Start your day off right with the free In Touch devotional. Subscribe today. Dr. Charles Stanley: Well,
this text is about one of the most interesting events in the
Old Testament, and all of us have heard about it at some
point in our life and probably thought about it, but never
thought about applying it to our own personal life. This book is all about applying
evidences of God and His presence, His power in our life. When you read it, do you read
the Bible in order for God to speak to you? Do you read it because you're
looking for information? Or do you want God to work in
your life in a very special way? God has a message all the way
from Genesis one all the way through the last chapter: the
Revelation. And in this fourteenth chapter
and several chapters around it is the story of the great
escape. We hear that phrase, but this is
what the great escape is all about, beginning with the
invitation of the Pharaoh, Joseph interpreted a dream and
his reward was he became sort of the overseer in Egypt, and when
the time came, Egypt was saved. Then the Pharaoh came and got
all of his family, which was about seventy members, Joseph's
family, brought them to Egypt, gave them the best land in
Goshen. Years went by and the king
who--or the Pharaoh who was Pharaoh during those days is
gone, and almost four hundred years have gone by, and so the
Bible says, "There is a Pharaoh that arose in Egypt who knew not
Joseph." And what he's simply saying is
that Pharaoh began to question the power and the numbers of
Hebrews that were in their land, and the Pharaoh decided, having
not known Joseph at all, he decided it was dangerous for
them to be almost two million in number, that they could side up
with their enemies, and all of these Hebrews who had been a
part of their family there could become enemies. And so, he decided to enslave
them in order to protect themselves. And what we have in Exodus is
God's response to that and how God moved and worked in their
lives. Now, I want us to look at this
as the great escape. But I want to give you five
principles, but I want you to just jot these down because
these are five principles that I want us to see as a result of
what's going on in this issue here, and also to look at any
other passage of Scripture that you would also ask the question:
Now God, what are you saying to me? You say, "What does God have to
say to me from something that happened thousands of years
ago?" That's the way the unbeliever
thinks about the Bible. That's all the way--also the way
many careless believers consider and treat the Word of God. Well, that's ancient, that's
old, what's that got to do with the twenty-first century? It has a lot to do with it
because there's nothing in this Bible that's unnecessary or
unimportant. So, this event that happened
that many years ago is a very vital expression of who God is
and how He works. And I want you to understand how
does God work. We look in the Old Testament,
the New Testament, we see how God has worked in the past. How does He work today? God hasn't changed. The Bible said God's changeless. In other words, He doesn't
improve. Situations change and
civilizations change, but the principles of the Word of God do
not change. Everything that went on in the
Old Testament, in Genesis, is still going on today and all the
way to the Revelation. So, the Bible is always
applicable in every circumstance of life. The problem is we just don't
know the Bible well enough to know where to turn to apply that
to our heart. So I want us to look at this
incident that we know very well about Moses and the Red Sea, and
then I want us to just pull out at least five principles here,
just to show you how to do this and how you can do it in any
passage of Scripture that you're dealing with. So, when I look at this and
realize what's happened, Pharaoh's afraid, so they
enslave God's people. And how long they were enslaved
we don't know, but a very long time. And here is Moses
who grew up in Egypt, in Pharaoh's household,
you'll remember. Because Pharaoh's daughter found
him in a little ark in the Nile River. And so he grew up in their
schools educated by the Egyptians, so he knew very well
how they lived. And there came a time when he
committed a crime. That is, he killed an Egyptian. And so went over to the other
side of the desert, Midian. Now, forty years later, God
dealt with Moses at the burning bush and told him to go back to
Egypt because He wanted him to lead His people out of bondage. And you remember that story. And so he comes back and God
begins to work in his heart and he begins to go about doing what
God said do. And of course, confronting
Pharaoh about releasing all these Hebrews was absolutely
ridiculous as far as Pharaoh was concerned. For what reason? And so, naturally, Pharaoh
didn't pay much attention to that, so this is when you and I
find in the Scripture what God knows how to do. He knows how to get people's
attention. So, what did He do? He started with the first of ten
plagues. And then that one work of God
that changed the whole story is that when God killed the
firstborn of all of Egypt and all the people inhabited there. You remember the Scripture says
that Moses gave the people of Israel instructions. The Death Angel's coming through
Egypt. And you want to put blood on the
doorpost, the lintel of your house. If there's no blood, the
firstborn is going to die tonight in your family. Of course, many people didn't
believe that and experienced death. Many people did. But that was the ultimate, final
blow to Pharaoh to realize he could no longer keep these
people captive and he could no longer ignore their religion and
what they believed. And so, naturally, they were let
go, and when they were let go, they also, the Scripture says,
the people in Egypt, the citizens of who were Egyptians
gave them their gold, their silver, their clothes,
everything to get rid of them. If you had lived through those
ten plagues, you'd been happy to give them anything to get rid of
this Moses guy and all of these people who were called Hebrews
or Israelites in those times. So, with that in mind, I want us
to look at this first principle I want us to think about. Now, we know the rest of the
story, but we're coming to it. The first principle is this: God
always knows which way is best. Now, what do we mean by that? God always knows which way is
best 'cause all of us face situations and circumstances in
life, and we wonder, God, how do I get through this? How do I survive this? How do I handle this? Well, the--I want us to see this
in this first issue here. When Pharaoh finally let the
people go after these ten plagues and then decided, for
example, afterwards that was a mistake, then he arranged his
army to attack the Israelites and to bring them back. The Israelites were completely
vulnerable, surrounded by the desert on the one side and the
sea on the other. And so, what was happening was
that Pharaoh was watching this. He was convinced that the
Hebrews had trapped themselves. They were in the desert with a
desert on one side, the sea on the other side. And so, he decided that he was
not going to tolerate this because he decided he couldn't
afford to let them go. And so, we sort of know the
story of what happens as a result of that. And the truth is, they were only
two weeks away from the Promised Land when they had come to the
Red Sea. But because of other events,
forty years later, they come to the Promised Land. And the result of their
disbelief, their unbelief, their disobedience before God, that's
what happens. When you read this story and you
put it all together, the big message is: you disobey God,
it's very costly. God had the best of everything
planned for His people. And so, what happens is Pharaoh
challenges them, and God knew all about that. And so, this was not a surprise
to God. And the one thing that happened
to Pharaoh was this, what happens to a lot of people: they
forget who's in charge. God was in charge, not Pharaoh,
not even the Hebrews were in charge, God was in charge. God's purpose was to demonstrate
to the Egyptians that the God of the Jews, the God of Israel, the
God of the Hebrews, was the one true God. Listen, God's way is the best
way because, watch this, because the issue is what's God's
purpose? There are some times when you
won't be able to get what you want. It's not that you are doing the
wrong thing. It's that God has something
better. He has something, listen,
something bigger. And I can think back in my own
life and realize a few times when I thought, "Well, this is
certainly the right way," and God said, "Mm-mm-mm-mm, no. No peace, no joy, that's not the
right way." And then find out, "Thank You,
Jesus, I didn't go that way." And so we all look at what's the
normal, natural thing. So, God has something better in
mind. So, the second principle I want
us to see is that God's faithful to provide for His people. What did they have?
They had nothing. They'd lived in huts. They were slaves. They had nothing. And the last thing they would've
thought is that the Egyptians were going to empty their house
of their precious commodities, from clothes to silver and gold,
jewels, and give that to the Jews. Watch this, only God could've
spoken to the Egyptians and said, "Give it to 'em. Get them out of here." So, here they leave now, and it
looks like they're free and they have been blessed greatly by all
of this Egyptian gold and silver and all the rest, which leads me
to the third principle. God's always, listen, He's
always present to guide His people. And that is, He's not going to
tell you to do something and then not guide us to do it. So if God tells you to move, or
if He tells you to do this, that, whatever it might be,
remember this: that He knows the beginning and the end. Watch this, He will never tell
you to do something that He does not provide for you to do it,
never. So oftentimes, when I hear
people say, "Well, you know, I know God told me to do that, but
I couldn't figure it out, so I just said no." That's a disaster because if God
tells you to do something, He's responsible to make it possible
to happen in your life whatever that might be. So, we have no justifiable
reason for disobeying God by saying I didn't--I couldn't
figure it out. I didn't understand. God didn't make it clear. God is not gonna ever tell
you to do something that He doesn't make clear. Is He going to give you all the
answers to all the things you'd like to hear? No, He's not going to do that. He wants us to trust Him. And so, when you look at this
passage and you see how God has worked, this is the way God
operates. That is, He's going to show us
what to do, and when He does, we have to ask ourselves the
question: Am I willing to obey God even though I don't quite
understand? And so, the answer is yes, I
will, or no, I won't. And how many people I've met
over the years who've said, "I remember God tried to tell me a
year ago not to do that. I couldn't figure out why not. I did it, and now I'm ashamed of
myself. I'm sorry." Now what I want to know is what
do I do next?" I don't always know what to do
next, I just know that to obey God is always the right thing
whether I understand it or not, whether I can figure it out or
not, whether it hurts or not, whether it pleases anybody else
or not. You don't have to please anybody
but God. Did you get that? You don't have to please anybody
but God. Now, there're lot of folks would
like for you to please them, but you don't have to. You please God, and God, watch
this, listen carefully, God assumes full responsibility for
the consequences of your obedience. Did you get that? God assumes full responsibility
for the consequences of your obedience. And so, if that be true, we
don't have to worry about what's going to happen. Yet, many people will disobey
God for this reason. "Well, I just couldn't figure it
out, and they--it just never was plain to me." Well, you know what? Whatever God asked you to do,
He's obligated by His very nature and promises to show you
how to do what He wants you to do. That doesn't mean He'll tell you
that immediately. Because remember this, when God
gives us direction for something, first of all,
there're sometimes when He has to get out of our minds what we
have already figured out. Well, if this is God's will,
this is what I'm going to do. So God has to sometimes bring
us back to realize that not only will He show you what to do, but
His way is always going to be the best way. And so, here they are out in
this area, and what do they have? Now, they are living by the
cloud by day, the fire by night. And so, God has led them around
to now they are beginning to hear the rumble of Pharaoh's
chariots. So, as far as they're concerned,
they're camping by the sea, and they're saying, this is
impossible. Moses, we knew better than to
have you bring us out here and just keep telling us we're
following God, but now look at us. We are we are trapped, and the
truth is, watch this carefully, they were trapped. You know who trapped them? God trapped them. Watch this, God had something
greater in mind than their simple escape. So here they are trapped because
they have the desert and Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea,
and what do you do now from that? This is where we make mistakes
in life. Listen very carefully, when
oftentimes we don't have an answer, we make a way for
ourselves, which is often disastrous. Because we don't know the way,
and sometimes we're not willing to say to someone, this is what
I believe God wants me to do. I don't know how, but I'm going
to obey Him. Think about this, if you went to
your office tomorrow and you got to talking to one of your
friends, and you said to them, "Well, God wants us to move." He says, "Where you going
to go?" "Well, I don't know, but God
wants us to move." How much real affirmation and
encouragement would you get from one of your fellow employees? "You're telling me that you're
going to move, that you don't have a job, and yet God's told
you to move, and you're not--why, that's crazy!"
So human reason and God's almighty omniscience does not
always calculate from a human point of view. So, here's what happens. He says, "Get ready to march." "Well, where are we going? We can hear the rumble of
chariots, and here's the water. In fact, it's pretty close to my
feet now. And you're telling us head for
the sea and watch God work." Now, God opened up the sea, He
opened it up so the people could pass through. God's command is very important,
'cause here's the principle: God's simplest command can
result in surprising and powerful consequences when we
obey Him. So, sometimes we miss it because
what God tells us to do is very simple. He may say to you, and you're
going through some trouble in your life, and He may say to
you, "Just sit tight. Don't do anything, just trust
Me." One of the most difficult things
in life when you're in pain and suffering or you're facing some
trauma in life, is for God to say, "Be quiet, shh, just trust
Me." And so, God's simplest command
oftentimes is surprising. But it has powerful consequences
if we obey Him. So, here they are. Put yourself in that position. The sea is behind you, the
charioteers of an army that is fully equipped to destroy you is
coming down on you, what do you do? Well, you do what they did, and
they, first of all, said, "Moses, how did you get us in
this position? What's this all about?" So, they want to attack him. And each time God had moved them
in a certain way with the cloud, they knew exactly where they
were going, they were trusting Him. And now, it looks like it's all
over. Watch this, we make our biggest
mistakes in life when we're looking at our circumstances
through our eyes, our abilities and talents and skills, our
circumstances, our situation, and do not look first to God. There are many times in life
you'll find yourself in a situation where you think,
"Well, what do I do next?" It's always best to wait upon
God. You may have to wait a short
period of time or a long period of time. The issue is am I willing to
trust Him in this situation when I've never been in that
situation before? And think about it, God had, in
all His grace, they had survived all those years of torment and
slavery. And now, God headed them toward
the Promised Land that He had promised. And here they are. They're ill-equipped. There's no place to hide, no
place to run. God, what are You doing? And God's representative is
Moses. So, Moses, how did you get us in
this big mess? And yet, sometimes God's
commands, we don't understand. But we have to decide am I going
to do what He says, or I go--am I going to do what I feel like
doing, what my mind tells me to do? And so, there they were. And so, they either had to
believe Moses, trust God or not. And so, you remember what he
said to 'em. He said, "The Lord's going to
fight for you while you keep silent." Keep silent? Well, keeping silent with--is
what got us in this situation. He said, "So that--you're to
keep silent and trust Me." And so, you know the story. So, that night, Moses stands up
and here's what God tells him to do. Lift up your hands and spread
out, spread out your arms and hold up your staff. And when you do, and you tell
them to march, this is the beginning of their victory. Now, what's significant about
that is simply this: sometimes when we are where we are in our
situations and circumstances as they were, God's simplest
command can have awesome consequences. And sometimes God may say to
you, "Sit down, be quiet." Or He may say, "This is where I
want you to go. Just trust Me, don't try to
figure it out." Everything is against them. There's no way to escape. The sea is behind them. Pharaoh's in front of them. We hear the chariots, and so
what are we going to do? Were they frightened?
Sure, they'd be frightened. They had seen what Pharaoh's
army can do. And so, what happens? Watch this. The only thing that happened was
this. Moses lifted up his arms with
his staff in his hand and something began to happen. The sea began to open up and the
people began to march through. And before it was all over,
while they were still dark over here, the Scripture says that
God's people were rescued. They walked out of a disastrous
situation. And it had to take them all
night, I'm sure. There were somewhere maybe two
million or thereabouts. I don't know how long it was,
but what God did is He kept it dark over here until they all
got through. And when they finished, what
happens? Then the light came out. And as a result of that, the
Scripture says that Pharaoh attacked. And so, what did he do? God accomplished what was one of
His primary objectives to begin with. The charioteers came rolling
down upon the Hebrews. And it's interesting because the
charioteers were the first. They--simply they're like a
tank. They were fast, they were
furious, and the soldier was protected. And so, when enough of them got
in the midst of what was water, you know the story. That Moses spoke again, and the
waters came tumbling back and destroyed them all in the Red
Sea. So, the principle here is this:
don't look for someone to blame for your circumstances, look for
God to help you. They were continually blaming
Moses for this and that and the other. And it's always easier to blame
somebody when things aren't going your way. But think about this: Is this
not true that whatever the situation or the circumstance
you're in, watch this, if you are in the will of God, God is
responsible for getting you through it? So, don't look for somebody else
to blame. Yeah, we can all blame someone. I can think back in my life and
blame people for things that have happened to me, just like
you can. But I learned pretty quickly
that didn't get me anywhere. The best thing I could do is get
in the Word of God and say, "Lord, I don't like this. I don't know what You're doing. I wouldn't do it this way. Now, what are You up to? What are You up to?" You know what, He'll always show
you what to do. And it's interesting here, we
look for somebody to blame, and yet when I think about that and
think about also how God worked in Moses's life and all through
the prophets, what He said to Isaiah, Isaiah forty-one, which
is one of my favorite passages. He said in this ninth verse,
"You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected
you." So, listen, "Do not fear, I am
with you, do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I
will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous
right hand. Behold, all those who are
angered at you will be shamed and dishonored, and those who
contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. You will seek those who quarrel
with you but will not find them, and those who war with you will
be as nothing and non-existent. For I am the Lord your God, who
upholds your right hand, who says to you, 'Do not fear, I
will help you.'" What an awesome passage. Now, they didn't have that
passage in those days because that's all the way over to
Isaiah, chapter forty-one. But what an appropriate passage
whenever you're facing difficulty. "But do not fear, I'm with you. Don't anxiously look--" Listen, how could they have not
anxiously looked about them? Because of what they heard,
they'd seen how disastrous a chariot can be rolling over you. And here's the whole Egyptian
army, and what do they have? They're not equipped to fight. All they have was the promise of
God. All they had was the promise of
God, that He would take care of them, and that's exactly what He
did. So, when you think about these
principles, they're simple, don't look for someone to blame
for your circumstances, look to God. And so, what did they do? Each time they got in trouble,
what did they do? They looked to Moses to blame
him. It's always what's--what did--
Moses, how did you get us in this mess? Why, this is--it's all your
fault. And each time God spared them. So, let me ask you this: Who do
you blame in your life? Now, don't answer this out loud. And don't punch anybody beside
you. Who do you blame when you're
facing things in your life? Is there somebody in your life
that you're prone to think, "Well, you know what? There you go again." The wise thing to do is to look
to God. Look to God for help. He's the only One who can help
us in situations and circumstances. Listen, isn't He the only One
who can heal us? Isn't He the only One who can
provide for us when nobody else knows our need? He's the only One who can give
us direction for our life, for absolute certainty. And so, each time they wanted to
attack Moses. And as God said to him, "Don't
pay any attention to them. Raise your hands up with your
rod in your hand, and when you do, I'm going to operate." And that's all he did. And so, God watched over them
and they saw what God was able to do. Now, I hate to tell you this. It wasn't very long after that
they just fell back in the same old trap. But what I want you to see here
are these five principles. God always knows which way is
best. They thought they did, but they
didn't. Secondly, God is faithful to
provide for His people. He did, provided everything they
needed for their trip. God is always present to guide
His people. That is, He's always there no
matter what's going on. God's simplest command can
result in surprising and powerful consequences when we
obey Him. Don't look for someone to blame
for your circumstances, look to God for help. And you might want to jot down
Isaiah forty-one, verse ten, that passage. And so, I would simply say, in
the morning when you wake up, this is a wise thing to do. Don't get out of bed without
Jesus. Once you get out and you start
the day, it's easy to think about this and that, him and
her, and this, what am I going to do here. But before you get out of bed,
you surrender your life to the Lord. Today, Lord, things don't look
very good to me, or Lord, they look so fantastic. I don't want to take You for
granted. And so, what? We start the day out with Him. And we face whatever we're going
to face. Listen, we don't, watch this, we
don't have a Moses. We have Jesus. And we have the Holy Spirit, the
omnipotent, all-powerful Spirit of God who lives within us,
giving us direction, pointing us the way, taking away our fears,
giving us courage, promise after promise in the Word to walk
through the day. That's what we have, if we're
willing to wait and to trust Him. So, you know where you are in
your life today. If you're facing something
that's very difficult, remember this: never too difficult for
God. He knows where you are. He's there to help you. He never runs out of whatever is
necessary to help you. And He wants you to trust Him
step by step in whatever you're facing, you'll always come out
right. Always, not sometimes, always
come out right, by simply trusting Him. We all have been through
difficult times and will go through difficult times. The question is: What do you do
when the bottom drops out? You trust Him. You rely upon Him. You believe Him. You wait upon Him. If they had, listen, if they had
tried to fight, it would have been a total disaster. God, let's--watch this,
sometimes when we're in situations, we try to fight our
way out, it just gets deeper. The best thing to do is to
surrender your life to the Lord and say, "God, I don't know what
to do next, but I'm going to trust You, because You said You
would never leave me nor forsake me." Amen? Amen. Father, we love You and praise
You and thank You for these awesome, not just stories, but
dramas in the Word of God, that remind us of where we are, where
we could be, and what You'll do, no matter where we are. I pray for somebody here today
who's never trusted You as their Savior to remember that apart
from You they have no hope and no real genuine, true help. We're trusting You, thanking
You, thanking You for preserving this event and putting it on
paper, in ink, so we, thousands of years later, could read it,
hear the truth, understand, and apply to our heart and walk
in it. In Jesus's name, amen.
