Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 31, 2021 | Exodus - The Great Escape

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January 31, 2021 | Exodus - The Great Escape · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Morning folks.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the book of Exodus.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let me start while they're getting my clicker with uh story I read in the Jerusalem Post.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh about thank you, Kendall.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Little Tommy, who uh said the Sunday morning, a few days before Passover, uh little Tommy came home from Hebrew school, and as he sat at the kitchen table, his mother put out some pancakes, put out some syrup, so forth, and she said, Tommy dear, what did you learn in Hebrew school today?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he looked up and he thought for a minute, and then he said, Well, we learned about Moses and Israel at the Red Sea.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Mother said, That's a good story.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: What did you learn?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he said, you see, Moses got the Jews to the Red Sea, but the Egyptians were right behind, and the sea was in front.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what could they do?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So Moses got all the engineers together, and he told them to build a pontoon bridge in the middle of the night.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so they built this pontoon bridge in the middle of the night, and they attached these little bombs at the bottom of the pontoon bridge, which he could blow up later.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then he called for a barrage of these special shells that would make smoke.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so they blocked all night.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: They blocked the Egyptians from getting to the Israelites.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so he got then he got the people moving over the pontoon bridge, and and so the smoke went away, and the Egyptians saw them, and the Egyptians started chasing them.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And right when all the Israelites got off the pontoon bridge, and the Egyptians were all on the pontoon bridge, Moses pushed the button, and the pontoon bridge blew up and they all fell off and they drowned.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Tommy's mommy said, Really?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the rabbi taught you in Hebrew school?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he said, Not quite, but if I told you what he really said, you wouldn't believe me.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people don't believe the story.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's in uh Exodus.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh open your Bible if you have one, Exodus chapter 14.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: We are in a series, as you know, the uh Exodus uh uh breaking us out and inviting us in.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we have the Exodus Challenge.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you are taking the Exodus Challenge to some extent?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Great, thank you.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Four chapters till Palm Sunday.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: This coming week, chapters 17 through 20, we're gonna get to Mount Sinai, wherever that is.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are three great, great questions.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'll throw this in.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is extra.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, three three great unresolved questions in the book of Exodus, and that is how many people came out of Egypt, where was Mount Sinai?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And today's question, where exactly did they cross?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh where exactly did they cross the uh the water, the Red Sea?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not going to answer any of them here, but if you come to my Hebrew class, um then maybe you'll do that.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um so breaking us out, inviting us in.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: My title this morning is The Great Escape.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you are old enough to have seen The Great Escape, 1963, greatest movie of the 1960s, I think, had so many stars in it.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um I thought actually put a picture, but I must not have.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: It had uh the most famous star.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think he won an award for it, Steve McQueen.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: But it had James Garner, it had Hank could tell you like all eight of them.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was it was amazing.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, but we have so so the issue was based on a true story, I don't think there were any Americans involved in the true story, but but uh but the uh uh they they built a camp, Germans did, to to house all the people who were trying to break out of camps who were really good at it, built an impregnable camp, which was a real challenge, of course, which they took up.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um, in fact, they decided the prisoners of war decided they would break out 250 of them.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think they ended up breaking out 70, and a number of them got caught.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we have a great escape story.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the three greatest, most thrilling stories in the entire Bible, up there with David and Goliath and Daniel and the Lion's Den.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I consider this story to be the greatest escape story and maybe the greatest, mostly thrilling story in the Bible.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna look at it and we're gonna dive right in because um we have to start in chapter 13, verse 17, and there are a lot of lessons here, and it's really exciting, and I'm so excited to be able to preach this passage for the first time in my life.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's so, so cool.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: When Pharaoh let the people go, okay, God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: We read that, even though it was nearby.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're in the land of Goshen, and that road's nearby.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: For God said the people might change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have to stop right here because there's so much in this verse, all right?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a here's a picture, if you can see it.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Traditional route of the Exodus.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the Nile Delta.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the land of Goshen was.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Israelites are up on the northeast side of the land of Goshen.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Nile River.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Nile Delta means the Nile sort of splits out and it waters all the ground, so it's really green.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Best land there was.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: This green thing, uh this blue uh blue thing is, of course, the Mediterranean.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: We have the Red Sea down here.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: It has two arms.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: On the left hand side is the Gulf of Suez.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: On the right hand side, the Gulf of Aqaba.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can see the Dead Sea here.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is Canaan.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you can see the shortest route to Canaan would be right up here.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It would only take two weeks for them to march up, and they can immediately be in the land of Canaan, right?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: The traditional route of the Exodus, very debated, is that instead of going on the Philistine road up here, as we just read in this verse, because God said, if I send them on that road, then they're gonna get so scared, they're gonna, you know, that they're gonna go back to Egypt.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Umtice he doesn't say anything about the Egyptians.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: All kinds of archaeology in the last 20 years has discovered all kinds of Egyptian forts along here.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But remember, the Egyptians um were glad to get rid of them and had given them all kinds of good stuff.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So they weren't worried about the Egyptians, but God said, I can't send them not to the Philistines up this way.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: So he sent them south.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the traditional site of Mount Sinai.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us have been there.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Whether that's the real site or whether this is the site is unknown.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we go back to the text.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: When Pharaoh let the people go, he didn't lead them along the road, God didn't lead them to the road.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Philistines, even though it was close, for God said, get this, get this.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Think for just a moment, pretend you're in heaven, imagine God saying this, and feel how weird, how random this is.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: For God said the people might change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but that feels really weird to me.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Remember?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because we've had a God who overrides people like crazy during this whole story.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: We have a sovereign God who does everything.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Who, I mean, why would he ever say, oh, well, if I lead them that way, then they might go back to Egypt?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going, hold it, God.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're the God, as this cartoon says, who zap hardens Pharaoh's heart in this story, for heaven's sake.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: You do these plagues, you do anything you want to.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why in the world would you ever say or worry that somehow your plan's going to fail because the Israelites might get scared and the Israelites might go back to Egypt?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, what we've got here is another one of these huge issues, strange things about God's choice and our choice.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: This amaz this this crazy thing where in a story where God is as sovereign as he can get and he just overrides even people's hearts or emotions, willy-nilly, all of a sudden he is concerned that somebody's heart might think a certain way and it might mess up his plan.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And yet we find that that's not the only time in the Bible where where God seems to reason this way.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, none of the rulers, remember in 1 Corinthians 2, speaking about the crucifixion, he said, none of the rulers of this age understood it.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: What he means is my plan that Jesus would die for the whole world and that therefore the cross was a good thing.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, but none of the bad guys understood this for if they had, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You planned for Jesus to be crucified.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: You have all the power in the world.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: You said it was by your predetermined plan, Acts chapter 2.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So why would you say you were concerned that people wouldn't crucify him?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just trying to mess up with your mind this morning.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I'm doing, because my point is that I don't know.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: My point is that sometimes the sovereign God controls us and every event to make things happen, right?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes he gives us almost complete freedom and control.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible seems to say.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's somewhere on the spectrum most of the time of God doing it all 100% and man doing it all.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let me put it a different way.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the sovereign God adjusts us to fit his plan, but sometimes the sovereign God adjusts his plan to fit us.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: You say, Where are you going with this?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I want answers when I come here on Sunday morning.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where I'm going with this.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone talks like they understand God's sovereignty and human freedom, just smile, nod, and say, Isn't God great?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm saying about this.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because you see, you find so many people on one side or the other that feel like they know.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a startling statement in a God's sovereignty passage when He's about to work the greatest miracle, perhaps, physical miracle in the Bible.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, But I uh have gotta work this way because Israel might might might might weenie out.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get back.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to say, God is great, that's how I'm beginning.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or as Romans 11 says, so well.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Can you say amen?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, that's just to remind us that God is mysterious and he's greater than we are, and we can't understand, but don't ever think that your choices are important.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever think for a moment that your choices aren't incredibly important.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, back to the text.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when Pharaoh let the people go, he didn't lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where did he lead them?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So he led the people around toward the Red Sea along the road of the wilderness.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: There were two main roads out of Egypt, and God said, Well, I'm gonna take you on a detour on the longer road.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so instead of the Philistine road, you see, he took them south.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's a wilderness road that cuts across here that's actually mentioned uh uh in Genesis.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's the road that Hagar took when Sarah kicked her out of the house.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And she was heading back to her home country of Egypt on the lower road.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are two roads out of Egypt.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And God's so God turns them south instead on the wilderness road to go into the Sinai wilderness.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh one more time, this is a little bit of geography.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Red Sea, this is the Gulf of Suez, Gulf of Aqaba.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, this is all this has changed since then because we have what's called the Suez Canal, and that's changed a whole lot of this as we have this deep water canal that starts right here and goes all the way up uh uh to the Mediterranean.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the second point, the second place they're gonna stop, the first place they're gonna stop is a place called Sukkoth, which we actually know exactly where it is today because we have an Arab town that has the word Sukkoth in it.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So uh let me just mention the debate.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I had showed you the traditional route beforehand where they go down here and they go down to Mount Sinai.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's another, there's there's a very common opinion today.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find it on the Discovery Channel and in other places.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of conservative Christians now hold it, and that is they didn't cross over the Red Sea here.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: They traveled 180 miles and crossed, and Pharaoh caught up with them clear over here, and they crossed the Red Sea here, and Mount Sinai is in Arabia.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Those two views, and I used to hold tradition strongly to the traditional view, and now I've been shaken up, and I'm not sure what I believe.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, just letting you know.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites left the land of Egypt in military formation.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean they were armed.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what your NIV says.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say NIV may say they're armed, but that's not what it says.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: It says that they were, God had told them to be in organized formation.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, it was the number five.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it may mean there was a vanguard and a rearguard and a main force, and then two parties on either side.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, they were organized, they were like an army, even though they'd never been trained and they didn't have arms.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Not a very good army.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and what there was a photograph taken, and you can see these five lines, so maybe that's what it was.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And there's the pillar of cloud.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, and Moses is really happy with the fact that they are in military formation.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, verse 20 the Israelites traveled from Ramses, remember that city they had built.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: They traveled from their homes to Sukkoth, and they set out from Succoth and they camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know where that is, unfortunately.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Yahweh was going before them by day in a pillar of clouds, so they could see him, to lead them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Same pill, same pillar, same pillar.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's likely that there was lightning stuff going on inside that pillar during the day as well.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it turned, and so they could see it, it was a pillar of fire to give them light so they could travel by day and by night.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: We think early on, maybe they were traveling by day and by night, as difficult as that would be for tens of thousands of people with their animals.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Exodus 14.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then Yahweh said to Moses, Tell the Israelites that they should turn back and that they should camp in front of Pihai Roth between Migdal and the sea.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we don't know where these places are.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: We can guess, but of course, some people say they're by the Gulf of Suez, and some people say they're 200 miles away by the Gulf of Aqaba.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: But what we know about them is that they put Israel in a dead-end position.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're stuck between the desert and the deep Red Sea.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to know that the Israelites had to be saying, okay, God, I can kind of understand the detour because I've heard the Philistines are really mighty, and I've read the Bible, and they don't actually get conquered for another 400 years till David comes and there's Goliath.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for not taking us that way.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the Israelites understood about the Philistines and that they were super mighty and scary.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: But but they couldn't have understood the strangeness of God running them right into the Red Sea, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: So they face the Red Sea through the desert, and they turn around and they go, What is going on here?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Makes no sense.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what actually was happening, if we move from 1963 to 1973, is we have an early replay of a famous movie called The Sting.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you seen that movie?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you kids need to see that movie.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Great movie.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Newman, Robert Redford.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: In the sting, you have you have uh cards that are flashed up in the movie, uh in which there's a setup and there's a hook and there's a sting.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what God is doing.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Watch the setup, the hook, and the sting now in these verses.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Exodus 14, 1 and 2.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yahweh says, tell the Israelites to turn back and camp.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: He wants there to be a setup that Pharaoh's, Pharaoh's scouts will come back and tell him they don't know what they're doing.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're lost, they're trapped.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the setup.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Pharaoh, God said, will say of the Israelites, they're wandering around the land in confusion.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: The wilderness has boxed them in, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the hook.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's got them hooked, Israel's trapped.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta we can go get them.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites did that.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And now comes the sting.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is really cool.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I just want to throw this in here really quickly for those of you that are feeling as though you're in a dead-end situation right now or on a detour.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God's way, God's way looks like a detour or a dead end.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: But trust him, his way is always the best way because God works all things together for good to those who love God.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when the king of Egypt was informed that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials, and the picture in the Hebrew, is that they suddenly, they abruptly changed their minds about them, and they said, What have we done?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: That we've released Israel from serving us.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've lost all this free service, this free slavery.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And notice, and so now they're going to chase after him.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that the devil won't give up his slaves without a fight.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the whole point of C.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: S.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis's screw tape letters and Jesus' statement in Matthew 13 in the parable of the soils, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so now we have the devil's main representative on earth right now, the main enemy of God, the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, harnessed his chariot, or he had his chariot harnessed, and he took his people with him.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: 600 elite or modern chariots.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: They'd been in a war recently, can't get into it, but they got, they were temporarily defeated by people who had more modern chariots with better wheels, and also could have three people on the chariot.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had modernized their chariot force, and he had 600 of these, and he said, and all the chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: So these were actually the people that had defeated Egypt, three people on a chariot, and an officer for each chariot.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: He had a bow and an arrow on the chariot, spear on the chariot, two-wheeled chariots so it could move very quickly.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so he took his 600 elite or modern chariots and then all the rest of his chariots so that they could go fast and they headed out after them.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Yahweh made the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, implacable.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: I like that word better than hardened, but anyway, that's okay.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he pursued the Israelites.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the Israelites were marching out boldly.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: The point is that Israelites had no idea now they're going to be chased because Egypt had said, you can go.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the picture is that they're carefree and they're singing and they're bold and they're defiant and they have no worries in the world.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: You have this contrast between these two sentences.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, his horsemen and his infantry, chased after them and caught up with him as they camped by the sea by Pihe Aroth in front of Baal Zephon.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I won't say anything about that.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So they catch up with him, and notice now he takes you into the Israelite forces as they suddenly see the Egyptians coming.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked up and in Hebrew, Hineh, and behold, like, whoa, look, there were the Egyptians coming after them.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the Egyptians were terrified.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And give them credit, they cried out to the Lord.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: At least cried out to the Lord.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: But then don't give them credit, because then they attacked Moses.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: They said to Moses, Is it because there are absolutely no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away to die?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Here, by the way, is I think the first evidence that the Jewish people will have a great sense of humor.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the beginning of Jewish humor in the Bible, because as you know, the pyramids are graves, right?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, Egypt is covered by graves.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Egypt's Book of the Dead and everything, they're a religion of death.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So this is this is like while they're mad, they're also funny.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which is, you know, so sort of like the humor about the Holocaust, you know.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um they defeated the Germans, it's all over, let's eat, you know, something like that.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: So is it because there's absolutely no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Very sad.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Very sad.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't this what we told you in Egypt, and now they sort of invent this memory that somehow all along they hadn't wanted to leave Egypt?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't this what we told you?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness, and it gets even sadder, doesn't it?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: You find that happening sometimes.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: I had someone in my office once who had become a Christian not long before, and they were so upset that they'd become a Christian because their life had gotten worse since they'd become a Christian.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they wished that they had never come to Christ because they associated, you know, getting on God's side with things getting worse.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they would have preferred to rewind, rewind the clock.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Very sad.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's what they're doing.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: As if, you know.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: When hard times hit, the miserable past suddenly looks like the good old days.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: When hard times hit, your miserable past suddenly looks like the good old days.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or to put it another way, when hard times hit, too many of God's people are quick.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: To blame their leaders and forsake their commitments.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: They forsake their commitment.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: They said they were going to follow God.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: They said they were going to go with God to the end of the earth.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: They said, whatever you say we'll do.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: They were people of faith.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: There were people that believed.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: They were all so excited.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're singing songs.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But then the hard times hit, and all of a sudden they flip.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to find that as we read on in Exodus that they whine and complain about nearly everything and keep saying we'd like to go back to Egypt.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Moses answered the people in verse 13, do not fear, stand still, and see Yahweh's salvation that he will bring about for you today.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is the first great, probably the greatest thing that Moses has said up till this point.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Moses is this amazing leader.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: When he replies to them at this critical point, you know, when all the pressure is on, that's when great leadership has to step forward.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses, as they're attacking him, he replies in this amazing way, three things.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do not fear, stand still, and see the Lord's salvation that he will bring about for you today.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really the faith formula, isn't it?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: That God, you know, I know your God says to us, I know I'm, you know, I know you're, I know your times are hard right now.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know I know it is really rough.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I demand of you, I demand of you the faith that you have expressed in the past.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Stop being afraid, number one, number two, stand strong and watch me work.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Stop being afraid, stand strong, watch God work.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you found that to work in your life, haven't you?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: You found that you've been, your back's been against the wall, everything's, everything looks like it's falling apart, and then somehow by faith, as things were falling apart, you decided that you would take it to God, that you would stand strong and you'd watch God work.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you're here today, and you could testify that it worked out.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh God continues, for those whom you see today, the Egyptians, you will never, ever see them again.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Emphasis in the Hebrew.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: You'll never ever see them again, and they didn't.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yahweh will fight for you, but you must shut up.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's really blunt in the Hebrew.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting tired of listening to you.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: I will fight for you, but you need to be, you need to be quiet.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: And Yahweh said to Moses, and now uh now the Lord gives three assignments.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: First to the Israelites, second to Moses, third to himself.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Yahweh said to Moses, there's no need for you to cry out to me.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: I know your translation says, uh, why are you something like, why are you crying out to me?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Which sounds like he's critical of Moses, but Moses hasn't done anything wrong.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's an idiom in Hebrew that just means there's no need for you to cry out to me.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Tell the Israelites that they should move out.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just told them to stand strong, but now he's uh it's this interesting balance, is it, isn't it?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we you know uh we feel as though we need to just be still and know that he is God, and which is true.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: But other times God says, you need to get moving.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: You need to clean your garage.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do it.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, no.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um tell the Israelites, sorry about that.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: That was personal.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh tell the Israelites that they should move out.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the assignment he gives the Israelites.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then he turns to Moses and says, But you, Moses, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the Israelites may go through the middle of the sea on dry ground.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's Moses' assignment.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, Okay, the Israelites are gonna move out, you're gonna lift up your hand, your staff, and the sea will divide.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what I'm gonna do.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I watch this.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is this is the word behold again, like wow, get get a load of what is about to happen.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Get this.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm going to do.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna believe this.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this means, right here.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I get this.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: I will make the hearts of the Egyptians so implacable that they will go in after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army and all his chariots and all his troops.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons God might have said, get this, is because everyone in the ancient world who had chariots knew that the last place you ever want to take a chariot with those thin metal wheels, uh wooden wheels with metal flangers, is you did not want to take them into muddy places, into a marsh or whatever, right?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um so God's gonna, God's God's saying, those those chariots are are gonna come after you.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh when I gain glory through Pharaoh.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the emphasis on God getting glory again, through his chariots and his mounted troops.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the angel of God who had been going, here we go, it's an interesting verse, hard to translate, who had been going in front of Israel's army, okay?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they're in front of them, between them and the sea, okay, moved and went behind them.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the pillar of cloud, which is the angel of God, moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's the NIV.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's I think that's probably right.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: And throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to the one side.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think we can be sure that was the side of the Egyptians, and light to the other side.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: This this cloud of dark of uh this dark cloud plus fire, one cloud, the angel of the Lord, Yahweh is the cloud, in the cloud and the cloud, brought darkness to the one side, light to the other side.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So neither went near the other all night long.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that wonderful?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I just think there's such a great picture there that when you're under attack, the other side, the the anti-God side is in darkness, and you are in the light, and God is in between you, and God is keeping you safe.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the way it was all night, all night.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then Moses at the same time stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: So God's using nature here, and this is an argument for the for the eastern Gulf of Aqaba, because it's surrounded by mountains, and at times the wind does come in, a strong wind, and seems to blow the water apart.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, could it really blow water apart that is a minimum of 30 feet deep and sometimes gets down to a hundred feet deep?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but God's using nature, and he turns the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and their left.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh now we have a number of emphasis, you know, emphases in this chapter, in the previous chapter, and in the next chapter, that the water was deep.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that if you watch Discovery, you watch some of these other channels, what you hear, well, it's a little bit like what was that story?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it was an old country church, Bible-believing country church, and they had a guest preacher who'd come in, and he was from a liberal seminary or something, and he's talking on Exodus chapter 12, and he's telling, read the story of the uh of the Red Sea parting and so forth, and and one of the brothers yells out, this must have been in Texas, yells out, praise the miracle working God, you know, for parting the Red Sea.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and the preacher, you know, and I sent him straight, said, Well, actually, the truth is that it was uh the Red Sea was really narrow, it was more like a marsh, it was just six inches deep, and and and and so and and the man yells out, praise the Lord, he drowned all the Egyptians in six inches of water.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, so so but the problem is the emphasis throughout, that's never mentioned on the Discovery Channel, national, you know, Smithsonian, whatever.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: The emphasis, every single word in here is about its depth.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even the word yom for sea means a deep sea.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the word wall is usually used of a very large 80-foot-high city wall, something like that.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Minimum 30 feet high.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, so there's no comment on that.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: The picture throughout the entire account from start to end is not that this is a shallow, reedy, marshy place, but that this is a really, that this is, you know, like in the like in the Charlton Heston movie, right?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: And who knows whether it certainly didn't look like this.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's gotta be fake.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: But but anyway, that it was this really high, and you can imagine walking through, can't you?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: How scary that would be to walk through.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, that was just the movie, but but God took a photograph, and so this is from above, this is from above, and you can see this.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can see all of the people of Israel walking across.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's actually that's actually the way it was.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just wanted you to know.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the Egyptians set out in pursuit.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: All Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his mounted troops, and they went after them into the middle of the sea.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And here they are.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I think this is from Gods and Kings, a movie about five, six, seven years ago.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that there is supposed to be Pharaoh himself coming into the sea, and they're chasing after them.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and the Israelites had to be scared of two things.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can imagine if you're going through, you're terrified of this huge wall of water.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me remind you, almost nobody in the ancient world ever had ever taken swimming lessons.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: People, we read of nobody in the ancient world who could survive water.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody swam.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's gonna make the Egyptians' job really hard in just a moment.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: So so the Israelites have got to be terrified too.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: If the water comes, they can't swim to shore.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if it's more than 15 feet.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: So so here they are.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and how why in the world were the chariots going here?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I take it it must have looked so dry, and they must have seen, they must have seen the Israelites going through there.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: They must have been convinced, okay, it's dry enough for us.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: We can't let our money go away.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: We got to get these slaves back.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: And and so they go after them.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: That has him shooting.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: But let's keep in mind that the Egyptians wanted to bring them back alive.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: During the morning watch, uh, so the Lord looked down at the Egyptian forces from the pillar of fire and cloud.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just a really interesting picture there, and threw the Egyptian forces into confusion.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: So psychological thing that he's doing.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Egyptians were very orderly.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they were they were the ancient philosophy.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: They were just uh they were famous for defeating their foes in one day, mightiest army in the world.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he throws them into confusion, so they so they leave their uh their organization here, and they just start going hither and yon.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he causes the chariot wheels to swerve, literally to go out of their way, and made them, so they're running into each other and made them drive with difficulty.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Egypt said, Notice, and it isn't the word Egyptian, despite what your Bible says.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's Egypt.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like the whole enemy of God, the country, said, Let me escape from Israel.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the good theology here, for Yahweh is fighting for them against Egypt.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that amazing?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Reminds you of Philippians chapter 2, where on that final day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, hey, they're just, they are just frantic.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: They, the, the, the, and and and so they're just like ants running around.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back over Egypt, over its chariots and horsemen.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its place.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as the Egyptians were fleeing, and it's not exactly like your Bible, but this is the accurate translation.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: As the Egyptians were fleeing from it, Yahweh swept them into the middle of the sea.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, he tossed them about in the middle of the sea, right?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and here again, you see Charles Heston with his staff, and here it comes.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm what I'm touched by by these pictures, this more recent movie, is what the Israelites must have thought as they're watching this.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine that?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you're watching, you are terrified of these people, and they're so strong and military, and they're coming after you.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and all of a sudden you're watching, and you're standing here and you're watching as the sea comes over them.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's just astounding.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Water flowed back, verse 28, and covered the chariots and horsemen, the entire army of Pharaoh that had gone after them into the sea, not a single one remained.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: You will never, ever see them again, God said.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: That day the Lord saved Israel, and again, your text hides this word hand, says power.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: When Israel saw the great hand, so you have two hands in life.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Two hands.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the question is, which hand do you see in life?
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites have been staring at his mighty hand, the power of the of Egypt.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, I have a hand that's much greater.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when Israel saw the great hand that Yahweh displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: What a great way to end the story, right?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, three lessons.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, lesson number one.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Our friend Mitch Holtis, uh really close friend of Hank's and former TV Cer, has this line he uses late in the game.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: What is his line?
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: Put the hammer down.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and if you don't know that, then you need to watch more Chiefs, okay?
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Put the hammer down.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what that means is show no mercy.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're up by a touchdown.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Put the hammer down, finish this thing off.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And point number one is you read this story and you realize that the day is coming when God will put the hammer down on those who spurn him and abuse his children.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's exactly what he's doing here.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he put the hammer down on them.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: He put the hammer down, he first fooled them.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were just gonna sit back there in their cow and the in their palace.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so he teased them, right?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: He did the sting thing so he could bring them out, so that then he could crush them entirely for his own glory and prove to the entire world who is boss, who is who is the God.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the day is coming when God's gonna put the hammer down on all of those who are his enemies and who abuse his children like the Egyptians abused them.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: And God showed no mercy.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and and wow, that's just why you and I have to make sure that we care about missions and that we talk to people and we we support people who go talk to people who don't know Jesus Christ as our Savior.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because one day the hammer is coming down, judgment day is coming.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's one of the lessons we have to find in this text.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Number two lesson is he says repeatedly in this text, beginning and end, I will gain glory for myself.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Notice how the Lord likes to gain glory.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lord loves to earn glory by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he puts himself in a terrible situation here.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: He puts his people in a terrible situation.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it feels like he's put you in a terrible situation right now.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: But God loves to earn glory by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't that what he did at the cross?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't know what he was doing or they would have never crucified Jesus, but they crucified him, and as they did, just like at the Red Sea, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities, his enemies, he shamed them publicly by his victory over them in the cross.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: The devil must have thought, I've got him now.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got him, he's on the cross.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's so God is so stupid.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: He put himself in my hands.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And yet what happens is uh he snatches victory.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: The moment the cross is over and the resurrection happens, the devil realizes that he's been had, that God has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, third, because God is on my side, life is unpredictable, but victory is inevitable, and nothing is impossible.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: All right, say that with me.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Life is unpredictable, victory is inevitable, and nothing is impossible.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is also one of the great lessons of this super passage.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, one of the evidences of or one of the songs that captures this really well, that uh life is unpredictable, that victory is inevitable, and nothing is impossible.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is a song that we love to sing, and even though we haven't closed with a song in nine months or something, because so much of us uh what we're doing is online.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask that those of you who are online watch.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna, as I close in a short prayer, I'm gonna ask Jeremiah to come out and we're gonna sing a well-known song that's based on this story.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Heavenly Father, we're so excited when we see what you did in the past and how important this was to you, this victory over your enemies at the Red Sea, when we're reminded that you love to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, that nothing is impossible with you, that you absolutely take delight in saving your people when it looks as though we're dead.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for that.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we want to celebrate you and we want to sing to you, Heavenly Father, about uh what you've done in Jesus' name.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.