord will surely exclude me from his people let no eunuch complain I'm a dry tree for this is what the Lord says to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath's who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant to them I'll give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters I'll give them an everlasting name that will endure forever and foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him to love the name of the Lord to be his servants who will keep the Sabbath without desecrating it those who hold fast my covenant these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations you remember that's the very language that Jesus used when on Monday morning of Holy Week he cleansed the temple my house is to be a house of prayer for all nations but you have made it a den of robbers so here in isaiah 50:6 we are building on this thought and eventually paul can say the true children of abraham are those who accept the Covenant by faith so you've got this progression running all the way through the Bible and these Passover regulations here are a step on that path as we go through okay back to Exodus once again we have things sort of mingled chapter 13 verses 1 to 16 is primarily about the consecration of the firstborn but in the middle of it we have regulations about the feast of unleavened bread verses 3 through 10 are really not about the firstborn but about the feast of unleavened bread what do you think is going on here Oh thoughts okay you can talk again if they won't you might as well all right all right all right it is to honor God for their deliverance that when they do this they are to remember and I think this is I think this is very much to the point it's very easy for us to get in a habit of doing certain rituals and forget why we do them forget what the significance is okay we we always consecrate the firstborn and it has to be said the Hebrews are not the only ones who consecrated their firstborn to the God this is not something unique to the Hebrews many of the pagan nations did the same kind of thing and so what's happening here is God is saying don't forget why you do this this is true of other of the festivals at the time of the Passover pagans were celebrating the new year and they are rehearsing the story of the God who defeated chaos and brought order out of chaos at the same time the pagans are doing that the Hebrews are remembering God brought us out of slavery God delivered us from death not in the never-never land of myth but in our time and space god broke in so I think Ruth is exactly right that it is in that context it's in the context of unleavened bread feast that we remember we've got a very different reason for consecrating the firstborn and that is because God delivered us it can be said that at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall the pagans are worshipping the god Bacchus the god of alcohols and the Hebrews are called to remember their unintentional sins of the previous year and to weep over them unintentional sin remember not intentional sins there is no stated festival there's no stated sacrifice for that those things have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis but the Feast of Tabernacles the pagans are getting drunk the Hebrews are weeping weeping over their unintentional sins of the previous year okay notice verses five and nineteen when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites Hittites amirite Evite's and Jebusites the land he swore to your ancestors to give you a land flowing with milk and honey you are to observe this ceremony in this month now it's interesting now we're focusing ahead the regulations in the previous chapter were focusing back you don't eat unleavened bread because God brought you out and you didn't have time to raise the bread now it's when you come into the land again in verse nine this observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the Lord is to be on your lips now here is the memory for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand you are to do this thing as a way of writing God's commands we're gonna be coming up to the Covenant here on your forehead on your hand these things are a means of reinforcement you remember that in Deuteronomy they are told to write God's commandments on the doorposts as they go in and out so that they will see them but now let me push this a little bit question three there what's the connection between the sacrifice of the firstborn and what God did in Egypt I mean why do I sacrifice the firstborn lamb I mean God God spared the firstborn in Egypt because of the blood why do I have to do this sacrifice of course I cannot sacrifice my son but I do have to redeem him I have to buy him back from God now why is that do you think they're physical that couldn't think that Jesus is the firstborn of God and therefore Jesus was to sacrifice the supreme ultimate sacrifice everything mm-hmm uh-huh yes yes I think I think very possibly this is a way of preparing for God's sacrifice of his firstborn son yes I think so look at verses 14 through 16 particularly verse 14 what function is the sacrifice of the firstborn gonna fulfill according to verse 14 it's a reminder yes it is not only a reminder it's a teaching device dad why are we doing this let me tell you a son over and over and over again why are we alive today why is our nation going on because of the grace of God and by doing this we force ourselves to remember and this is exactly what Jesus said in the upper room as often as you do this do this in remembrance of me why do we take communion over and over and over again if we are forgiven it's to remind ourselves on what basis do we live what's the basis for this faith of ours so yes the blood really did cover them but this is a continual reminder of that truth don't forget it we live because of that so what does all this say about the importance of history to theological truth all right there are facts that back up the faith that's right at the heart of it I can say well I believe that I am going to rise from the dead and somebody else says yeah and I believe I'm a ham sandwich one belief is as good as another ah ah Jesus Christ rose from the dead the tomb is empty one of my favorite stories comes from Gerry walls a former professor at the seminary who in his introductory philosophy course at a certain point said now folks suppose suppose I could bring someone here today who had in controvert able proof that Jesus did not rise from the dead we've got the body of Jesus how many of you would still be Christians and typically half the class would raise their hands and he would just almost come over the desk at them what do you think what are you doing this for that's stupid if he didn't rise from the dead as Paul says we are of all people most to be pitied because we have believed a lie and that doesn't begin with the resurrection it goes all the way back into the very core of our faith at least as far as this if not farther to Abraham yes we believe certain things because there is evidence external to our own psyche that confirms it and we mustn't ever lose sight of that that's why the question of the historicity the Bible is so important it's also why the enemy makes it a number-one priority to undercut the historicity of the Bible but we can't get away from it if these accounts are false then we are kidding ourselves but they're not false they're true and good reason to believe them all right let's push on when Pharaoh verse 17 when Pharaoh let the people go God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country though that was shorter there in Goshen which is here this short way to Canaan is right up the coast and that's an eleven-day journey by walking that would have been the easy way to get them to Canaan if that was the purpose now I've talked about this again and again but I want to hit it again getting them to Canaan is not the primary purpose we're going to have another chance to talk about this next week suppose God had led them that way what would not have happened crossing the sea would not have happened they would never have had that remarkable confirmation of God's absolute incomparability the easy way in fact would have not been the easy way over the long term it certainly would not have been the best way but look what God goes on to say if they face war they might change their minds and return to Egypt well God could have delivered them from war why do you think he didn't want them to encounter war at this point all right they're too inexperienced exactly exactly I'm glad you said that because I was gonna push you on that very point next yes it's not a question the experience in war it's a question the experience in faith the Lord knows they had enough problems with that as it is but without the confirmation of the crossing of the sea it would be very easy for them simply to throw up their hands and say this is all over there's no point in that yes yes they might have lost all the offering if they had for the tabernacle yes that's right they would not have had that witness that is again that we'll look at in some detail next week in chapter 15 yes they weren't ready yeah yeah they were at that point they were far enough away from Egypt up here that it wasn't easy to go back but here on this road they could have easily gone back if they had been confronted with that war yes yes yes yes yes it's interesting about three times in this section we see the words that we hear here at the end of verse 18 the Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle oh really now literally what it says is they went out of Egypt like an armed troop I think the point of that is not that they were ready for battle this is not my translation I think what it's saying is that they didn't sneak out by night and nobody knew they were gone what it means is they marched out they went out in the full sight of everybody I think that's the point but but three times it says they went out marching like a troop and I think that's the point that's being made there do you have some experiences of the hard way versus the easy way that you'd care to share with us well you always have that verbal selling of the house the proverbial selling of a house there's no way yeah I think of a kind of similar situation but I think of now I think people all right they're just tremendous blessings and okay the people yes Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah anyone else after we yeah yeah hindsight is 20/20 yes [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah amen amen amen so God did not take them the easy way instead we're told verse 20 they can't by 'litham at the edge of the desert verse 2 of chapter 14 tell the Israelites to turn back and encamped near P high growth between McDowell and the sea we don't know any of those locations they're two encamped is eat directly opposite boughs the phone Pharaoh will think the Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion hemmed in by the desert so it appears that they came out this way and looked as though that we're starting here and then now the see that they crossed was not the Red Sea the Red Sea is down here and it is twelve hundred feet deep they would have tumbled down one side and had to go up hand over hand over the other side they may have crossed the tip up here the Gulf of Suez but the Bible actually says they crossed the reed see the the Hebrew Bible only at the very end in the late prophetic period talks about crossing the Red Sea up to that point every occurrence is the read see now the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament it uses Red Sea from the outset and that's where we get it in our English Bibles but the text says the Hebrew text says they crossed the reeds see the reed seed was this whole area up through here where they gulp where the Suez Canal is now and it was filled with these Lakes called the bitter lakes and they interestingly were titled that when the tide rose and fell here in the Gulf of Suez these lakes would rise and fall some to the water evidently running underground and they were salty that's why they're called bitter lakes so it is most people today most evangelicals who believe the Bible believe that probably what they crossed was one of these bitter lakes of 25 or 30 feet deep which is enough to drown anybody so it was miraculous but it was not like the Prince of Egypt or the Ten Commandments where you've got a hundred feet of water standing up in walls on either side was the water standing up on either side that's what the Bible says so how that all works out I think is not easy to answer but at the same time the Bible says it was a miracle and that's exactly the point because in answer to that prayer the wind blew all night and the water separated and they crossed on dry land okay we'll talk more about that in a moment yeah no it is it is it is a series of lakes and and the whole thing is called the Red Sea more interesting story sure yeah yeah okay yes yeah that's why I'm here [Laughter] yeah yeah yes yes no I don't I don't think so I don't think so you're not alone in that yeah yeah yeah no oh very significant difference yes see of sooth yes and sooth is the Hebrew word for reeds mm-hmm yeah yeah yeah yeah but I say again this is not in any way to diminish the miraculous nature that water was deep enough to drown horses and it divided that's a miracle in my book yes exactly exactly I think if you're going to draw it in a larger perspective you can imagine a lake like that and here they are and here comes the largest chariot Corps in the world at that time as as I guess I mentioned in the notes here the horse and the chariot at that time were the ultimate weapon and the Egyptians as best we know had the largest chariot Corps in the world at that time so here they come and there's nothing they can do they're backed up desert on either side see it their backs it's over and clearly the text says that precisely because that happened is what encouraged Pharaoh to think now's my chance they're wandering around in the desert they don't know where they're going they're going to get backed up against one of those lakes so in a sense again God is inviting Pharaoh into this trap now he didn't do it against Pharaoh's will but he gave him a situation where Pharaoh could go back on his word if he chose to and he chose to now again I have to say I think all of us have to beware in that kind of a situation God does not tempt anyone to do evil he does not seek to persuade us to do evil he does not put us into a situation where we have to do evil but he will allow circumstances so to develop that if we choose we can walk into a trap okay time is flying yes yes yes and this also explains both the dry ground this sandy bottom would dry out very quickly but it would still so you could walk across it but it would still be soft and you try to drive horses and chariots through there you're in trouble and it's it's again so interesting to me the way it is said in yeah verse 22 the Israelites went through the sea on a dry ground with a wall of water on their right on their left the Egyptians pursued them and all of Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea again not thinking very clearly but hey here's the opportunity we can do it now and it's in that context that they do it okay a further reason for leading them the wrong way is in verse 4 14 for I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord here's another for our list of no so God leads them the wrong way not only to teach them his goodness in his glory but also to defeat the enemy alright question number two under fourteen one two nine is that thing about going out marching now let's look at verse 14 of chapter 14 verses 10 to 14 as Pharaoh approached the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians marching after them they were terrified and cried out to the Lord but evidently not in faith they said to Moses was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out to the desert to die what have you done by bringing us out of Egypt didn't we say to you in Egypt leave us alone let us serve the Egyptians it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than die in the desert Moses answered the people do not be afraid stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today the Egyptians you see today you will never see again from the text God has not told him that we have no place prior to this where God has told Moses what he plans to do so here one person has learned the truth of the plagues God can be trusted all of them we're in a mess obviously the mess is hopeless God got us into this just because for some reason rather he wants to destroy us No stand still stand still and see the salvation the Lord will bring you today the Lord will fight for you you need only be still one person one person learned the lessons now I I'm sure there were others as well but the contrast between the people and Moses here is so dramatic it appears they haven't learned anything but Moses has so the Lord says why are you crying out to me tell me his rights to move on raise your staff stretch your hand over the sea to divide the water so the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army through the chariots and the horsemen the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh his chariots and his horsemen so what are some ways that God can gain glory through our lives I think you're exactly right exactly right any other thoughts there how can God gain glory through our lives by going against tradition or what is expected and you stand for what can be seen as good not expected yes yes yes yeah yes you know I think Lexington okay okay yeah they surely are they sure they are yeah yeah yeah I I wish I had a a need for a couple thousand t-shirts yes yes precisely in this situation where their backs are to the wall and it seems as though the enemy is triumphing God says in this situation I'm going to gain glory so not only when we're in those hard situations and we believe but also when we allow God to put us in those hard situations we've talked about some of those already I've often said when by God's grace I get to heaven I'm gonna ask him what was that college presidency about and yet I have said to students for 30 years now Karen and I have had every experience of divine leadership there is from total darkness well I guess we should do this to the thumb in the back and the college presidency was the thumb in the back we've got to do this both of us knew that and yet pretty hard pretty hard yep yep just so yes yes let me let me talk about that as I as I indicated in the background material the Hebrews used numbers very differently from the way we use numbers we use numbers exclusively for quantity the Hebrews sometimes used it that way but much more importantly was quality and you can think of the numbers like 40 and 12 and 7 that our numbers about quality not necessarily quantity so this can get us in a lot of difficulty and the numbers of the Hebrew people crossing the Red Sea is one of those when you think of two and a half million people which is what it would amount to if there were 600 thousand fighting men we're not talking about what God could do that's that's not that's not on the table but the question is what did God do and the logistics here when you begin to think about it are staggering if you have a column of two and a half million people if the front is a mile wide the tail is nearly ten miles back so if you've got a front a mile-wide from here into Wilmore how long does it take a group of people 10 miles long to cross it begins to raise some serious problems then when you think about the encampment of two and a half million people you're talking about something in the neighborhood of 20 square miles and that's minimal so again is that what the Bible is describing and it doesn't seem to be the case now there have been a number of attempts to solve the problem one possible solution and as far as I'm concerned none of these really answers it but one possibility is the the Hebrew language did not have vowels until 500 years after Jesus it was written in consonants the consonant for 1,000 is that here's this silent guttural just done you stop and an L and a P the word 4,000 is LF and the the P following the ball is soft like an F LF the word for a troupe is aloof both those words in a continental text would have been indistinguishable so one suggestion is that the original text said 600 troops of men with maybe a troop being a hundred I think the problem with that is there are clearly times when these three consonants are used for a quantity of 1000 and so how you would distinguish between those I think raises an issue I think another possibility and honestly this is the one that I find most probable is that in fact the total of the people was 600,000 half a million people is still a huge bunch of people to get across a sea in a night but it's not beyond the realm of possibility whereas I think two and a half million is beyond the realm of possibility I don't think you could get them across the sea in two days so those are issues that the text raises and doesn't ever in my mind fully answer but I would I would say again I just want to underline this they don't use numbers like we use numbers and interpreting any text you have to interpret it in the terms of the original writers not in your terms and so it's in that regard okay let me yes what is the symbolism of God acting in the early hours of the morning the we're told that the wall of fire and cloud separated the Egyptians from the Hebrew people and the wind blew all night then the Lord stretched out his hand over the sea all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind turned it into dry land the waters were divided verse 24 during the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion what's the significance of God acting in the early morning it's dark mm-hmm now for those of us who are vowels like me nothing really gets done in the early morning but God seems to be a lark and not an owl what's the significance of the early morning yes it's a new beginning what else yeah the moment before in the moment after a sharp contrast yes that's night this is day mm-hmm all right all right it took it took a great deal of faith we can talk about the lack of faith of these people but it still took a lot of faith to step out in the darkness toward this body of water and to believe that we're going to make it God usually calls upon us to step out in the dark he rarely calls us to act in the bright midday when everything is perfectly clear I think also and I perhaps am speaking of my own experience here I just don't know a more miserable hour than 3 o'clock in the morning every problem is insurmountable and it's in that moment that God chooses to act it's in that moment that God says come on yeah yeah you're exactly right I forgive me if I've told this before the the summer Karen and I were married I worked as a night watchman in a brass foundry and a lot of the buildings were empty and walking through those big old empty buildings at 3 o'clock in the morning every shadow was a threat and I was always so glad for my four o'clock round because I knew that by the time I finished the eastern horizon would be getting pink it was going to be okay yes yes yes look back at chapter four verses 30 and 31 Aaron and Moses have shown up they have performed the signs verse 31 and they believed and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery they bowed down and worshiped uh-huh now chapter 6 verses 8 and 9 God has said in the previous verses I am the Lord I'll bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians I'll free you from being slaves I'll take his my own people etc Moses reported this to the Israelites but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor now look at verse 31 of chapter 14 when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant they let their circumstances control how they felt yep Oh Moses Aaron this is wonderful news yes we love the Lord will obey Him we'll follow him until the Pharaoh starts making us make bricks without giving a straw oh the Lord is wonderful he has delivered us he's led us across the Red Sea yes we trust the Lord we trust Moses until there's no water so how does this relate to us what does it say to us see he is believing them like you said they they praise God and worship but then when they didn't see that when they didn't have the concrete evidence of something happening yeah yeah faith oh go ahead faith faith must overcome circumstances yes I think there's some truth in that there's some truth in that I'm we're going to we're going to see an expression of that in the Golden Calf incident yeah yeah so I think that's an important is our faith really in human leaders sometimes we have too many options I'm too young for that unquestionably backus's into quarters well we have to open him yeah but this this whole issue of is my faith the result of pleasant circumstances is my faith the result of a human leader is my faith the result of no other option is my faith faith or is it something else something considerably less than faith and that's a challenge for us I think let's pray Lord Jesus thank you that you have come thank you that you have died on the cross and risen from the dead forgive us Lord when we are so like the Israelites when we are ready to believe you when all is well and the future is clear and yet so easily swayed when things go wrong thank you that you know us know us so very well and yet still have patience with us still reach out to us care about us lead us on Oh God deepen our faith ground it secure it in you thank you in your name Amen [Music] [Applause] this is dr. John Oswalt in his teaching on the book of Exodus this is session number 7 Exodus chapters 12 through 14 [Music]

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Keywords: Exodus, Exodus 12-14, John Oswalt, Francis Asbury Society, biblicalelearning.org, Ted Hildebrandt

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Length: 69min 39sec (4179 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2018