Tell the Israelites to go forward

Exodus 14: 5-31, OT pages 60-61 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, “What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?” So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him; he took six hundred picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh King of Egypt and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out boldly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his chariot drivers and his army; they overtook them camped by the sea, by Pihahiroth, in front of Baalzephon. As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.” The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. Sermon There are times of hesitation in life. Times when you know where are supposed to go, you know what you are supposed to do and what direction to move in, the only problem is that your feet stay rooted to the ground. You can see it at any swimming lesson if the teacher will let you come and watch. She probably won’t let you come and watch however, because no swimming teacher wants there to be a witness to her near criminal act of pushing three year old girls in their sweet little bathing suits into the pool. She has to do this however, because the three year old who has never been in the water will stand there all day just looking at it in terror, not moving a muscle. When I was a little older than that my mother drove me to my first basketball practice. Being the mother of three she needed to move quickly to pick up one of my siblings, so she walked me into the rec-center on the north side of town, then she pointed out my coach standing on the other side of basketball court, and she told me to walk over there and introduce myself, then she hustled back to the car and left me standing there. I was still standing there in that exact spot when she came back to pick me up, because there are times of hesitation in life when you know where you are supposed to go but your feet stay rooted to the ground. The Israelites were led out of Egypt by the hand of Moses, but then, as Pharaoh and his army of chariots and chariot drivers advances, they cry out to God, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt, that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord told the Israelites to go forward but they were afraid to move. The Psalmist recounts this event: “Your way was through the sea, your path through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” A flock of what, the psalm doesn’t say, but what is clear enough is that there are moments, even for faithful people, when the direction is made clear but the first step towards freedom is nearly impossible to take. There are times when we are not like firefighters rushing into the stairwell of the Twin Towers, brave and without hesitation despite the dust and bodies falling from the sky, the warning creak of beams soon to give way, there are times when we are more like a flock of sheep, so fearful of what we don’t know that we cannot move one step forward, so uncertain of what to do that we do nothing. Even still, “tell the Israelites to go forward,” the Lord said to Moses, because the life demands it. But our vision – so rarely is it ever clear. My mind is so trained to a litany of anxiety and worry, grief and sorrow. The Egyptians are there on my heel and they have my attention so completely. Some will say that we go forward as sheep to be slaughtered. But the Apostle Paul sees more clearly – and so he said that those who go forward are more than conquerors through him who loved us. The Lord provided a way and commanded the people forward – so forward you must go even if it means passing through a sea of tears. “Do not be afraid, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today.” Amen.