Red Sea: September 2013
Table of Contents
Red Sea
Redemption has two aspects — one is seen in the Passover and the other in the Red Sea. The two display, in a wonderful manner, the redemption which God has wrought through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is holy and so He must judge sin and, consequently, the sinner. In the Passover we see how He judges sin and yet through the death of Christ protects the sinner from that judgment. The Passover comes before the Red Sea, for we need protection from His holy judgment before we can look to Him to deliver us from our enemies — the world, the flesh and the devil.
The deliverance at the Red Sea shows God’s power in Christ on His people’s behalf against all their enemies. The Israelites were delivered on the night of the Passover from God’s judgment on sin by the death of the young, unblemished lamb. In the Red Sea, they were delivered from their enemies by power. God raised Christ by mighty power, and we are to know and live in the certainty that that mighty power is for us and that nothing can separate us from it. “If God be for us, who can be against us.” “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Sea and the Song
When Israel crossed the sea, there was a visible manifestation of power to a double end — the rescue that Jehovah effected for them and the destruction with which He overwhelmed the pride and flower of Egypt. But the victory was so signally of God, so purely miraculous an interposition, in a way foreign to all human thought, that it fittingly portrays the crushing defeat of the enemy about to be displayed before all worlds — the final and total eclipse of every agency, human or Satanic, which has ever raised an impious front before God! Jehovah wrought so conclusively that day for His own glory, in vindication of His title to have and to hold His people, that one cannot but be struck with the sublimity and finality of the action. But how much more with its twofold fitness for stereotyping upon every heart, on the one hand, by the deliverance He wrought, His desire and His purpose to bless, and, on the other, by brushing away to utter destruction with the breath of His mouth all the hosts of Pharaoh which are but as a cobweb in the pathway of the onward march of His counsels from eternity!
Deliverance From Egypt
“Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah and His servant Moses” (Ex. 14:30-31). Now what could be more in keeping with these wonderful issues than that Moses (type of Christ, of course) should celebrate the achievement of Jehovah with a song, the only fitting mode of expressing the new and triumphant resurrection ground upon which the typical Redeemer stood in the midst of his typically redeemed brethren? For the very first time were lips opened, and opened of Himself, in melody before God, for He had wrought salvation — a salvation of which they knew not the full significance, it may be, but in all this it is our privilege to learn the higher lessons of His work of grace as now revealed to faith. They are now a saved people, not merely as sheltered by the Passover blood, but brought out of Egypt for God, and the power of Egypt broken under their foot! Under shelter of the blood, God had pledged His word for their safety as against judgment, but now they were saved indeed, and they knew it! They ate of the Passover standing, as it were — loins girt, staff in hand, “in haste” to leave, being yet on the enemy’s ground, and shackled beneath his stubborn power.
The very nature of the instruction given them precludes the thought of resting thus, and yet, how many tarry in such an attitude of soul, as though it were rest with God, whereas God took pains to prohibit the rest and was Himself outside. Clearly it was the prelude to departure, the sound of the silver trumpets, as it were, preparatory to the final break-up of their relations with Egypt, its associations and its penalties; they had been sheltered in Egypt that they might go forth to God. He who bought them with blood to make them His bondmen redeemed them by power to make them His freemen. He who, as the Paschal Lamb, would give His blood to shelter was also God’s Man of might to deliver them through His judgment. He would have them a separated, enfranchised people to Himself, and none should stay His hand. Nothing short of this is salvation, and short of this there could be no divine song. God has been pleased to make salvation and song correlatives, and thus song has become the unique privilege of the redeemed, whether earthly or heavenly saints, as looking forward or backward to that stupendous work of redemption which could alone give perfect rest to the conscience and suffice for leading the heart into communion with the Father and the Son. I require for this to know, not only that the blood has been shed to put away my sins and is my perfect security as against the destroying angel, but also that I have been brought to God in redemption effected once and forever, and thus I have perfect peace with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ!
It is God who is now between me and my sins instead of my sins between myself and Him. The One who has thus interposed has given me to know that in doing it He has brought me to Himself and tuned my heart to His own praise. He has borne the judgment due to my sins and condemned sin in the flesh; in the Person of my Substitute I am clear from and carried beyond the judgment forever. The power of death is annulled, and Satan’s power is finally broken. I raise with joyful heart a song of victory, for sin, death and judgment are behind me now, and even “as He is, so are we in this world”!
Redemption
Salvation is a singular interposition of God, when every other resource has failed, between us and the state of things into which we have plunged ourselves by our sins, not only averting from us, in a way consistent with His righteousness, the eternal penalties incurred, but also delivering us from our old position and translating us into a new one in the activity of His grace, to be permanently enjoyed with Himself, according to His eternal purpose. It is this which legitimately gives birth to song, and it is as natural to the saints of God as for a bird to carol when the shades of night are chased away by the morning sun. And what a song was that we are considering for compass and for power! How it must have gladdened the heart of God, as it ascended from the crowded ranks of Israel fresh from their baptism unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea! How suggestive of all the consequences of what God had achieved! For the first time an indulgent God permits us to speak of a habitation among His redeemed family for Himself; such a thought could only be acceptable to Him in connection with a people set apart, by blood and by power. Had Israel understood its rich and precious import, what a cheering, invigorating thought would it have been to their hearts, that Jehovah of hosts would deign to dwell in a habitation they should build for Him in their midst. God was pleased to withhold the revelation of this attribute of His character until redemption had been accomplished, for not only is it one of His attributes, but through grace are we made partakers of it, and without it shall not see Him. How beautifully, then, is it in keeping with His blessed ways that He should first present it as based upon the great redemption work!
The song is the celebration of victory, in view of the full accomplishment of the counsels of God for Israel, and is typical of our salvation. It accordingly takes no account of the wilderness, which is not part of His counsels, but rather of His ways. It looks on to Canaan, the setting up of His sanctuary in the land, and the establishment of His kingdom on earth.
Resurrection Ground
In conclusion, how beautiful and how significant is the fact that, though they sang in the wilderness, it was as upon resurrection ground, and thus they sang not a word about it. Faith, privileged to be occupied with the counsels of God, bridged all the distance from the sea to the promised land, from the cross to the glory. Not a note could be raised until the vanquished enemy sunk “as a stone,” and the people were free, but when that was achieved, the song which God inspired, and which Moses led them to take up on the farther shore of the sea, raised melodies in the desert which shall reverberate in mightier volume throughout eternity!
For us, along with this, a sweeter song is reserved (Rev. 5:9). Here are our hearts tutored in its touching strains, its tender cadence, and, as in spirit, already within the scene which ever opens freshly to faith and where alone it can be fully rendered, we rehearse, but all too feebly, its heavenly harmonies. May He who is the theme of our song forever inspire, as He loves to do, our poor hearts to take up in loftier notes its blessed refrain, as the sweetest privilege we know this side of the glory!
Adapted from Bible Treasury
Deliverance - the Red Sea
“The Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore” (Ex. 14:30).
To be safely sheltered from the judgment of God by the blood of the Lamb was the precious lesson taught by the Passover. But many a soul has great distress, even after having taken refuge in the blood of Jesus. To be really trusting in the atoning work of Christ is one thing; to know deliverance from self and the world and Satan is another. It is this latter subject which this chapter, in type, brings before us, and it is most remarkable that this should occur in Pihahiroth, for it means “the entrance into liberty.”
Under the shelter of the blood, and brought out of Egypt by the power of God, Israel now saw the Red Sea before them and Pharaoh and his army immediately behind them. They wished they had never left Egypt, and their expressions of distress and misery remind us of another utterance of later date: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?” (Rom. 7:24). Their case seemed to them so hopeless that they said that they actually preferred the cruel bondage of serving the Egyptians.
Liberty
This is a vivid illustration of what many a soul passes through now. What at first usually brings souls to realize their need of the Saviour is the sense of guilt on account of sins committed. Their joy is often very great at finding in the cross of Christ that God is both “a just God and a Saviour,” but sooner or later another question must exercise their consciences before God — the question of “the flesh,” the nature from which all transgressions spring. That which is born of the flesh is totally unfit for God’s presence or His service, and to learn that “in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” is very humiliating, but it is the way of learning deliverance, and the only way of entrance into the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
When the soul that has known remission of sins through the blood of Jesus still finds within, every now and then, an innumerable host of lusts and evil thoughts, it is ready to say, “Surely I am worse now than when I was in bondage to sin and Satan and the world.” Neither resolutions nor ordinances eradicate these things; they boldly intrude into my prayers and holiest exercises. Now and then they lie dormant, but they spring up again on the smallest occasions. Distressed, I cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” It is “the flesh, with its affections and lusts” — the nature that did the sins — and when our souls realize these evil workings within, it becomes to us as formidable a host as Pharaoh and army were to the children of Israel. As nothing could pacify them but deliverance from this mighty power which was against them, so nothing less than the setting aside in judgment of these hosts of evil within can meet the requirements of our consciences.
The Enemy Judged
“Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (vss. 13-14). As God Himself would deliver Israel from this mighty host, so God has delivered us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Not only did Jesus once suffer for sins, but also “sin in the flesh,” the nature that did the sins, has been so judicially “condemned” by God that the Holy Spirit declares that our “old man is crucified with Him.” And so completely is this recognized in Scripture that believers are now said to be “not in the flesh,” but “in Christ Jesus.” In Jesus our substitute, God has not only judged sins on Jesus on the cross, but He has also judicially set aside as only fit for judgment our “old man,” as truly as He swept away in judgment Pharaoh and all his hosts, so that the children of Israel might see them dead and no longer living.
Redemption by Power
In our chapter, we shall see that all is accomplished by the power of God. In the Red Sea, it is redemption by power; in Egypt it was redemption by blood. In Christ crucified, risen, and ascended, we have both. Looking back upon the cross, we see it has all been accomplished through death and judgment, so that death and judgment are now behind us. Risen life in Christ is possessed by us. All this may be traced in this scene of the Red Sea, where the waters were divided so as to form a dry path, with a liquid wall on either side. The children of Israel were commanded to “go forward.” All now that was needed was faith, in order to avail themselves of the value of this work of God. But what of their enemies which they so feared? The very work of God that was to His people their deliverance and salvation was that which forever put away, through death and judgment, their enemies from their sight, so that they never saw them living afterward. In the same way, the accomplished work of Jesus has “through death” annulled “him that had the power of death,” which is the devil, and our “old man” has been crucified with Him. We see death and judgment behind us, as surely as Israel saw the waves of the Red Sea rolling behind them instead of before them.
The Double Work of Christ
How very blessed is this double aspect of the work of Christ, in executing judgment upon all our enemies and bringing us out by His mighty power in raising Christ from among the dead, giving us life and liberty forever in Him. This is the first time that the word “salvation” occurs in Scripture, for Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. In the same way, we see that “our old man is crucified with Christ,” and we are enjoined to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
As long as a believer is thinking of his old self and its lusts, watching against and providing against it, he is reckoning the old man to be living, and not dead; fear and distress of various kinds come out in consequence. We read that “they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24), for they have accepted God’s judgment of it in the cross. Faith sees that God has done it and believes God. It is a new nature that lives in the believer, for he is a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Sing Unto the Lord
We see, then, the contrast in Israel’s experience when they looked at the Egyptians as living and when they looked at them as dead. If we look into the workings of the flesh in us, we will be very wretched. The most miserable people on earth, perhaps, are Christians who have given themselves up to self-occupation. Blessed are those who, knowing they have life in a risen Christ, do reckon themselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We, therefore, find that when Israel had gotten to the other side of the Red Sea, how happy they were! “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” What a burst of triumph this is! God had delivered them, and now they are taken up with Him, praising Him, and ascribing all the glory of their deliverance to Him.
There was no singing in Egypt, though perfect safety, for they were sheltered by the blood of the lamb, but it is at the Red Sea we have to do with Christ risen out of death, who is our life. And this makes all the difference. Blessed as it is to know the shelter of the blood, it is more blessed to know that we have resurrection life — a life that lives the other side of death and judgment. We may joyfully sing:
Unto Thy death baptized,
We own with Thee we died;
With Thee, our life we’re risen,
And shall be glorified.
Adapted from Christian Position, Conflict, and Hope
The Red Sea and the Wilderness
It is easy to understand Israel’s distress: the sea before, shutting them in, and Pharaoh and his host pursuing. They were afraid and cried unto the Lord and said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Although they had cried to the Lord, they had not truly reckoned on His delivering them. It must have been a wonderful thing to them when God was so publicly manifested to be on their side. So is it with our hearts, when thus tested with trial on every side; our hearts are often found buried under the circumstances, instead of calculating upon the God who is above them, either to sustain us under them or deliver from them.
Israel was dealt with in unqualified grace, whatever might be their murmurings, till they reached Sinai, that they might know how entirely God was for them. Afterward, through their folly in putting themselves under the law, which they ought to have known they could not keep, they brought upon themselves a different line of treatment. In the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, when they murmured for food, God gave them quails (as well as manna) without any reproach, that Israel might know that God was feeding them on the ground of perfect grace. But afterward, when they again murmured for flesh (being then under law), we read that, while it was yet in their mouths, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote them with a very great plague. But God would first have them know how entirely bent He was on doing them good, bad as they might be.
The Passover and the Red Sea
It is well to distinguish, for our souls’ profit, the difference between the Passover and the Red Sea, for a person may hear the gospel, receive it with joy, and be rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins; he may see the loveliness of Christ and have his affections drawn out towards Him. But if full redemption is not known, as typified by the Red Sea, if he does not know himself to be risen with Christ on the other side of death and judgment, he is almost sure to lose his joy when temptation comes and he feels his own weakness. The joy of Exodus 15 is that God has absolutely redeemed them out of Egypt and brought them in His strength to His holy habitation. This is a very different thing from the joy of the Passover — being delivered from just and deserved judgment. In the Passover, Jehovah had made Himself known to them as the God of judgment. The blood on the doorposts screened them from judgment; it kept Him out, and He did not come into their houses to destroy. At the Red Sea, it was another thing — God coming in strength as their salvation. The Passover delivered them from His judgment; the Red Sea, from their enemies. The moment His people are in danger from Pharaoh, He comes in. The very sea they dreaded and which appeared to throw them into Pharaoh’s hands becomes the means of their salvation. Thus, through death God delivered them from death, as Christ went down into the stronghold of Satan, under the power of death, and, rising again from the dead, delivered us from death. Thus was there an end of Pharaoh and Egypt to them forever. The Red Sea is redemption out of Egypt; God Himself is their salvation. He whom they had feared as a Judge is become their salvation. They are redeemed, to sing His praises for having brought them to His holy habitation, before they had taken one step in the wilderness or fought one battle with their enemies.
Conflict
There is no conflict properly till redemption is known. They did not attempt to fight with Pharaoh, but only to get away from him. They groaned under his yoke, but did not fight against him. How could they? They must be brought to God before they can fight His enemies or their own. And so it is with an individual soul. I have no power to combat Satan while I am still his slave. I may groan under his yoke and sigh to be delivered from it, but before my arm can be raised against him, I must have a complete and known redemption. The Israelites are not only happy in escaping the pursuer: It is a full, conscious redemption from Egypt and Pharaoh, and they can count on God’s power for all the rest. “The people shall hear and be afraid. ... The inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away” (vss. 14-15). Their joy does not arise from having no enemies, but from God’s own divine power taking them up and putting them in His own presence.
Marah
We must all learn death (being redeemed, we have life) and it cannot be learned in Egypt. They had no Marah in Egypt; it is wilderness experience. Redemption must be known first, and the effect will be death to sin, to selfishness, to one’s own will; all this is very trying. A person might say, “All this trial comes upon me because I do not have redemption.” Not so; it is just because you are redeemed. We may seek to avoid the bitter waters of Marah, but God will bring us to them. He must break down all that is of the old man, and then, in His own good time, He will put in that which sweetens all. But because God has brought me to Himself, He is putting His finger on everything (be it love of the world, setting up self, my own will, or whatever it may be) that hinders complete dependence on Him or my soul’s full enjoyment of Himself. But count it not strange that there be a fiery trial which is to try you, for as surely as you are redeemed, so will He break down your own will. Yes, beloved, God will make you drink of the very thing (death) that redeemed you. If we are to have the practical effect of redemption, which is the enjoyment of God Himself in our souls, the flesh, which would always hinder this, must be broken down in whatever form it works. It was to prove them. God knew what was in their hearts, but they did not, and they must learn it.
Elim
After this they come to Elim. Now they experience the natural consequence of being with God — the full streams of refreshment — as soon as they were really broken down. Had Elim come first, there would have been no sense of their dependence on the Lord for everything, and nature would have been unbroken. But trial produces dependence, and dependence, communion. It is only for this that He delays, for He delights in blessing His people. The numbers twelve and seventy are different figures of perfection: perfect refreshment, perfect shelter, and all this in the wilderness, and rest then.
They must be exercised at Marah, that they may fully know and enjoy Him at Elim. Redemption brought them indeed to God, but now it is joy in God.
Adapted from J. N. Darby
The Red Sea
As Christians, we are too apt to settle down with this — that we have been awakened and feel our sins and have found a blessed refuge in the blood of Christ. In the New Testament, this answers to the type of the Passover. As we know, the Passover lamb that was killed, the blood of which was sprinkled on the doorposts of Israel in the land of Egypt, spoke of Christ. All God’s children must ultimately find their shelter under that precious blood. But the children of Israel were not yet redeemed out of Egypt, even after the blood was sprinkled. There was need of another dealing of grace, in order to show the deliverance that Christ has really secured for the believer. The Red Sea itself was necessary to give the Israelite his deliverance from the house of bondage, just as the truth of death and resurrection gives us the full measure of the blessing which Christ has procured for us.
The New Testament fully teaches this. In 1 Peter 1 we find that we are “redeemed, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” but that is not all. The Spirit of God shows that by Him we “believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.” There you have our Red Sea; the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus was necessary to complete our deliverance.
The Blood — Death
and Resurrection
So also we find it in Romans. In chapter 3 we have the blood of Jesus; in chapter 4 we have the death and resurrection, the Red Sea being the type of the latter, as the Passover is of the former. We have Jesus shedding His blood in chapter 3; Jesus raised again for our justification in chapter 4; then in the commencement of chapter 5, we read, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Holy Spirit does not say we have peace until we have the result of the death and resurrection of Christ, as well as of His blood, applied to our souls. A soul may be filled with great joy without such knowledge, but joy and peace are very different things. He has made peace through the blood of His cross, no doubt, but the way He brings me into the enjoyment of it is by showing Himself raised from the dead for our justification. More than this, He shows that we are dead unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In Romans the Apostle first looks at our guilt in the sight of God — our actual sins; after this has been fully discussed, the other question which so often troubles the believer is taken up. In chapter 6, the point is sin and our continuing in sin. Paul shows us that we have died to sin, with Christ, and we ought to know and act on it. If we do not know this, we strive to become dead, instead of believing that we are. This error lies at the bottom of all the legal efforts among Christians.
It is not, therefore, a question of striving to be different or seeking to feel this or that, but of believing what God has done for me in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we look at the Red Sea, we can understand how this applies.
Death and Salvation
After the Passover, the children of Israel came into the greatest pressure of trouble; behind them was the army of their foes, and before them only more certain death. But that which seemed to them merely the waters of death was precisely what God was about to make the path of life. When Moses’ rod was lifted up over the sea, the waters of death rose up on either side as walls, and the children of Israel passed through protected, so much the more because it was evident that God was for them. On the Passover night, the blood was merely a protection that God should not be against them; it was not yet God for them. There was no communion, for merely to have that which comes between myself and God would never give me solid comfort before God. Accordingly, the children of Israel fell into a condition of anxiety and dread, worse than they had known before.
So it is frequently so with the Christian. After the soul has been directed to Christ, there is often a deeper realization of one’s own sinfulness than ever. The sense of sin after we have looked to Christ is far more acute and intense than when we fled for refuge at the beginning. For Israel, now God was for them, but that was not all; He was against the Egyptians. And so when the Red Sea closes upon their enemies and all are dead, for the first time God uses the term salvation. He does not say salvation on the night of the Passover lamb, but when they have passed through the sea. Salvation means that complete clearance from all our foes — bringing us out of the house of bondage and setting us free and clean before God, to be His manifest people in the world.
The Rod of Judgment
At the Red Sea, the rod of judgment that was lifted up over the waters was that same rod that smote the Egyptians with all plagues. So it is in the Epistle to the Romans. Satan attempts to turn righteousness against the people of God, but Christ has come, and by His blood He has cleansed them, and by death and resurrection He has brought them out of the place over which judgment hung. They see their sin, as well as their sins, completely gone in consequence of Christ’s having undergone God’s judgment. Therefore, Romans 6 is the first place where sin in our walk is discussed, and in dealing with this question the Apostle shows that we died to sin and that the gift of God now is eternal life. Sin cannot touch the believer, for he is dead to it.
The law, he shows, cannot touch the believer either, for I have “become dead to the law.” So in Romans 7:4, we have “become dead to the law by the body of Christ.” That is, it is the death of Christ, applied to both sin and law, that gives the believer his clearance. So it is as wrong for a believer to have a thought of being “under the law” as it would be for a woman to have two husbands at once. We are dead to the law, that we should belong to another.
No Condemnation
Finally, in chapter 8 we have the full result: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” It is a great comfort that God in the Lord Jesus Christ has dealt with sin in the flesh. After Christ in His life showed me a pattern of all purity, He became a sacrifice for sin, and then God condemned sin in the flesh — this nature that troubled me. Accordingly, if God has given me a new nature found in Christ risen from the dead and also has condemned my old nature, it is very evident there can be no condemnation to those in Christ. You see in every point of view there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
Although the believer is perfectly brought out of his state of condemnation, yet he is still in the wilderness. However happy, he is groaning; he is only “saved in hope.” But now the Holy Spirit becomes the power of his groaning in the wilderness. So the analogy is perfect between the Christian and the Israelites, who were brought out of Egypt, but who never returned to it.
After they came out, they raise the song of triumph. There is no singing in Egypt. Here we find them singing on the other side of the Red Sea, but for all that, they are traveling through the wilderness — they are only going on to the rest of God — they are still toiling through a scene of trial, where, if there is not dependence on God, they perish. I speak now, of course, not in application to the Christian as a question of eternal life, but of practical experience. The wilderness is the place where flesh dies and where all hangs on the simplicity of dependence on the love of God.
Adapted from W. Kelly
The Red Sea and Its Significance
Most surely, the scene at the Red Sea is full of instruction for us. How often do we find the children of God plunged into the very depths of distress, because they have no sense of full deliverance. They do not see the application of the death of Christ to their evil nature. They see that the blood of Jesus screens them from the judgment of God, but there is no sense of full and everlasting salvation. They are, to speak according to our type, on Egypt’s side of the Red Sea and in danger of falling into the hands of the prince of this world. They cannot sing the song of redemption, for no one can sing it until he stands by faith on the wilderness side of the Red Sea and sees his complete deliverance from sin, the world and Satan. Israel did not raise a single note of praise until they had passed through the Red Sea and saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.
The Red Sea is the type of the death of Christ, in its application to all our spiritual enemies — sin, the world and Satan. By the death of Christ the believer is completely and forever delivered from the power of sin. He is conscious of the presence of sin, but its power is gone. He has died to sin in the death of Christ. It is not merely that His blood has purged our sins; His death has also broken the power of sin.
It is one thing to know that our sins are forgiven, and another thing altogether to know that “the body of sin” is destroyed, its rule ended, and its dominion gone. Many will tell you that they do not question the forgiveness of their past sins, but they do not know what to say as to indwelling sin. They have not learned the doctrine of Romans 6; they have not as yet, in their spiritual intelligence and apprehension, reached the resurrection side of the Red Sea. They do not know what it is to be dead unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Scripture tells us that we are to “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). I do not reason about it; I reckon myself to be what He tells me I am. I do not struggle to work myself into a sinless state, which is impossible, nor do I imagine myself to be in it, which would be a delusion. Rather, in simple faith, I take the blessed ground which faith assigns me, in association with a dead and risen Christ. I do not reason from myself upwards, but I reason from God downwards. This makes all the difference.
It is an unspeakable mercy to be done with self, for self-occupation is the death-blow to fellowship and a complete barrier to the soul’s rest. It is absolutely impossible for anyone to enjoy peace so long as he is occupied with himself. He must cease from self and rest, without a single question, on God’s Word. I change, but God’s Word is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Furthermore, it is a grand point for the soul to apprehend that Christ is the only definition of the believer’s place before God. This gives immense power, liberty and blessing. “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). All this seems too good to be true, and it is too good for us to get, but it is not too good for Him to give. God gives according to His estimate of the worthiness of Christ, for the glory of God and the worthiness of His Son are involved in His dealings with us. On resurrection ground, God brings us into association with a risen and glorified Christ.
Adapted from C. H. Mackintosh
Anxiety
When the children of Israel left Egypt, they found themselves between the Red Sea before them and Pharaoh’s army behind them. In their fear, they told Moses that they wished that they had never left Egypt. Thousands of years later, anxiety continues to beset us in this world. Man-made and natural catastrophes are on every side — mass killings of man by his fellow man, as well as hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and floods. To all this is added the threat of economic collapse. From all over the world these events are daily brought to our attention immediately and graphically. Although many do not appear outwardly distressed, men’s hearts are already “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth” (Luke 21:26). Can the Christian have a different outlook than those who do not know Christ?
Recently a panel of five experts sat around a table to discuss the question, “Are we more anxious than ever?” Their conclusion was an unqualified “yes,” for there is much in this world to be anxious about. It was commented that to look back only brings depression (how much nicer the world was “back then”!), while to look ahead brings anxiety (what will become of us?). The solution for many is to immerse themselves in the present. As the commercial slogan invites, “Live for now!”
The panelists also commented that in the past, in times of great distress in this world (such as during the black plague or the two world wars), many turned to “religion” to find comfort. In the same way today many are turning to what they term “spirituality,” but for a significant number this is atheism. No God! What vast emptiness!
A Product of Our Mind
Anxiety is a product of our minds and our thoughts, and some have a more difficult time dealing with it than others. This is true even among believers, for a creative mind can come up with so many matters about which to worry! In serious cases, it is recognized as a form of mental illness for which there is medication and other treatment available. For this reason, those who are not naturally of an anxious nature need to have patience and help along those who are more prone to worry through the details of life. But ultimately we must be ready to say with David, “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth” (Psa. 121:2). As with every moral question, we find the answer in the Word of God, for the Lord has given us guidance and comfort through His Word.
Martha
The first example that comes to mind concerns Martha and the Lord’s words to her, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41). Martha was “cumbered” and her Lord had to speak her name twice in this instance, perhaps just to get her attention. Rather than sympathizing with her, the Lord rebuked her, but it is important to notice that He did not do this until she appealed to Him, thinking that her sister should help her. In the same way, the Lord did not rebuke the anxiety of the disciples when their boat was in the storm on the lake until they reproached Him for not seeming to care about their predicament. The Lord may allow us to experience the result of our worry until we are pressed to the point that we appeal to Him. Anxiety is connected with our state of soul and cannot be remedied except by closer communion with the Lord. For this reason, Martha was also pointed to the remedy: “One thing is needful” (Luke 10:42). She needed to spend time with her Lord and not be so occupied with the cares of this life. A similar thought is laid out for us in Colossians 3:2: “Have your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth” (JND). This takes a deliberate steering of our thought process upwards.
“Now Is My Soul Troubled”
When we consider anxiety, some might ask the meaning of our Lord’s words in John 12:27: ”Now is My soul troubled.” It is important to see that when the question of being made sin was before our blessed Lord, His soul was troubled about what He must endure in order to glorify the Father’s name. In our case, as with Martha, there is often anxiety and worry — something never attributed to our blessed Master. To be burdened about something, and even to shed tears over a situation, is different from worry and anxiety. When anxious, we are concerned and agitated, not only over the process, but also the outcome. For the Lord, the outcome was never in doubt. As the perfect, dependent Man, His faith carried Him through it all, and perhaps this is why Paul could say, “I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). Christ was the perfect example of the life of faith.
Be Careful for Nothing
In Scripture we are never told to try to do something, but rather to do it! And so often we are given a beautiful goal or motive. A good example is found in Philippians 4:4, where we are twice told to “rejoice in the Lord.” If we are doing that, how much easier it is to go on to the following verse: “Be careful for nothing.” The word “careful” here denotes anxiety and worry. In the same way, Psalm 37 tells us three times to “fret not,” but then goes on to encourage us to “trust in the Lord” (vs. 3), “delight thyself also in the Lord” (vs. 4), “commit thy way unto the Lord” (vs. 5), and “rest in the Lord” (vs. 7).
Hope and Faith
Connected with anxiety is the subject of hope. It was striking to note that the panel of experts discussing anxiety all agreed that “hope” did not play much part in our society. It has been buried in our fears, although all agreed that “hope decreases anxiety.” Hope is dependent on faith, and few today have much faith in what the future may hold. The world has lost its faith in God and is realizing more and more that unregenerate man is not a fit object for faith. But the believer has a hope that is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Heb. 6:19). Hope also protects, for we have “an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8). It purifies, for “every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself” (1 John 3:3). In the affairs of this life and their final outcome, we have the assurance that “all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28).
The stresses and strains of daily living can easily fill us with fears, anxious thoughts and worry; our lives can easily be full of “what ifs ... ” But in walking in communion with the Lord, Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 11:25, “Thrice I suffered shipwreck.” If we had been involved in two plane crashes, we might be anxious about boarding a third flight. But Paul, confident of having the Lord’s mind, went ahead, and he did indeed suffer a third shipwreck. It is a walk in fellowship with Him that takes away all fear. As another has said, it is better to walk in difficult circumstances but in good company than to walk in comfortable circumstances in bad company. If we look back, let us look all the way back to the cross; if we look forward, let us look all the way ahead to coming glory.
Growth
Another question may arise as to whether worry and anxiety can be used for our growth. Scripture would suggest that worry is the wrong response to difficult circumstances, for surely spiritual growth does not come out of that which is really a lack of faith. Rather, growth comes out of a right response to trying circumstances. We read in Psalm 4:1, “In pressure Thou hast enlarged me” (JND). If we accept hard circumstances from the Lord and learn to cast our care upon Him (1 Peter 5:6-7), we will find that our hearts are enlarged as we go through tough times with the Lord. Through trials we learn His comfort, His patience and His love in a far deeper way than if our lives were always easy. The trial is temporary, but the experience of going through it with the Lord will bear fruit for all eternity. But we can never learn all this in a state of anxiety.
“When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” (Matt. 26:30). The Lord Jesus was shortly going to undertake the most severe testing and trial of His life here, but in communion with His Father, He can start along that road by singing a hymn. He has left us an example, “that ye should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).
Why should I ever careful be,
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o’er me night and
day,
And tells me, “Thou art Mine.”
(Little Flock Hymnbook,
#27 App.)
W. J. Prost
The Lord Is Risen
The Lord is risen: the Red Sea’s judgment
flood
Is passed in Him, who bought us with His
blood;
The Lord is risen: we stand beyond the
doom
Of all our sin, through Jesus’ empty tomb.
The Lord is risen: redeemed now to God,
We tread the desert which His feet have
trod;
The Lord is risen: the sanctuary’s our place,
Where now we dwell before the Father’s
face.
The Lord is risen: the Lord is gone before;
We long to see Him and to sin no more;
The Lord is risen: our triumph-shout shall
be,
“Thou hast prevailed! Thy people, Lord, are
free!”
W. P. Mackay