A Study of God's Faithfulness - Out of Egypt

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.  Deuteronomy 7:9-10

God has displayed His love and faithfulness to His people from the beginning of time. From Genesis to present day, God has loved us and taken care of us, even when His own people turned against Him and served other gods. We are the unfaithful ones. Let me show you something.

Israel's twelve sons had been living in Egypt, while Joseph, one of the younger brothers, was second in command of Pharaoh's kingdom. After Joseph died and the new Pharaoh was on the throne, Israel's sons and their families became slaves.

In Genesis 17, God made a covenant with Abraham to multiply his offspring and to be their God. So, when Abraham's seed found themselves in slavery, they cried out to God to rescue them.

Exodus 2:20 says, "Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew."

God sent Moses, a Hebrew who had grown up in Pharaoh's house, to rescue His people from slavery. Pharaoh refused to comply with God's command to release the people, so God demonstrated His power through the many plagues He sent to afflict Egypt. Eventually, Pharaoh let the children of Israel leave Egypt.

After this multitude of people had gone, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army to pursue them, bringing them back into captivity. God had other plans. God could have led them through the land of the Philistines, since it was closest to them. But they would have had to fight the Philistines, and God knew the people would want to return to Egypt. Slavery was more comfortable to them than war. Instead, He took them toward the Red Sea.

Exodus 13:21 says, "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people."

The people were encamped by the Red Sea when they saw Pharaoh's army coming toward them. They began to do what we often do when we are scared. They freaked out!

They said, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." (Exodus 14:11-12)

In Exodus 14:13-14, Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work 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 be silent.”

In verse 19, the Angel of God, aka Jesus, who was going before Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the army of Egypt and Israel. The cloud and darkness remained between them, and the army could not approach the children of Israel.

While the enemy was in the dark, Moses stretched his hand out over the Red Sea, and the Lord drove the waters back with a strong east wind. The wind held the waters back all night, and the bottom of the sea was dry land. The children of Israel began crossing the sea, with the enemy in hot pursuit.

In the morning, as Pharaoh's army was in the middle of the Red Sea, on the dry ground God had provided for His people, God sent the army into a state of panic. Their chariot wheels began to bind up so that they would hardly move. They said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them!" (Exodus 14:25)

God instructed Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea, and the water returned to cover the Egyptians. Not a single person from the Egyptian army survived. Thousands of God's people crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground. Not a single person of the children of Israel was lost in the sea.

God fights for His people. Just as He led the children of Israel out of slavery, He leads US out of slavery. Their wilderness experience was a time of training. They had to learn to obey, and they had to learn how to fight the enemy. That's exactly what our wilderness experience is about.

When I read through the Old Testament and see the unfaithfulness of God's people, I find myself shaking my head, saying, "These people!" But we are not different from the children of Israel.

When God set me free from sin and delivered me out of my Egypt, I found myself missing my old life. Not the sin but the people, the way things were. I had gotten too comfortable in a life that kept me from the best God had for me. I kept looking back, but thankfully, I didn't go back.

We are God's people. He fights for us! He can keep our enemies in the dark and unable to get to us. We may see the enemy coming at us, but we just have to stand still, be quiet, and watch God take care of everything in our lives. This story is just one of many that demonstrates how, if we will trust God and walk in His ways, He will destroy our enemies!