31. The Fighting God: Moses, Pharaoh and the Faithful God Part 16

[00:00:00] Good day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God, Dave. He, have you ever felt weak? Like you just don't have the power to do what needs to be done? Maybe because you are too small. Maybe your muscles weren't strong enough.

[00:00:17] Maybe because you didn't feel like you could say the words that needed to be said. The Bible says that we're all too weak. We all have enemies that are too powerful. We just aren't strong enough to beat them, but the Bible also says, don't panic.

[00:00:38] Don't worry, don't be afraid because there's a God who fights for us and that God is strong. Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids. At the end of our last episode, the Israelites were panicking. They're escaped from Egypt,

[00:01:26] but now they seem to be trapped. On one side, the Egyptian army was coming to get them. On the other side, there's the sea. There's nowhere for them to run to. The Egyptian chariots are thundering towards them. The Egyptian army is getting ready to charge,

[00:01:45] and the Israelites have forgotten how powerful their God is, despite all the fighting he's done for them back in Egypt. Despite the fact that they can actually see that gods with them in a giant pillar of cloud and fire that's leading them through the desert,

[00:02:01] the Israelites are panicking. They think they're going to die, but God is about to fight for them. Like a good army leader, he has a plan, a plan that's so amazing that no one else has thought of it. He says to Moses in chapter 14 verse 15,

[00:02:22] why are you crying out to me? Command the people of Israel to start moving, raise your walking stick and hold it over their sea. The sea will split, then the people can cross the sea on dry land.

[00:02:35] Uh, yeah. Why didn't anyone else think of that? Because no one else can do it. I can't split the sea apart so people can walk through it. You can't. Not even Moses can.

[00:02:48] But God can hang on a second though. If the sea split apart, why the Egyptians just follow them? Well, God's thought of that as well. You see, he knows that people back in Egypt still don't get it.

[00:03:03] They still don't understand who he is, how powerful he is. They don't understand yet that he really is the one and only true God. That's why they keep trying to fight him. So God's got a plan

[00:03:17] and after he's done this amazing thing, they're all going to know him. In verse 17, God says, I have made the Egyptians stubborn so they will chase these lights. But I'll be honored when I

[00:03:31] defeat the king and all of his chariot drivers and chariots. I will defeat the king, his chariot drivers and chariots. Then Egypt will know that I am the Lord. Now, do you remember all the way back

[00:03:50] to near the beginning of Exodus? Who Moses saw just before he spoke with God at the burning bush? It was the angel of the Lord. It's like he travels with God and he's here with God and the

[00:04:03] Israelites now. He's been at the front with the pillar of cloud but now he moves behind the Israelites. And then the pillar of cloud moves as well. It becomes like a wall blocking the Egyptians from the

[00:04:16] Israelites. It's almost like the Israelites are safe inside a fortress or a castle. Then, as night falls, Moses raises his hand over the sea. Just like God told him to and God sends

[00:04:30] a strong wind from the east. He blows on the water all night. God makes it blow so hard that the water gets pushed back into two halves. There are two big walls of water held back by the wind

[00:04:46] and in the middle, dry land. All of a sudden, the Israelites aren't trapped anymore. They grab their stuff and they start walking. They walk between these two huge walls of water on

[00:04:58] either side of them, feeling the wind in their hair and the spray of water on their faces. The mud under their feet and the cool of the night is they walk all the way through to the other side

[00:05:11] all the way to safety. Now it's time for the next stage of the trap that God set for the Egyptians. The cloud wall stops blocking the way and they see this big channel through the water

[00:05:25] that the Israelites have walked through. The horses have been champing at the bit ready to leap forward into battle and now their drivers urge them on with a lash of the weapon, a cry of battle

[00:05:37] all the Egyptians leap forward into the dry land between the walls of water. This massive, powerful army. But they're not nearly as powerful as the one they're fighting. Verse 24 says this, between two and six o'clock in the morning, the Lord looked down from the pillar

[00:05:57] of cloud and fire at the Egyptian army. He made them panic. He kept the wheels of the chariots from turning. This made it hard to drive the chariots. The Egyptians shouted, let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them and against us Egyptians.

[00:06:14] The Egyptians have thought they were just chasing runaway slaves. Suddenly though, they realise who they're really fighting. Suddenly they remember all the things God had done back in Egypt. Suddenly they realised what a foolish mistake they've made and they try to run.

[00:06:32] But the chariots are getting in the way. The horses are panicking. People are bumping into each other. They're all desperately trying to get back to the land at the edge of the sea.

[00:06:42] But it's too late. They're already caught in the trap. In verse 26, the Lord says to Moses, hold your hand over the sea. Then the water will come back over the Egyptians. Their chariots

[00:06:58] and chariots drive us. Moses raised his hand over the sea. And it dawned the water became deep again. The Egyptians were trying to run from it, but the Lord swept them away into the sea.

[00:07:11] The water became deep again. It covered the chariots and chariots drive us. So all the King's army that had followed the Israelites into the sea was covered. Not one of them survived. Can you imagine

[00:07:29] being in Israel? Watching this army charge it through the walls of water. Then start to panic. Then start to run. But before they can get away, the water crashes down on them and they're all gone.

[00:07:46] Forever. The Israelites had panicked because they hadn't trusted that God would be faithful. They hadn't trusted that God would fight for them. But now they know the truth. Verse 30 says, so that day the Lord saved the Israelites from the Egyptians and the Israelites saw

[00:08:08] the Egyptians lying dead on the sea shore. When the people of Israel saw the great power that the Lord had used against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and they trusted the Lord and His servant Moses.

[00:08:21] And then they sing. They sing a victory song. They sing in praise of their warrior God who fought the battle in one. In chapter 15 verse 1, they sing about what He's done. They sing,

[00:08:36] I will sing to the Lord because He is worthy of great honour. He has thrown the horse and it's right or into the sea. The Lord gives me strength and makes me sing. He's saved me. He's my God

[00:08:50] and I will praise Him. He is the God of my ancestors and I will honour Him. As they sing, they describe how God fought in the battle. In verse 3, they sing this. They say,

[00:09:06] the Lord is a great warrior. The Lord is His name. The chariots and soldiers of the King of Egypt he has thrown into the sea. The King's best officers are drowned in a red sea. The deep water's

[00:09:20] covered them. They sank to the bottom like a rock. Your right hand Lord is amazingly strong. Lord your right hand broke the enemy into pieces. In your great victory, you destroyed those who

[00:09:32] were against you. Your anger destroyed them like fire burning straw. Just a blast of your breath and the waters were blown back. The moving water stood up like a wall and the deep water has became

[00:09:45] solid in the middle of the sea. The enemy bragged. Oh, chase them and catch them. Oh, take all their riches. Oh, take all I want. Oh, pull out my sword and my hand will destroy them. But you

[00:10:00] blew on them with your breath and covered them with the sea. They sank like lead in the powerful water. The Israelites have finally realized how great God is. How powerful and good and mighty He is.

[00:10:18] And so they sing about Him in verse 11. Are there any gods like you, Lord? No. There are no gods like you. You are wonderfully holy. You are amazingly powerful. You do great miracles.

[00:10:32] You reached out with your right hand and the earth swallowed our enemies. You keep your loving promise. You lead the people you have saved with your strength you will guide them to your holy land.

[00:10:46] Do you remember how these were like to been very afraid? They've been a really gutler army because they don't think they're strong enough to beat other armies. Now they realize, though, that doesn't matter. They don't have to be strong because they're God is strong. And so they sing

[00:11:05] about how all their evil enemies are the ones who will be afraid. In verse 14 they sing the other nations will hear this and tremble with fear. Terror will take hold of the Philistines.

[00:11:18] The leaders of the tribes of Eden will be very frightened. The powerful men of Moe will shake with fear. The people of Canaan will lose all their courage. Those people will be filled with fear

[00:11:30] when they see your strength. There will be his stillers of rock. There will be still until your people pass by Lord. There will be still until the people you have bought from slavery,

[00:11:43] pass by. The Israelites get it now. They understand that God has a plan for his people. That he really is going to faithfully keep his promises and take them to a new land. A land not just for them

[00:12:01] but a land for him. A place where people can come and learn all about him and know that he really is the one true God. So they finish this song with these words from verse 17. You will lead your

[00:12:16] people and place them on your very own mountain. Lord, that is the place you've made for yourself to live. Lord, that is the temple that your hands have made. The Lord will rule forever. I asked

[00:12:36] at the beginning if you ever felt weak. Like you don't have the power to do what you need to do. The Bible says that there are a couple of things that we're so weak on, we can never help ourselves.

[00:12:50] Firstly, we're too weak to stop sinning. We just can't do it. We're way too selfish. We always want to put ourselves before God. Something else we're too weak to beat is death. When we die,

[00:13:08] we can't make ourselves alive again and that would all be so sad if it was the end of the story. Our great enemies of sin and death would win. But God is a warrior and God fights for his people.

[00:13:27] Jesus, God the Son, came into the world to fight for his people. On the cross he defeated sin, he won the victory just like he won the victory over the Egyptians and then he died.

[00:13:45] Which made it look like he'd lost. It looked like he was trapped. Just like the Israelites had thought that they were trapped. But actually it was death that had fallen into the trap. Jesus went into death so that he could beat death. He won the victory over death.

[00:14:06] So now even though followers of Jesus still die, the Bible actually calls out death something different. Do you know what the Bible calls it? It calls it sleep and the big difference between

[00:14:20] sleep and death is that you wake up from sleep. And one day, when Jesus comes again, he'll wake up all his people who've put their trust in him. He'll take us to a brand new promise land, a new creation, and we'll be with him forever.

[00:14:56] That was our last episode on Exodus. There is more to the story, but we'll have to come back to it another time. I'm going to take a few weeks off and get myself

[00:15:05] ready for the next series. We're going to be looking at part of the life of Jesus. It's going to be so much fun. In the meantime, I'd love for you to send me a message. Tell me how you listen

[00:15:16] to the show. He's at in the car on the toilet while parachuting out of a plane. A big shout out to Zoe who sent me a message through the website, faithfulgod.net. Zoe especially enjoyed the series

[00:15:27] where we looked at the life of Elijah and how he was fed by Ravens. Thanks for making context, Zoe. Growing up, to find out more and help out by praying for this ministry, please sign up for my

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