22. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 23. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25. And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 26. And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 27. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. his will. The true definition of a miracle is that the Personal God puts his will into the laws he has made, using them - not breaking them to do his will. That wind could make the shallow sea to become dry land "has been definitely settled by many recent observations, among the most definite of which have been those carried on concerning the differences of level produced by wind on Lake Erie. The United States officials keeping the records at Toledo and Buffalo report marked changes in the level of the water at either end of the lake, dependent upon the strength and direction of the wind. In extreme cases a west wind lowers the water at Toledo seven and a half feet below the average level, and at the same time raises it seven and a half feet above the average level at Buffalo. "It would not, therefore, take a tornado to lower the water at the north end of the Gulf of Suez five or six feet, which on our supposition would have been sufficient to open up a way, several miles wide, before the children of Israel, allowing them easily to cross in a single night. Nor would it take a very strong wind to bring the water back in sufficient quantity to overwhelm the Egyptians who were tardily following in the rear of the Israelites." Prof. G. F. Wright in S. S. Times.. Illustration. "The Dutch regarded the raising of the siege of Leyden [in 1574] as a manifest proof of the Almighty Hand. The spring tides were beginning to pass, and the Dutch fleet could not get near the famished city, when a southwest gale began to blow, and piled the water of the North Sea on the shore of Holland. The water rose fifteen inches above the level of the normal spring tides; the ships sailed through the destroyed dykes across the fields. The naval battle raged amid the branches of orchards and the chimney-stacks of half-submerged farm-houses; but Leyden was saved.". Rev. R, Bruce Taylor, D.D. 22. The waters were a wall unto them, etc. Not perpendicular walls of water, as some have imagined, but defences protecting them as walls protect a city. This use of "wall" is frequent in the Scriptures and in all literature. "The wall would not by any Oriental be supposed to be an actual wall, rising up beside them, any more than the wooden walls' of Britain are board fences around the island, or the 'hedge about the law,' which the rabbins built by their precepts, was a growth of vegetation." Prof. Isaac H. Hall.. - "It is plain from the narrative that the Egyptians were following the Israelites into the bed of the waters without knowing it. They were in a fog so that neither wall nor mountain nor shore could be discerned by them. It was enough for the Egyptians that the Israelites were unmistakably moving before them. Where it was safe for Pharaoh's bondmen to lead, it ought to be counted safe for Pharaoh's chosen chariots to follow." Kadesh Barnea. 19, 20. And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them [the Egyptians], but it gave light 28. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all of the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 29. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 30. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 31. And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses. by night to these [the Israelites]: so that the one came not near the other all the night. 30. Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. "Thus the Great Wall of the Land of Bondage was flanked, and Israel went beyond it into the Land of Training as a nation of freemen." - Henry Clay Trumbull. Note. It is nowhere said that Pharaoh himself was drowned in the sea. He was overthrown in his army. According to the monuments Merneptah was not much of a warrior, but preferred to send his generals to war rather than go himself. It is a matter of the utmost interest that the body of Merneptah, the son and successor of Rameses II., has been found in the " Valley of the Kings," in closest proximity to the burial-place of his father Rameses. No notice of the Exodus is found upon the monuments of Egypt. Nor should we expect any. Just as in the list of Napoleon's great battles surrounding his tomb there is no mention of Waterloo, although it was his best-known battle, so we would not expect the defeat at the Red Sea and the escape of the Israelites to be recorded on the tombs of the Pharaoh. VIII. SOME PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. 1. How Pharaoh's Heart was Hardened. It is repeatedly said in these chapters of Exodus that Pharaoh hardened his heart. On the other hand, in the later chapters it is said that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart by resisting every good influence and every punishment that God brought upon him. God hardened Pharaoh's heart by doing precisely the same things that he had been doing all along while Pharaoh had been hardening his own heart; and for the same reason, to induce him to do right. But the spring rains and the sun, and the other natural agencies which promote growth in a sound tree, only hasten the decay of one which is rotten at the heart. Resisting God's love, refusing his loving-kindness and all his goodness, by which God desires to serve and keep us, tends to harden the heart. 2. We have no miraculous pillar of cloud and fire to guide us, but we have none the less the actual presence of God which was back of the cloud and the fire. And we have his Word ; and the experiences of his children; and the life of his Son Jesus. 4. The crossing of the Red Sea illustrates the great act of conversion. (1) We seek to escape from the bondage of sin. (2) We find at last that we are unable to save ourselves. (3) We pray to God, and he bids us trust him and go forward in the duties close at hand, believing that he will open a way. (4) God performs the divine act, the miracle of regeneration, entirely beyond our power, while (5) we do our part by obeying his word and yielding ourselves completely to his guidance. (6) This is a beginning, but only a beginning, of the Christian life. The long discipline and growth are before us. 5. "The man who hath within No guiding light, Walks 'neath the blazing sun As in the night. "Whom God illumines dwells In undimmed day; 'Mid storm and night he treads A clear, sure way." - Thomas Curtis Clark. 6. Every nation has some favorite exploit in its history. Of the same sort, but far grander and more glorious, is the crossing of the Red Sea in the history of the Hebrew nation. "Be thou a pillared flame to show The midnight snare, the silent foe; "God send his angels, Cloud and Fire, -John Greenleaf Whittier. 7. The Challenge of a Great Deliverance. (1) Each great deliverance is an argument for future deliverances. If God has found for us a way out of what seemed to us to be surrounded with impassable barriers, we can trust him the next time we see the walls closing round us. (2) God does not often expect us to wait and see the way before we start. We are to take a lesson from our past deliverances and go forward, expecting that the way will open, as it did before. Sitting still does not, as a usual thing, show us the open path. (3) After God has protected us in danger and delivered us from peril, we should praise him and thank him as the Hebrews did at the Red Sea. We should be eager to tell every one what he has done for us, and we should go singing through life in such a whole-hearted way that in heaven we shall not be ashamed to join in "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." 8. "New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast with Truth; Lo, before us gleam her campfires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, IX. MOSES' SONG OF TRIUMPH, Ex. 15 1-21. Among the first things Moses did after the people were safely across on the Arabian shore of the Red Sea, was to compose a song of triumph and have it publicly sung and accompanied by music. It was probably an impromptu outburst from his heart, like some of the best songs of later times, as for instance, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe's hymn " Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." "Moses and the sons of Israel met Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, at the head of the long train of Israelite women, with the sounding timbrels and the 15: 1. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 2. The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. religious dances which they had learned in Egypt, coming forth as was the wont of Hebrew women after some great victory, to greet the triumphant host." (Ps. 106: 7-12; 78: 12-14; 148.) "If we study the song we find it marked by many wonderful qualities," says Professor Blaikie, some of whose words we quote in condensed form. 1. The song dwells on the completeness of the deliverance. The complete overthrow is contrasted with the boasting of the enemy who said " I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil." 2. The deliverance is ascribed directly to God. "He hath triumphed gloriously." "The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." Note that Moses does not so much as name himself. 3. Unbounded admiration and delight are expressed toward this God. The true God, Jehovah, is immeasurably exalted above all that are called gods, so exalted that the very idea of a comparison is ridiculous. 4. The song pledges the singers to suitable steps for the continued and abiding worship of this God. "I will prepare him a habitation.” 5. Great satisfaction is expressed with the effects which the wonderful miracle was to produce on the nations, Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Canaanites, etc. 6. Confident assurance is expressed that God will complete all that he has promised, the land of Palestine will become the inheritance of God's people. 7. Finally Jehovah's everlasting reign is the subject of crowning satisfaction and delight. "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Note that in the last book of the Bible, in the 15th chapter, there is a vision of the triumph of God's people which points back to the Red Sea victory. "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire." "When the pillar of fire darted its rays upon the water the Red Sea must have seemed as if mingled with fire. . not an image of terror, but an image of glory. a thing to gaze at with exulting spirit, till the eye can gaze no longer.' Blaikie. "And them that had gotten the victory over the beast stand on the sea of glass . and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee." All through the ages has this hope of the triumph of good over evil been the ideal and the vision of the time when God's kingdom shall come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. LESSON V (18).- February 2. THE GIVING OF THE MANNA. Exodus 16: 1–36. PRINT Exodus 16:11-18, 31-35. GOLDEN TEXT.- Give us this day our daily bread. — MATT. 6:11. Additional Material for Teachers: Deut. 8: 1-20; John 6: 29-51. Primary Topic: GOD'S GIFT OF FOOD. Lesson Material: Ex. 16: 11-15. Memory Verse: He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Junior Topic: DAILY FOOD IN THE DESERT. Memory Verses: Matt. 6: 25, 26. Intermediate Topic: OUR DAILY DEPENDENCE UPON GOD. Senior and Adult Topic: POVERTY AND PROVIDENCE IN OUR DAY. John 6:31. Additional Material: Psa. 65:9-13; 104: 10-15; Matt. 6: 24-34; Acts 14: 17. THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS. Life is a school. And as in life we are learning many lessons, so the Israelites were learning many lessons in their forty years' schooling in the wilderness. This, God's care for his people in need, was one of the earlier lessons. Their experience and God's dealings with them teach us as by object lessons the very thing we need to learn for our life's journey. In this lesson we can learn our dependence upon God, his daily provision for our need, and by application, our need of Christ, the Bread of Life. Compare this lesson with parallel passages, and with other passages showing God's care for his people in their daily needs. For example: Num. 11:4-35; Ps. 78 19-31; Deut. 8: 2-16; Josh. 5: 12; Neh. 9 20; Rev. 2: 17; John 6. THE LESSON IN ITS SETTING. Time. One month after the Passover, - the 15th day of the second month, dating from the 15th day of the first month. At this time they had reached the border of the Wilderness of Sin. Place. The northern part of the Wilderness of Sin, a long plain bordering IV. THE ISRAELITES HUNGER FOR THE THE THE VI. THE DAILY BREAD INTERWOVEN WITH DAILY DUTIES, 16: 16-36. VII. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO-DAY. I. THE WELLS OF MOSES. "Near the spot where the Israelites are usually supposed to have halted on crossing the Red Sea, are certain springs, called Ayin Mousa (the Wells of Moses) where Robinson counted seven wells, other travellers making them seventeen. A few stunted palm trees cluster around them, and a few tamarisks bear them company, 'which they much need in this lonely spot, for the desert spreads all around, bleak and bare as the sea itself."" Professor Blaikie. |