Exodus 14
There are two words, beloved brethren, that give a distinct character to the subject that is to occupy us for a little this evening, and those words are “Pihahiroth” and “the sea.” Those are the two leading words of this chapter, and they do very distinctly mark the truths that are unfolded here. Now the meaning of the word “Pihahiroth” (for no doubt the position was selected by God for certain reasons which I will seek to put before you) was exactly suited to the unfolding of what was about at this moment to be wrought. The meaning is “the opening of liberty.” That is really what it signifies. The place was selected by God distinctly because the very name of it would convey the great reality that was about to be enacted there. And it is the more remarkable if you put along with it what was in the mind of the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, the pursuer and enemy of God’s people, and what was the great inducement to him to gain, as he thought, a very easy conquest and a full victory over them. For what he said to himself before he began his march after them was this. The wilderness hath shut them in. That was the result of their being in this position. And the first great thing that comes before us in the narrative is this very position. It was a chosen position, which God Himself was pleased to place them in. No other place or locality would have been suited to what was in His mind or what he was about to accomplish, than this very spot Pihahiroth.
First of all it was the spot that brought home to them this fact, that they were utterly resourceless. And not only that but God does not arm them, He does not put them into the trim of fighting men to set them against Pharaoh and his hosts. He does not put weapons in their hands. He does not equip them, so to speak, for war. He sends them out, as we should say, totally unprotected, as far as they themselves were concerned; they carry nothing of any consequence that would in any wise enable them to make headway against such a powerful antagonist as Pharaoh and his hosts. The whole circumstances, the position and plight they themselves were in, were all designed with a view to what God was about to do. They were hemmed in, Pharaoh behind them, the sea before them; the sea, the wilderness, and Pharaoh; they are shut in, says Pharaoh, they are my prey now. The sceptic would say it was one of the grandest blunders strategically to place them there. A person looking at it in a rationalistic human way would say, What a position to put a whole nation into! What a grand mistake! Now if you just think for an instant where they were, you will find in the 20th verse of the 13th chapter that they were on the very verge of the desert, they were at Etham. They had finished the three days, for remember, God’s word was, let my people go for three days into the desert to hold a feast to me. That was what Moses said to Pharaoh. There must be three days, which was really in figure, death and resurrection. Now they had finished the three days journey, they had got to Etham, they were on the very confines of the desert, and the question now was, were they to hold the feast there and go back, or were they to hold the feast there and take another march on, and then the desert would have fought for them against Pharaoh. The chariots of Egypt could have made no way in the giving, sinking sand of the desert, they would not have been able to pursue them, they could very easily have got out of their way had they marched on. But instead of continuing their eastward march, God says to them, No, you are to turn round and go southward. Now going to the south was positively lingering on the confines of Egypt, and turning their backs on the land of promise which they were about to possess. They turned their backs on it and they lingered still on the confines of the territory of the pursuer, so that the whole thing (it is very striking when you look at it) was contrary to what a person would say would be wise and sagacious, and ordered with such skill as to give them a clear and open way out of the hands of their pursuers. In fact it was what would be called really playing into the enemy’s hands, that was their position.
But there is another thing in it. There was a needs-be in it as far as they themselves were concerned. And this was just the very place where God could display His resources in their resourcelessness, because that is what came out. In their resourcelessness, in their distress, in the absence of all help for them, God could show His hand according to His own power there. There was that necessity in His blessed ways and the love of His heart towards His people, and there was a needs-be in them. Because what they are here to learn was this, even to wade through all the sorrows of the exercise that is set forth; not conflict; do not ever put in the word “conflict,” there is no such thing as conflict in this condition. People constantly speak of this as conflict, but there is no conflict in it. There is bondage, servility, fear, dread, remorse, a heart that is turning back to put itself voluntarily under the power of the oppressor; but that is not conflict. Exercise is not the same as conflict. Conflict, properly speaking, begins when exercise is over; and the exercises are all in connection with the finding out what sort of creatures we are. Do you know what adds to the strength of exercise, what calls it into being, what promotes it? People continually speak of exercise, and of course we cannot do without it from the very nature of what we are. But do you know what the power of the exercise is? The strength of your will, that is the secret of it. According to the strength of your will is the severity of the exercise. The necessity of the exercise is, because there is will there, and a will that is independent of God. Because a will in the creature, a will independent of God, is sin. You and I have no right to have a will. I constantly read now in religious books that all a Christian has to do is to put his will on God’s side, that is to say, to put his sin on God’s side, because a will in the creature, independently of the Creator, is the real essence of sin. It is a grand mistake to talk about putting your will on God’s side. Your will is sin, and you cannot put that on God’s side. All that you can do with regard to that is, in faith practically to relegate that will to where God has judicially terminated its existence before Himself, that is, in the cross, which is a very different thing from putting it on God’s side. That is the disallowance, the abnegation, the refusal of it, that is the non-toleration of it in every shape and form. But if you talk of putting it on God’s side, you are allowing it. Now this is a very specious kind of thing, though I am quite sure it is not meant. I am only speaking now of things as they really are. I have at the bottom of my heart the deepest tenderness for the people of God, and I admire and love the desire of their hearts to be true to Him in these things; but I am speaking merely of the doctrine, of the principle of it, what it is in reality, not of the people that hold it. Surely I know it is not meant by many of the beloved saints of God who take it up and say these things, but I am speaking of what it really is intrinsically—it is consecrated flesh. Shall I talk about putting my will over on God’s side? No, I disallow it. What a wonderful difference when I get God’s mind about it. That which is evil is contrary to God, that is the root principle of rebellion in me as a creature, that is what came in at the fall. What was the principle of the fall? That the creature set up a will and acted on a will against the Creator and independent of the Creator. That is the very principle of sin. That is how it came in. You see there is great deal of license now about it, because people talk of sin as if sin was simply limited to certain acts. There must be some principle there that produces these; there must be some root there from which they grow; there must be something that gives vitality to them, something that strengthens the arm, so to speak. It is very superficial to say, there is an evil act. I quite admit that, but where did it come from? An evil act cannot subsist by itself, it must grow from some stock. It is like a fruit tree, there are not only the boughs and the blossoms and the fruit, but there must be a root somewhere.
Now these are the things that people say, and the consequence is that the root principle is never reached. There is the reason of this exercise. They have got to find out by exercise, by being placed in circumstances that minister to the exercise, they have got to discover what sort of creatures they are, and what a God God is; and not only what a God God is, but what He can be to them when they have found out what they are. When they have found out their utter vileness, and resourcelessness, and inability, and powerlessness, and when they have discovered what God can be as a Savior-God to them as such, there is where the exercise comes. So that there is a double need; there is the need of the searching, and sifting, and probing, and moving, and exposing, and turning upside down of their own hearts, and there is a need for the display of God’s wonderful grace to them such as they are. And the external position of this people—at Pihahiroth, before Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-Zephon, shut in, as Pharaoh says when he looked at it in a military way as a great conqueror, with his horses and chariots, they are shut in, I will get an easy victory now—was allowed by God for this purpose, in order to prove the weakness and resourcelessness to their hearts of their position, and that Pharaoh might have an inducement to come out and show his hand with the whole flower and glory of Egypt’s arms. That is what this position was chosen for. This is the first great thing.
Now there is another thing. We have looked at their position, and you will fill up details in God’s mercy for yourselves—but look now at their condition, and when I use the word I mean the practical state that they were in. Look at what it was. The moment Pharaoh pursues them, which he does with the whole power of Egypt, his horses and chariots (Egypt was a great place for all that kind of thing, it was the place of resource then) the children of Israel cry out to the Lord. Superficially, you might read that and say, “Cry out to the Lord,” how beautiful! But here it is despair; there is no faith at all in it. They had not any confidence in Him to act for them, they had no knowledge of Him in that character at all. They did not know Him in the least as a God that would intervene for them, they had not the smallest sense of the power of His love, and grace, and goodness; it was a despairing cry. Did you ever hear the cry of despair? It is an awful cry. Of all the sounds that ever passed from human lips the cry of despair is the most awful. That is what it was. There was no confidence, no faith, no expectation, it was the sheer cry of despair, that is all. And what follows proves it. They turned round upon Moses—he had to bear this continually from them—he was their savior instrumentally, and therefore upon his head continually came back reproach and the effects of remorse from their lips; if there was trial and anyone was to be blamed for it, it was poor Moses—and they turned upon him, and said, Was it because there were no graves in Egypt?
—Their hearts were full of death, they can never rise in thought beyond a grave, they never get beyond six feet down, as we say—is it because there are no graves in Egypt, no place of sepulture there, that you brought us out here that we should die in the wilderness? Is not this the word that we said to you in Egypt, Let us alone that we may serve, that is, let us alone that we may be the bondslaves of this hateful, odious, tyrannical Egypt—it is better for us to be bondslaves there, than to die here in the wilderness. This is their practical condition, no faith, no confidence in God, no expectancy of His outstretched hand, no hope that he would intervene or interfere; disappointment, remorse, dread, fear, dislike, hatred, no remembrance even of past mercies and past favors of God, of the kind ness, and goodness, and mercy of God, there is not even a remembrance of the shelter, though God had put up a blood-sprinkled lintel for them in Egypt, no remembrance even of that—but in their condition here they stood without any knowledge of God or of themselves. How solemn it is to think of it! How the book of God points out our history to ourselves! How it reads to us exactly what we are! How it shows us where we are, and who we are, and what kind we are! And do remember this, I beseech of you, because it is a very important point on this branch of the subject. It shows you the extent to which such a knowledge of God as they had and as a person might have now, will carry your soul. As long as God is only known in the character of a judge, even though he may be appeased, a judge whose claims have been met, whose holy demands have all been answered, but still a judge, satisfied, but yet a judge, as long as God is only known in this character, this must be the order of things. Beloved brethren, do you know God beyond this? Does your knowledge of Him go beyond the fact that the judge, righteous and holy though He is, has been perfectly appeased, perfectly satisfied, all His demands perfectly discharged and met? Can you say really, Well, thank God, I know more of Him than that! Very blessed is it to know that, I do not desire to make little of it, but I long that our souls should have the full knowledge of Him. Very blessed it is so far as it goes, but thank God, I know more of Him than that. What is that? That is what I have set forth here—I know Him as my Savior God, that is to say, not only as one who has been kept out by the blood, but one who comes in now in the grace and love of His own heart to be my deliverer—a different thing altogether. For that was exactly the truth as to the blood—the blood kept God out, it was intended to keep Him out. He says, “I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment, I am Jehovah.” The blood shall be to you for a token; when I see the blood I will pass over, I will not come in, the blood will bar my entrance into your houses as judge, and that is your safety in that night; the blood shall be your shelter when I pass through the land in judgment. Blessed to know this, yea most precious! We must have that, because Gods claims must be met and satisfied. But then there is more than that. The One whose claims and righteous demands have all received their fullest satisfaction comes in Himself to show His heart and to show His hand to extricate me out of the house of bondage, and to bring me right to His own bosom and His own heart, so that I may know Him now, not as a judge who is outside, but as a Savior who is come in to deliver me. That is what you get here, and that is what they did not know at all. They blamed Moses and positively wanted to go back into Egypt. We know they did that afterwards in heart. Would not it be better for us? We had rather be in the bondage and tyranny and slavery of Egypt, and serve the Egyptians, than come here and die in this desert.
Now you see the two points I trust. They are very simple, and you may fill them up with detail, I am not concerned with detail now, but I want to show you the points on which all the details hang. There is the position, and the practical condition of the people that were in that position.
Now just look at another point for a moment, before we come to the third. See how Moses meets this. There is nothing that is so precious to the heart as to see the way that God meets that kind of thing in His poor people. I say it with reverence, there is no harshness in the blessed God, there is no revenge in His heart, He does not requite us for our slowness of heart, and for our unbelieving terror; there is not even a rebuke here. Moses says to them a wonderful word. He talks to hearts that are in a perfect storm, a perfect hurricane of terror. Look at what he says to them. He says, “Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of God.” Look at those three things. If you and I were there (I speak of one’s nature) we should rebuke, we should abuse, we should feel indignant, anger would be moved to its very depths in us, to think a people should be so basely ungrateful and unbelieving as that; but Moses is really the voice of God, he is in touch with God’s heart, the current from the heart of God pours uninterruptedly into the heart of Moses—you get the very words that come from God’s heart to that poor people, “Fear not.” You know how the Lord Jesus Christ used those words continually when He was down here in this world, they were the words which came from His blessed lips ever and anon here, “Fear not.” How strange to say to a people that were swallowed up with fear, “Fear not.” It would look to them as if it were mocking them to say such a thing as that to them.
There is another word, “Stand still.” That is the very attitude which is contrary to every feeling in nature, and it is the very position to come in along with what follows, “Stand still and see,” not “Stand still and feel,” not “Stand still and work,” not “Stand still and toil,” not “Stand still and co-operate,” “Stand still and see what a thing that is!—“Stand still and see the salvation of God,” something completely and entirely outside of you, that you gaze at, a transaction that is there before your eyes; with which you have neither part nor lot, though you have in all its effects and blessedness. You do not add anything to it, you do not contribute to that transaction, it is completely and absolutely for you, but it is outside of you—look at it, stand still and see it. You are no actor, you are a spectator, behold it. What a wonderful thing that is! And how beautifully the type brings before us what we shall see by-and-by in the antitype—how strongly the features and lines of the antitype come before us in that, “Stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will show you to-day. The Lord shall fight for you,” not with you, not by you, not through you, not in you. It is quite true He works in us, but that is not here; you would spoil the picture if you brought that in here. “The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” Do not say a word, not even a sound, not only not a stroke but not a sound, “Hold your peace.”
Well, beloved friends, that is wonderful grace of God; but Moses’ heart practically reflects the love, and kindness, and goodness, and sovereign grace of the Savior God. That is the first message, and thus it is the troubled sea of their hearts is stilled. God stills it by His own sweet voice through His servant Moses to their hearts, “Stand still and see God’s salvation which He will show, you to-day”; the Egyptians that you now look at in their force and fury, in the rolling tide of their fancied acquisition of you, you will see them no more for ever, “The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” What a blessed picture it is of God’s salvation.
But there is another little word before we come to the third point, which would appear a contradiction, but it is no contradiction at all to faith. He says to the children of Israel through Moses, “Go forward.” Now, beloved friends, you will never understand “go forward” until you understand “stand still.” The explanation of “go forward” is “stand still.” And though there appears to be a contradiction, there is a most marvelous and blessed combination. That which gives all its force and character to “go forward,” that which is the pith and power of it is, “stand still,” “stand still and see God’s salvation which He will show you today”; the Lord shall fight for you, you shall see the Egyptians and the whole glory of Pharaoh no more for ever, “The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace”; now go forward, go forward in the strength of that. Why? Because this is the way. If God does this, and that, and the other, and God does it that way, you can go now, you can move on those lines. There is a line now laid down for you to move on. Now go forward.
And now we come to the third point, which is the revelation in detail of the salvation itself. For before God declares, as He does here plainly, what this salvation is, He gives one precious mark to His poor people of His heart’s interest in them. And do you know what that is? Compare two scriptures, and you will find exceeding beauty in the comparison. In Ex. 13: 20, after they left Egypt for the three days’ journey, it says, “And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night; He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”
Now in the 18th verse, when they started on that journey it was said, “God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.” But now the name is changed, and there is always a significance in the changing of God’s name, it is not done without a meaning, “God led the people,” but now you get His relationship name, “Jehovah went before them,” “the Lord” means Jehovah. God was the leader and guide of His people, but now you get an additional truth. He is pleased to make known His name of covenant relationship to that people, the name which He was not known by, to the patriarchs, and it says, “Jehovah went before them.” There was the manifestation of the Divine presence in a double way, before and behind, the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, and through that pillar of cloud and fire shone the blessed presence of their covenant Jehovah. I refer you to it in order to show you the blessedness of what we find in Ex. 14:99But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. (Exodus 14:9). Look at what happens there. “And the angel of God which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them,” that was where the danger was. The pressing hosts of Pharaoh were coming on behind,—says God, as it were, I will put all my protection there, I will assure your hearts by putting all my protection there; whatever is the strength, and cheer, and comfort, and sustainment, and food of my presence, it shall be all there for you, between you and the pursuers.” What a cheer that must have been to their souls, if they entered into it at all! “The angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them; and 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; so that the one came not near the other all the night.” What a wonderful thing! And that was before God began to reveal the manner of His salvation at all. He assured their hearts; now I am going to act for you, you shall see how I will work, you shall see what I will bring about, but I want to give your heart the sense first, before I stretch out my hand at all, that I am thinking of you, but I will be between you and your enemies; my angel shall be behind you instead of going before, and the pillar of cloud and fire shall also be there.
Now I ask, have our hearts taken that in, the character of God, the grace of His heart, the goodness of His love, how He works, how He speaks to our hearts, how He would assure us of the deep interest of His heart in us?
Now you have two things that go to make up His salvation unfolded here. The first is Moses’ rod, which is judgment, not the rod of Aaron, which is priestly, but the rod of Moses, which is judgment, the rod that he smote the river with, the rod that brought death upon the Egyptians. Take thy rod, the rod wherewith thou smitest the river, take it in thy hand and stretch out thy rod over the sea. He does so, and that rod, together with a strong east wind which God caused to blow all that night, opened up the sea, and the waters were piled on the right hand and on the left, and the people walked on dry land through the midst of the sea. It was God that opened that watery way, it was God planned it, it was God accomplished it, it was God’s own doing from beginning to end; they had all the good of it, and they walked there in the midst of the sea without a single drop of water; and that was going on all that night.
Then there was another thing. God looked through the pillar of cloud, and troubled the hosts of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them heavily, and they got the sense, that it is God they are fighting against now, God is for Israel, the Lord fighteth for them against us. See what an awful moment it is for the Egyptians when they get the sense that instead of Israel being a poor impoverished nation not having the means of self defense, but a ready booty for their plunder, they had the mighty Jehovah God to cope with. And they got the sense of this in the moment of their destruction, when it was perfectly plain that the odds were now against them, mighty conquerors though they were. And then mark what happens. They pursued in after the people to the sea, or as the epistle to the Hebrews puts it so blessedly, “By faith they passed the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians essaying to do were drowned.” They followed them in, and they were in as the gray dawn of the morning broke upon the shores on the opposite side, for all this night was passed through with this kind of thing. Moses’ rod, and the east wind, and the pile of waters, and Israel going on, and Egypt pursuing behind with all its strength. And when the morning comes, then God says to Moses, stretch out your rod over the sea again, and the sea will return to its strength. And God brought it back by a strong wind, “and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared,” and the same tide that opened the way for Israel came back in all its rolling power over the whole glory of Egypt and whole power of Pharaoh, and submerged them in the mighty waters, and there was not one of them left. “Thus God saved Israel.” It was God’s salvation, God’s extrication, God’s deliverance. And then you find four things said about them—they saw, they believed, they feared, and they sang. They never sang a note before; they complained in abundance afterwards, but they never sang before. Now they sing; and God has so ordered it that song must go with redemption. You cannot sing until you are redeemed; when you are redeemed you can sing. Now they can sing, and the song, beloved friends, is all about God, not a single word about themselves. That is the peculiarity of that note when it is struck, the theme, the note, is all divine: “The Lord hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.”
Now let us take it out of pattern. You know the meaning of taking things out of pattern, I am sure. Here it is in pattern or type, what do you find when you take it out? Why, that is the meaning it is that the precious death and the glorious and triumphant resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ for us, accomplished everything that was in the mind and heart of God, is the complete overthrow of the whole power of Satan, the overthrow of all the power of death, “that through death he might annul, destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil,” the complete putting away and judgment of sin by the sacrifice of Himself, the whole destruction of Satan’s power. That is to say, every enemy that was against us, sin, death, Satan, the grave, were allowed to rise to their highest, and when they were at their highest, were swept away for ever: that is what it means. You have the figure of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ so beautifully there! I do not know anything more touching to the heart than to read of that rod and that strong east wind. O the spotless distress of His precious soul when the east wind of judgment beat upon His head, and that was the night, it was the night of deepest woe to Him when He underwent all that judgment, and endured it all; there was the night of judgment, and then there was the morning of His resurrection. That is what you have got here in type. Thank God if we understand through grace what that is.
In His spotless soul’s distress, the judgment was borne alone by Him, all the waves and billows flowed over Him, all the east wind of judgment blew upon His blessed head when He stood there alone for us; and then He rose triumphant, and there comes the morning, so that you have the night and the morning, the night of the cross, the morning of the resurrection. And in that resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, you have got two things; resurrection out from among the dead begins the new thing, it is the new beginning. But there is more than that in it. It is the testimony, the evidence to the Christian of the completeness, of the fulness of Jehovah’s triumph, of God’s salvation, so that I can see in that empty tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ the vindication in testimony and evidence to me that God has been perfectly glorified and perfectly satisfied with regard to all my sins. I look at that resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from amongst the dead, and I say, God has taken the one who went into the depths of death and judgment for me out of the tomb. They say it is the glory of man to fill a tomb, it is the glory of God to empty a tomb, and to take out of the tomb, to raise out from amongst the dead, His own beloved Son who underwent the judgment of God due to my sins, and to set Him in that wonderful place in glory where He is entitled to be in righteousness. There is no righteousness in this world, for they thrust Him out of it, righteousness now is in Christ at God’s right hand in glory. I say, “Thank God, that settles everything for me”; my Savior is in glory, that is enough.
But then there is another testimony, and an awful testimony to the world. Exactly as that pillar of cloud and fire was a comfort to Israel and a terror to Egypt, so the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a comfort to us, though it is a solemn testimony to the world.
Think of that. It is the solemn testimony to the world that the day is appointed and the judge is ordained. With regard to what is coming on this world, the empty tomb is that. Thank God, there are brighter things for us. But if there is a person here to-night (God alone knows) who still belongs to the world, that is what is before you, “He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.” He came down to save in mercy and goodness, and love, but He will judge in righteousness, and He will judge by the very Man in whose blessed face the world, as it were spat, whose blessed head they mocked with a crown of thorns, that rejected Jesus, that earth-despised, earth-refused Nazarene, that Man whom the world would not have, and whom it will not have now any more than then. God will judge this world in righteousness by that Man, and He has given the testimony of it, because He has raised Him from the tomb in which He lay.
O beloved friends, may God in His infinite grace give our hearts to enter into the blessedness and preciousness of God’s salvation, wrought outside of us but for us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.