This Week’s Focus Passage: Exodus 14:13

‘The Egyptians whom ye have seen today, Ye shall see them again no more for ever.’

    Even as the miraculous safe passage was granted to the people of Jehovah, at the Red Sea; we should recall the different events that concerned that dilemma that confronted Moses and those he was leading away from Egypt. Most certainly, it began, as we are informed from the conversation that Jehovah had with Moses; that which is recorded for us in the book of Exodus, a title which actually foretells a very great deal of the contents of the book beforehand. 

“The biblical book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, so it’s no surprise that the word has come to refer more generally to any mass departure. The word itself was adopted into English (via Latin) from Greek Exodos, which literally means “the road out.” The Greek word was formed by combining the prefix ex- (meaning, “out of”) and hodos, “road” or “way.”—Merriam-Webster.  

    Without going into just how the Israelites became a subjugated people in the land of Egypt; this concerns the history of Abraham’s children, Isaac and Jacob, and particularly, Joseph, who was sold, by his brethren, to a caravan which was destined for the land of Egypt. Joseph became, in God’s providential design, a savior to the land of Egypt, preventing great starvation and loss of life. The Pharaoh of Egypt, in the course of the management by Joseph over food supply (grain), made this relatively young Hebrew, second only to Pharaoh himself in Egypt. Later on, after the death of Joseph, another Pharaoh arose, who we are told, did not know Joseph, which ended the good relationship (relatively good) between the Hebrews and the Egyptians. This also resulted in the Hebrews being subjected, yea, being made bondservants.

    This, of course, did not take place without the oversight of Jehovah. In point of fact, He not only brought it to be, but He had told of this to His servant and friend, Abraham, years before it ever came into reality. We read in Genesis 15:12-14, this word from Jehovah unto the faithful Abraham:

        And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 

    This ‘coming out with great substance,’ promised by Jehovah, was not going to happen without His sovereign activity. And this activity, began, we might say, as recorded in that third chapter of this book of the Exodus. Without going into the history of the birth of Moses at a time after Pharaoh had ordered all male Hebrew infants to be slain by the midwives bringing them to the birth. Moses was spared, firstly, by the midwives fear of God that kept them from slaying Moses, but how was this newborn to be preserved now from ‘search and seizure? This preservation was effected by his sister placing him in an “ark of bulrushes” and his being ‘miraculously’ found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who took her to herself to raise him to manhood. But when he was grown he went to see his people, the slaves of Egypt, and when he, looking about, saw an Egyptian smiting ‘one of his brethren,’ he slew the Egyptian, hiding the body. But it became known, and he fled Egypt, to Midian, where he met a priest of Midian, Jethro, who had seven daughters. Moses was welcomed in, and became a keeper of Jethro’s flocks. It was while engaged in this labor, that he witnessed a burning bush, and when he turned aside to view the bush, Jehovah spoke to him from the bush. Here, He called Moses to become the one He would use to bring His people out of bondage, for they had cried unto Him, and He had heard their cries, so that he intended to engage Moses to go to Egypt, and ‘let His people go’ out of that bondage that they had been under for so long..     

    Jehovah brought everything together for this grand demonstration of His pre-eminence in all things; His omniscience; His omnipotence; His omnipresence. He had told Abraham that it would be a period of four hundred years, and so it was. They began to cry unto Him, and He heard their cries. When Moses arrived, he confronted Pharaoh with the demand from Jehovah to, “Let my people go.” We know that Pharaoh refused to do so. In order to convince this king of Egypt that the God of the Hebrews was the only true God, He sent those several plagues, and finally Pharaoh let the people go to worship their God. But, it was not very long before he changed his mind, and he gathered his armies to pursue them. This was also “of God,” of which we read in the ninth verse of this fourteenth chapter of the book of Exodus:

And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he shall follow after them; and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah.

The Lord then opened up the Red Sea, allowing His people to pass through on dry land, but according to His declaration when He told Moses those words, The Egyptians whom ye have seen today, Ye shall see them again no more for ever. When the host of Pharaoh attempted to follow the children of Israel, He brought the Red Sea down upon them, completely destroying them so that they indeed saw them again no more for ever. This exhibition of God’s saving power is manifested here in this event. But in the course of saving His people, He was typifying the covering of their sins with the blood of His Son, so that they are covered for ever; We therefore have peace with God through the blood of His Son.

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church