Sunday: To the Promised Land via a Dead End
“And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD” (Exodus 14:10, NKJV).
Have you ever been set up, led into a trap or to a dead end? Sometimes it can be nice, like walking unexpectedly into a room of waiting friends who all shout “Surprise! Happy birthday!” At other times it can be quite a shock, even a very unpleasant one. It may have been bullies when you were at school, or a work colleague who unexpectedly tried to make you look bad.
Image © The Classic Bible Art Collection – Formerly Standard Publishing at Goodsalt.com
From the day the Israelites left Egypt until they reached the Promised Land, “the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night” (Exodus 13:21, NIV). Every part of their journey was led by God Himself. But look at where He led them first: to a place where the sea was before them, mountains were on either side, and Pharaoh’s army was within eyesight right behind!
Read Exodus 14:1-31. Why did God bring the Israelites to a place where He knew they would be terrified?
Following “the pillar” doesn’t assure us of being happy all the time. It also can be a hard experience, because training in righteousness takes us to places that test our hearts, which are so naturally deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). During these difficulties, the key to knowing when we are truly following God is not necessarily the absence of trials or pain but, rather, an openness to God’s instruction and a continual submission of our minds and hearts to His leading.
What lesson did the Israelites learn from this experience? Exodus 14:31.
| Why is trusting God sometimes so hard, even though we may know many of the wonderful promises He has for us? Recount some difficult situation you believe the Lord led you into in order to teach you to “believe” in and to “fear” Him. |
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Back in 2005 I attended a research conference at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. We actually flew into Las Vegas a week before the conference so that we could visit Bryce and Zion National Parks. We landed at the airport, picked up our rental car and headed up Highway 15 towards St George and on to Hurricane where we were to spend the night. For those of you who do not know the area, the road Northeast of Las Vegas is over fairly flat desert countryside until you reach the Arizona border. You drive towards a fairly imposing range of mountains for quite some time and it is hard to imagine that the highway passes though the mountains. Your passageway seems blocked and it is only at the very last moment you find that the highway actually travels up through the very narrow valley formed by the Virgin River. It is a very impressive combination of scenery and road engineering.
Carmel was impressed. Not only was I driving on the right side of the road, on the wrong side of the car. I knew what the road conditions were like and that the road went through impossible mountains. In 2005, Google Earth was still fairly new, but I had studied it carefully before the trip.
In our spiritual lives, we often face impassible mountains or steep-sided canyons. For those who are unprepared, these hazards may seem impossibilities but for those who are prepared, there is the comfort that you know the problem has a solution. Just as Google Earth gives us confidence to go on "impossible" trips God's "Google" gives us the confidence to face the spiritual "impossibilities".
Study Guide asks:
What lesson did the Israelites learn from this experience?
They seen the power of God, first hand witness, as God protected and saved them through the troubled waters, and believed in his servant Moses and judged their captors worthy of death.
Might the advice in Proverbs 3:5-6 reflect the principles involved when we find ourselves in situations like the Israelites did in the Exodus passage explored in today's lesson?
Exodus 14:22
So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the *dry ground* , and *the waters were a wall* on their right hand and on their left.
We see here four things:
>Real creator
>Miracle worker
>Promise giver
>Light in the darkness
This is our God almighty, take a look the water was not removed but there were two walls and on their back side, was the army of Egyptians, we need to know that God will not remove the sufferings in our lives in all our sides only in front of ours will be the way, which is Jesus Christ, but at our back is the army of satan and on left and right handsides ,the crucibles(tests) to make us to go through, hence Salvation.
Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, page 471, adapted, she stated this, "God gives us a chance to correct these hidden problems and to make ourselves ready to be used by Him. Often God allows us to have awful experiences and times of suffering. These hard times help remove sin from our hearts."
May God help us to cling to him always.
Exodus 14:10 specifically says that the "children of Israel cried out unto the Lord". I know there was a mixed multitude with the Israelites. I see nothing about the mixed multitude crying out to God.
I'm wondering if I can make a couple of applications from this.
1. Just because I find my situation to be a crucible experience, doesn't mean everyone that may be in a similar situation is in a crucible.
2. Just because others are in the group or situation with me, doesn't mean they, likewise are calling out to God for rescue.
Good application 👍🙏
If little Jonny is in time-out for being a bad little boy, and is being disciplined in time-out, that does not mean his brothers and sisters are in his time-out, they know they will receive the same treatment when they need correction.
Shalom
🙏
At the beginning of Ex 14, God tells Moses what is going to happen w/the Egyptians. I wonder, did he tell the other Israelites the prophecy (if he had time)?
But even so, it appears that the Israelites (and Egyptians) had already forgotten all the miracles worked on Israelites' behalf just to get them out of Egypt, by God and complained to/of Moses, (Ex 14:12).
-- Humans seem to be of short memories, even of big events. We need to acknowledge God, give Him thanks, write down the events in our own lives and review them, (esp. during hard times.) This will help man to trust God for our future as we review where He's brought us through in the past. Genuine/Living faith comes from experience, not just knowledge of God.
interesting thought
As it isn't mentioned in this lesson (not the focus;) I'm thinking that Ex 14 is an example of the end times.
-- The event wasn't just for the Israelite benefit but also for the Egyptian benefit, (Ex 14:4,18)
-- Both the Egyptians and the Israelites were not looking forward to changes in their lives and the work that might come with it, (Ex 14:5,12).
-- Emotional fear of events inspired complaining and distrust in God.
-- As the leader, did Moses fail to do something? The NET version says in Ex 14:15, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.'" Was Moses supposed to know what he was meant to do prior to God's instruction?
-- I wonder how many 'believers' will be found blindly/or not following Pharaoh into destruction and cry out too late in acknowledgement of God, (Ex 14:25.)
-- May God help those in the truly end times to see the signs (Ex 14:19-20), remember His promise of deliverance and proceed w/trust in Him. (Not saying that these are end time signs but signs that should have given Egyptians notice that 'God is fighting for the Israelites' before destruction.)
Needing to deal with the everyday complexities of life exposes us to run the gauntlet of the mockers - danger, criticism, and all types of obstacles - because of what we stand for and what we represent; believers in a Creator who we call our heavenly Father and following Him and His Way of Light and Life by faith.
I see in Ex.14:10 the mighty hand of our Creator Father going to great length to demonstrate to the world that there is a true God and that it is Him who has the power to save.
Every day holds choices, challenging the believer to continue to believe that the hard and difficult way of Faith is the right way. Why is it the right way? Because it leads to everlasting life, whereas following the way of the world leads to destruction; we believe this because we accepted and love our heavenly Father who told us that it is so.
To answer the lesson writer’s question regarding ‘why did God bring the Israelites to a place with no way out but to go ‘through’ the waters of the sea? As I see it, following Him as we go through the ‘deep waters of the sea’ can be a metaphor for trusting when giving our life completely into the hands of God – going through life by Faith.
He showed Israel and the Egyptians that Israel's God is the God who leads the faithful, righteous followers and judges the haughty, unrighteous powers of this world.
I think, because believers conduct their lives based on the Gospel of the Faith of Jesus Christ, the Messiah - “the Anointed One”, our existence will always be precarious. We have chosen to believe and trust our heavenly Father and His Son because They said and showed that we are save in their hands, loved by them, and given the promise to never leave us or forsake us – Deut.31:8.
I think the passage specifically tells us why God put Israel in this situation - His plan was to use it to deal with their enemies, the Egyptians. In chapter 13, it also tells us that He led them this way so they wouldn't face war and be discouraged by it.
So... I don't feel the main purpose of God's actions was to get Israel to fear or trust Him, though He certainly used it to accomplish this. It was part of a bigger situation.
Some may say, does it matter, but I think it does because I would rather see God using the situation for good rather than in Him just making the people miserable to teach them something.
It seems, though, that the bottom line is that God directly led the people to a place that frightened them and put them in a "crucible" situation. They didn't understand what God's real purpose was.
I think it's the same with us today. When we find ourselves in difficulty, it's not necessarily because we made mistakes. We can end up in serious situations *because* we follow the Lord. That's what happened with the Apostles and many martyrs after them. They died because they followed the Lord.
On the other hand, much of the time we may find ourselves in difficulty because of our own faulty choices. We are blessed to know that the Lord is in the business of rescuing us from such situations - but not necessarily without our experiencing some pain.
All the Israelites had to do to get to the Promised Land was to follow the Pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Whether the going was good or rough.
What were the "Pillars" of the Protestant Reformation?
The five 'solas' state that Christians are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed by Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone.
What are the unique "Pillars of our Faith" that will lead us to the Promised Land?
These foundations, pillars, and landmarks are:
the Second Advent
the sanctuary,
the investigative judgment,
the Sabbath,
the law of God,
the state of the dead,
the three angels' messages of Revelation,
the faith of Jesus, and
the special gift of prophecy.
This week’s lesson and maybe the whole quarter deals with temporary crucibles. But how about a never ending crucible in the form of genetic medical condition that is irreversible and there’s no known cure.