Exodus 14 reminds me how much I hate paying people to do a job I know I can do myself. I recently had six trees cut down. A crew showed up with proper equipment; they climbed, cut and carried away all the mess, finishing the job in a day. Pros make even difficult jobs look easy. Today’s lesson is that overconfidence can get you killed. The chapter begins with the boss arriving. The Lord told Moses: “Tell the Israelites to turn back… encamp near… the sea.” Experience is a wonderful teacher, but learning through mistakes can be painful. The Lord knows our heart. His instruction continues: “Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are… hemmed in by the desert.’” The Hebrew evacuees included women and small children. Their pace would be quite slow. They needed the aid of some misdirection. God’s goal was not just protecting Israel: “I will gain glory for Myself through Pharaoh… the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” In the midst of death and grief in Egypt, Pharaoh wanted revenge. He thought that he could vanquish his enemy because no one was more powerful in all of Egypt. “He had his chariot made ready and… he took six hundred of the best chariots… he pursued the Israelites.” Here is a helpful tip for any DIYer; trees do not look intimidating from a distance, but up-close, they become much more formidable. My wife was quite clear: “You are NOT getting on a ladder”. Pharaoh had no one willing to stop him. “All Pharaoh’s horses and chariots… pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea.”
As Pharaoh approached: “the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified.” Egyptian chariots were fearsome weapons. They included an archer, shields, swords, and close combat knives. Nothing could match them in battle. The Israelites reacted with dread: “They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?’” The outlook was grim, so they turned on Moses: “What have you done to us… It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” I wonder if my neighbors worried about their fences, roofs and sheds as the very large trees were coming down? I watched from the safety of my home amazed by the precision of the experts. Moses told the nation: “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” Moses did not ask them to pick up weapons, he just told them to watch and learn: “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Many of us are not very good at being still.
It was time to get this project started. The Lord said: “Tell the Israelites to move on.” The army of Egypt is on one side and the Red Sea is on the other. Moses became God’s tool: “Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.” We can be so timid when we are nudged by His Spirit to act. What will people think? God made the first move: “The angel of God, who had been… in front of Israel’s army… went behind them… coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.” God protected His people. The Egyptian army was stopped in their tracks. “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea… the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and… the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground.” Moses believed, but God preformed the miracle. The Egyptians were in awe: “The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” It is not wise to fight against God. There was still the cleanup to be completed: “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians… The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh… Not one of them survived.” After the chaos and noise, there must have been silence as the people scanned the shoreline. Is the enemy really gone? They witnessed the power of God: “the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed… the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him and in Moses His servant.” They witnessed the work of God, but would they trust God with the next project? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Friend, are you overconfident in your own abilities?