Oh, let the Son of God enfold you
With His Spirit and His love Let Him
fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh,
let Him have the things that mold you
And His Spirit, like a dove Will descend
upon your life and make you whole Welcome
to The Word for Today A broadcast ministry
of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa
Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us
on a verse-by-verse study Through the
entire Bible And on today's edition of The
Word for Today We'll be continuing to follow
the children of Israel Through the Red Sea
As Pastor Chuck Smith picks up today's lesson
in Exodus Chapter 14, verse 19 And the
angel of God Now this is an interesting
title And we will find it many times
in the Old Testament And it usually is
a reference to none other than Jesus Christ
In the Old Testament, He is known as
the angel of Jehovah The angel of God
Who went before the camp of Israel Moved
and went behind them And the pillar of
cloud went from before them and stood behind
them Now God did a very interesting tactical
move here This cloud by which they were
sheltered and guided in the daytime God now
took and moved it behind them and settled
it down over the Egyptians So that the
Egyptians were lost in a fog They couldn't
see what was happening outside of that fog
bank Not far distant from them, they could
not see The children of Israel passing through
the Red Sea On dry ground But the
light The pillar of fire Lighted the way
on the other side so that they could
see and all night long They made their
trek through the sea on dry ground up
on the other side But God blinded the
Egyptians to what was going on So that
they could not immediately pursue them And so
God became the rear guard And it is
interesting that the scripture speaks of God not
only going before us But also bringing up
the rear And it's great when you're surrounded
by the Lord He goes before you, He
comes behind you He surrounds your life, He
leads you in His path And so it
came, the cloud, between the camp of the
Egyptians and the camp of Israel And thus
it was a cloud of darkness to the
one And it gave light by night to
the other So that the one did not
come near the other all that night Then
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea
and the Lord caused the sea to go
back By a strong east wind all that
night And he made the sea into dry
land and the waters were divided So as
he stretched out his hand, God brought a
strong east wind Blew all night, opened up
a path in the sea They passed over
on dry land So the children of Israel
went into the midst of the sea on
dry ground And the waters were a wall
to them on their right hand and on
their left And the Egyptians pursued and went
after them into the midst of the sea
All of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his
horsemen Now it came to pass in the
morning, watch That the Lord looked down upon
the army of the Egyptians through the pillar
of fire and cloud And He troubled the
army of the Egyptians and He took off
their chariot wheels So that they drove them
with difficulty And they became sleds And the
Egyptians said, let us flee from the face
of Israel For Jehovah fights for them against
the Egyptians And then the Lord said to
Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea
That the waters may come back upon the
Egyptians On their chariots and on their horsemen
And Moses stretched out his hand over the
sea and when the morning appeared The sea
returned to its full depth While the Egyptians
were fleeing into it So the Lord overthrew
the Egyptians in the midst of the sea
And the waters returned and covered the chariots
and the horsemen And all the army of
Pharaohs that came into the sea after them
Not so much as one of them remained
Now if indeed there is a sea of
reeds that is only a foot deep or
so anyhow And the water can be driven
back by strong east winds or whatever You
still have a miracle to deal with and
a problem Because how could God drown the
whole Egyptian army in a foot of water?
Cover their chariots in just a foot of
water, that's a good trick But the children
of Israel have walked on dry land In
the midst of the sea and the waters
were a wall to them And their right
hand and on their left So that the
Lord saved Israel that day out of the
hand of the Egyptians And Israel saw the
Egyptians dead on the seashore And thus Israel
saw the great work which the Lord had
done in Egypt So the people feared the
Lord and believed the Lord And His servant
Moses made believers out of them When they
saw the power of God and they had
confidence then in Moses You say, oh great
for Moses, he's now not going to have
any more problems Oh just wait, you know
the next little issue, here they are again
How fickle people are, you know Things are
going great, oh praise the Lord, bless God,
oh what a marvelous leader And then things
go, oh why have you done this, you
know Should have died in Egypt, you know,
better off there So we are So Moses
and the children of Israel sang this song
to the Lord I will sing to the
Lord For He has triumphed gloriously The horse
and its rider He has thrown into the
sea The Lord is my strength and my
song and He has become my salvation He
is my God and I will praise Him
He is my Father's God and I will
exalt Him The Lord is a man of
war Jehovah is His name Pharaoh's chariots and
his army He has cast into the sea
His chosen captains also are drowned in the
Red Sea The depths have covered them They
sank to the bottom like a stone Your
right hand, oh Jehovah, has become glorious in
power Your right hand, oh Jehovah, has dashed
the enemy in pieces And in the greatness
of Your excellence You have overthrown those who
rose up against You You sent forth Your
wrath which consumed them like stubble And with
a blast of Your nostrils Probably a reference
to that east wind The waters were gathered
together The floods stood upright like a heap
And the depths congealed in the heart of
the sea Now that doesn't sound like just
an ebb tide The enemy said, I will
pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the
spoil My desire shall be satisfied on them
I will draw my sword, my hand shall
destroy them And You blew with Your wind
The west wind and the sea covered them
And they sank like lead in the mighty
waters Who is like You, oh Jehovah, among
the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness Fearful
in praises, doing wonders?
You stretched out Your right hand, the earth
swallowed them You in Your mercy have led
forth the people whom You have redeemed You've
guided them in Your strength to Your holy
habitation Recognizing the hand of God now leading
them Into this land that God has chosen
for His people The people will hear and
be afraid Sorrow will take hold of the
inhabitants of Palestina And the chiefs of Edom
will be dismayed And the mighty men of
Moab, trembling, will take hold of them And
all of the inhabitants of Canaan will melt
away Fear and dread will fall on them
by the greatness of Your arm And they
will be as still as a stone Till
Your people pass over, oh Lord, till Your
people pass over Whom You have purchased You
will bring them in and plant them in
the mountain of Your inheritance In the place,
oh Lord, which You have made for Your
own dwelling The sanctuary, oh Lord, which Your
hands have established Again, the reference to the
land Place of God's dwelling, place for His
sanctuary The Lord shall reign forever and ever
So it's a grand and gala celebration As
they see the hand of God Delivering them
from the trap and destroying their enemies Cause
for singing, cause for rejoicing But God wants
us not to just rejoice When we see
the final outcome and His victory But He
wants us to rejoice in the midst of
tribulations Jesus speaks about rejoicing when you are
persecuted When men say all manner of evil
against you falsely For my name's sake, rejoice
Count it all joy when you fall into
various types of Trials and tribulations You remember
Paul and Silas When in Philippi They were
beaten And then tied in the stocks in
the dungeon Of the Philippian jail With their
backs still bleeding and raw from the beatings
that they had received No one even bothered
to wash the wounds And in that rat
filled vermin cell In the midnight hour These
two guys in the stocks, what are they
doing?
Singing praises to the Lord That's what God
wants A heart that is constantly filled with
songs of praises unto Him Not just in
the good times Not just when we see
the triumph of our God Over our enemies
But even in the midst of the tribulation
And so now they are rejoicing, they are
singing praises to God They have seen the
hand of God work in a mighty way
in their behalf And so they are rejoicing
and praising But soon, tragically, they're going to
be murmuring again We won't even get out
of the chapter Until they're back at their
old game Now it is declared For the
horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and
his horsemen Into the sea and the Lord
brought back the waters of the sea upon
them But the children of Israel went on
dry land in the midst of the sea
Then Miriam The prophetess, interesting title Miriam the
prophetess, you remember she was the sister of
Moses The older sister of Moses Who when
Moses was placed in that little basket by
his mother And floated upon the Nile river
She was hiding to find out what would
happen to her little brother And when she
saw Pharaoh's daughter Fetching the basket out of
the water And looking at the beautiful little
baby boy She came running up and said
Would you like me to get a nurse
from among the Hebrews To take care of
that little child for you?
She was a sharp clever little gal And
the Pharaoh's daughter said Oh would you do
that for me?
And she said oh I'd be glad to
And she ran home and said Mom, I've
got you a job You're going to get
paid taking care of Moses Now Miriam A
prophetess Who is the sister of Aaron Thus
also the sister of Moses Took the timbrel
in her hand Sort of a tambourine type
of instrument And all of the women went
out after her With the timbrels and with
the dances And Miriam answered them Sing to
the Lord For he has triumphed gloriously The
horse and the rider He has thrown into
the sea The first verse of this song
that they had all sung Which is called
the Song of Moses Now in the book
of Revelation we find a group in heaven
singing The Song of Moses and of the
Lamb So there will be a combination of
this Song of Moses Of God's deliverance of
his people With the Song of the Lamb
The deliverance of God's people Through the power
of Jesus Christ So Moses brought Israel from
the Red Sea And they went out into
the wilderness of Shur And they went for
three days in the wilderness And found no
water Now when they came to Marah They
could not drink the waters of Marah For
they were bitter And the word Marah means
bitter And so they came to the waters
of Marah The bitter waters And the people
murmured against Moses saying What are we going
to drink?
So he cried out to the Lord And
the Lord showed him a tree And when
he cast it into the waters The waters
were made sweet And there he made a
statute and an ordinance for them And there
he tested them And so the testing What
are you going to do When the trials
come?
How are you going to react to them?
They really failed And he said if you
will diligently heed the voice of the Lord
your God And do what is right in
his sight And give ear to his commandments
And keep all his statutes I will put
none of the diseases on you Which I
have brought on the Egyptians For I am
Jehovah who heals you So God here made
a covenant with them Here at the waters
of Marah And the whole typology is how
that God is able to take the bitter
experiences of our lives And bring sweetness out
of them And we often find that some
of those Most bitter experiences of our life
Become sweet because there is where we really
meet with God And God establishes his covenant
with our hearts And how God can sweeten
up The bitter experiences of life Now this
covenant that God made is an interesting covenant
Because we notice first of all that it's
a provisional covenant Provided they will keep the
statutes and the commandments And the ordinances that
God gives to them Then God said that
he would keep them healthy Now herein is
a hint which we will find Will come
to pass as later on God begins to
give to them the law The statutes and
the ordinances We will find that much of
the law that God gives to them Is
sanitary laws They are dietary laws And as
we look at these laws that God gave
to them We understand the value of the
washings that God required in the laws You
know for a long time in the medical
sciences The doctors would go from patient to
patient without washing their hands And there was
sort of a Feeling that the bloodier the
doctor's Apron was the more proficient a doctor
he was And he would go from patient
to patient and The death rate was very
very high in the hospitals as a result
of the Transmitting of the diseases and all
from one patient to another One of the
doctors who first began to advocate Sterilizing Of
their instruments and Their washings and soap washings
and so forth He was almost Kicked out
of the medical practice by the other doctors
They were going to take his license away
because of His wild ideas that they should
wash After each patient Following actually what God
said they should do As we get into
the dietary laws the animals that they were
allowed to eat And the animals that they
were forbidden to eat We find that those
forbidden animals carry Various viruses and germs That
are harmful to the human body And so
there was a reason why God Allowed them
to eat certain animals and forbid other animals
We'll get into that when we get into
the dietary law but God said now look
if you'll keep my laws Then none of
the plagues that came on the Egyptians will
come on you They're healthy they're good for
you They're for good health And David said
Blessed is the man Who meditates in the
law of God day and night He'll be
like a tree planted by the river of
water bringing forth its fruit in its season
His leaf also shall not wither That is
he'll come to an old age a healthy
old man Why?
Because he kept the law of the Lord
It's laws for good health As well as
spiritual laws And then God declares for I
am Jehovah Rapha The Lord who heals The
Lord who heals you And so God declaring
himself to his people as the God who
keeps them healthy But it comes provisionally You've
got to keep the law that I have
given the statutes and the commandments You do
your part I'll do my part I'll keep
you healthy So they then came to Elam
Which means Oaks And I don't know why
they called it Elam because there were 70
palm trees there There were 12 wells of
water an oasis in the desert 70 palm
trees And so they camped there by the
waters We'll return with more of
our fascinating study of Exodus In our next
lesson As we find the children of Israel
complaining about their wilderness journey And we do
hope you'll make plans to join us But
right now I'd like to remind you that
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As Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse by
verse study Through the book of Exodus That's
right here on the next edition of The
Word for Today And now
once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith May the
Lord be with you and may the Lord
bless you May the Lord guide you Into
a deeper, fuller relationship with Himself A place
of trusting in God Trusting in God for
everything Learning to trust Him in the dark
hours When you can't see any way out
As you learn that God is able to
make a way where there is no way
And as God works in your behalf To
bring glory to His name May God use
you as His instrument to touch someone else
this week Touching them with love In an
ever deeper relationship May you experience that this
week God's work of His Spirit in your
life And may you respond to it and
be drawn closer to Him In Jesus' name
There is always an ever-present danger for
Christians of being beguiled That word reminds me
of Eve She had everything in the garden
She had fellowship with God She had her
husband all to herself No competition whatsoever And
yet the serpent came to her How
grateful we are to you, Father For how
you teach us in your Word To beware
of the beguilers How you warn us How
you help us How you encourage us To
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