Egypt's Pursuit (Ex. 14:1-9)

5/4/2008 7:52 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time           Focus:  Egypt’s Pursuit

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 14:1-9

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2  "Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you shall camp in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea.  3  "For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’  4  "Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." And they did so.  5  When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"  6  So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him;  7  and he took six hundred select chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.  8  The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly.  9  Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.”

            As stated in an earlier SD the exact route of Israel leaving Egypt is unknown and this has caused attempts by people who do not have a trust in the Word of God to think that the sea which Israel walked through on dry ground was very shallow, but this actually takes more faith to believe. Why?  Well because it would have been harder to drown all of Egypt’s army in such a shallow sea.

            “The Jewish people were told what God wanted them to do, but Moses was told why God was doing it.”  “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.  God’s plans were to completely destroy Egypt’s Army, thus completely destroying Egypt when one considerers the ten plagues that they had just gone through by the hand of God.  This was another reason why God chose the route for Israel to go when leaving Egypt.   Egypt would fall into a trap that was set by God.

            I can just see Pharaoh speaking to all of his leaders in his army about why was it that we let Israel go, for now our total economy will be ruined for there will be no one to do the work since all of these slaves were let go.  There would have been reports given to Pharaoh that Israel was just wandering around in the wilderness not knowing where it is that they will go, for they are lost, and not only lost but not very smart to put themselves up against the sea with no place to retreat to, what easy pickings this will be.  Wrong!!

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I see a couple of things that I can learn for this section of Scripture.  First I do not want to brag as I am sure that Pharaoh did about going to capture Israel.  Second is that there are times in my life when following the Lord may seem like it is not the smartest thing to do, as was the case for Israel’s route after leaving Egypt, but God knows the beginning from the end, and as in the case of Israel God saw them through the sea on dry ground, but all of the Egyptians drowned.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To yoke up with the Lord today, because life is tough and the Lord will make my life meaningful.  Trust the Lord to teach me contentment through the trials that He is sending me through, for there are blessings in the storms of life.