Exodus 14:19-22 - Homiletics

God protects his own, but in strange ways.

The passage of the Red Sea was the crowning miracle by which God effected the deliverance of his people from the bondage of Egypt; and all its circumstances were strange and worthy of notice.

I. THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD , WHICH HAD BEEN WONT TO LEAD THEM , REMOVED AND WENT BEHIND THEM . They had to enter the dark and slimy bed from which the sea had retired without the cheering sight of the Divine presence before their eyes beckoning them on. So there are occasions of trial in the life of every man, when God ,seems to withdraw his presence, to remove himself, to "go behind us," so that we cannot see him. Sometimes he withdraws himself in grief or in anger; but more often he does it in mercy. The temporary obscuration will advantage the soul under the circumstances. There is perhaps some secular work to be done which requires all its attention, like this passage, where every step had to be taken with care. Short separations are said to intensify affection; and the sense of the Divine presence is more valued after a withdrawal, like the sun's light after an eclipse.

II. THE PILLAR OF THE CLOUD , WHICH HAD BEEN WONT TO BE ALL SMOKE , OR ALL FIRE , WAS NOW BOTH AT ONCE . "It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these." The eye sees that which it has within itself the power of seeing. To the godly the presence of God is a joy and a delight, a brightness and a radiance. To the ungodly it is an awful and alarming thing, a cloud which mars their enjoyment. When Jesus was on earth, there were those among the inhabitants of Palestine who "besought him to depart out of their coasts" ( Matthew 8:34 ). The ungodly fear to look upon God. He is to them dark, mysterious, terrible. The sense of his presence paralyses them—they cannot stir till it is removed. But to the godly, it is "light in the darkness"—it illuminates mind and soul and spirit—it cheers and brightens the path of life—it irradiates even the obscurest gulf that we have to traverse. Let us bear in mind that when the Divine presence is removed from before our eyes, it is still in no case far from us. If at any time we do not see God, he at all times sees us. We have only to make an effort, and we can in a short time recover our perception of his presence.

III. BY MEANS OF A STRONG EAST WIND THE WATERS WERE DIVIDED , UPON MOSES STRETCHING OUT HIS HAND OVER THE SEA . We may note here,

1 . The weakness of the instrument. The rod of Moses, stretched over the sea, or towards the sea, from some vantage-point on the shore—how small a thing was this! How incapable in itself of producing any important effect! Yet in the providence of God, it was made a link in the chain of causation by which was brought about one of the greatest events in the whole course of mundane history. Must we not conclude from this, that, when God appoints means, however weak and trivial they may be in themselves, they become at once by his appointment, matters of the highest consequence? Again we may note,

2 . The employment of a natural agency, insufficient in itself to accomplish the end, yet having a natural tendency towards its accomplishment. God, the author of nature, uses nature as a help towards accomplishing his ends, even when the help is but small. Our Lord fed the 5000 and the 4000, by means of loaves and fishes already existing, though the material which they furnished could but have gone a short way. He anointed the blind man's eyes with spittle and clay, and bade him "go, wash in the pool of Siloam," using means which were to some extent reputed salutary, but which of themselves could never have restored sight. So with the east wind. We must not suppose that it divided the sea by its own natural force. God used it, as he used the spittle and the clay, and made it accomplish his purpose, not by its own force but by his own power. And so generally with the forces which seem to remove obstacles from the path of God's people in this life—they are potent through his agency, because he sets them to work, and works through them.

IV. THE SEA , ON WHICH PHARAOH COUNTED FOB THEIR DESTRUCTION , BECAME FIRST THEIR DEFENCE AND THEN THEIR AVENGER . "The waters were a wall unto them." But for the two bodies of water, on their right and on their left, Pharaoh's force might have outflanked the host of Israel, and fallen upon it on three sides, or even possibly have surrounded it. God can at any time turn dangers into safeguards. When persecutors threaten the Church, he can turn their swords against each other, and allow the Church to pass on its way in peace. When temptations assault the soul, he can give the soul such strength, that it conquers them and they become aids to its progress. And with equal ease can he make the peril which menaces his faithful ones fall, not upon them, but upon their adversaries. The furnace heated to consume the "three children" destroyed none but those bitter persecutors who had arrested them and cast them into the fire ( Daniel 3:22 ). The lions of Darius the Mede devoured, not Daniel, but "those men that had accused Daniel" ( Daniel 6:24 ). The Jews, who had sought to destroy the infant Church by prejudicing the Romans against Christ ( John 19:12 ) and his apostles ( Acts 24:1-9 ), were themselves within forty years of Christ's death, conquered and almost exterminated by these same Romans. The ungodly are ever "falling into their own nets together," while the godly man for whom the nets are set "escapes them."