Facing Our Red Sea

Music One of the greatest historical events during the Civil War was what could be called the famous tunnel escape from Libby Prison. I'm not even sure if most of you have ever heard of Libby Prison. There's probably, as the account goes, I'll be quoting quite a bit from an account that was written back in 1864, appeared in the Richmond newspaper. It says, there's probably no event in the whole history of the Civil War more impressive than the celebrated tunnel escape from Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia on the night of February the 9th, 1864. Now, it wasn't unusual for prisoners to escape from prison, especially Southern prisons, but you'd have one or two slip off, three or four, you know, get away.

But 109 Union officers escaped that particular night, and most of them were very prominent prisoners. They were all officers, and they were being kept in this prison. In fact, the only thing that surprised the Confederates was that they all didn't get away that evening. And we'll discuss why that didn't happen. There were 1,200 Union officers being held, and they were being held in one room, sort of like a big warehouse, and it had a basement under it that used to be the kitchen. And they closed the kitchen, they nailed it shut, and they put a couple of stoves out in the middle, and they cooked on those, and everybody slept, did everything in that one room.

Now, I think you'll find that when people are locked up in prison, automatically they think of, how can I escape? How can I get out of here? People want freedom. They don't like to be locked up. People have to have some type of a hope. Well, there was a gentleman by the name of Colonel Thomas E. Rose, who actually planned this. He was one of the main perpetrators of it, and he began to look for a way to get out.

And there was a Major A. G. Hamilton, who was his assistant. It was Major A. G. Hamilton who wrote this account and penned it, whereas Colonel Rose was more, let's say, a humble individual, didn't want to talk about himself, and never really would say very much about what occurred on that particular evening. They were put into this large room, 1,200 soldiers. The doors and the exits were guarded by guards. Everything else, all of the windows, rooms, let's say, doors to the basement, everything was nailed shut.

There was no way of getting out except going through those doors, and guards were standing there with guns to shoot you. And so it was your death, and so nobody was escaping. You know, they felt they had a pretty foolproof place there that you could not get out of.

There was a basement room, as I said, that used to be the kitchen, but it was all locked up. So there were two stoves, a pile of wood over on one side, and that was it. Otherwise, it was just an empty room with pads to lay on, and all of these soldiers milling around all day long. So one day would blend to another, one night into another, and they tried to figure a way out.

And finally, they came up with the fact that if they're going to escape, they're going to have to dig out. That that seemed to be the only way to get out of this prison. So after considerable deliberation among some of them, they decided the tunnel would have to be dug from what they referred to as the East Basement. Now, the problem was how do you get down into the basement?

It would be fairly easy, they thought, maybe to dig out from the basement, but you had to get into the basement. Well, again, somebody had a knife, and so they borrowed the knife, and the two stoves were actually piped into a chimney. So they decided that if they could loosen the mortar around the bricks, that they could go down.

The chimney used to go down because they used to have the kitchen downstairs, and they would be able to slide down and be able to get into the basement. So this is exactly what they started to do. Now, the problem was keeping this a secret from everybody else.

This wasn't something that the 1200 knew. There were only about six to start with, and then there were up to 15 who knew about it, who were working on it, because they felt if it was not kept a secret, somebody would spill the beat. Somebody would say something. Somebody would be looking in the wrong way and give it away. So therefore, they kept it very secret. They finally were able, after I think it was about eight days, to get down into the basement. They knew that there was a sewer out there, so they dug towards the sewer with the idea that if they got into the sewer, they could come up to a sewer manhole and escape.

But when they got over to the sewer, they found it was full of water, so they couldn't go that way. So they had to back out, and they started another tunnel. This time, they ran into logs, and apparently, one time, they had driven these logs vertically down to give support to the rope. And they had a knife, or they had a chisel, that's what they were digging with, and they couldn't get through the logs.

So finally, they decided one more last attempt. Third try started 38 days after they had begun tunneling, trying to dig their way out. And finally, they were able to dig, didn't run into anything. There was a fence 50 feet away, and the idea was, if they could dig a tunnel on the other side of the fence, come up over there, the guards wouldn't see them. They knew there was a vacant building, and all they would have to do is come out, go into the vacant building, watch, walk out the front door, and just sort of mingle with the people in the street, one or two at a time, and try to walk down the street and get away.

That was their plan. Now, apparently, there were thousands of rats down in this basement, and they would be lying there in the tunnel with hundreds of rats just running all over the place, which wasn't very appealing to them, but it was one of the things that they put up with. They thought they had dug 50 feet, but they weren't sure.

So, it says here, on the ninth night, after this tunnel had been commenced, after having dug a hole just large enough for an ordinary man to squirm through it, they suppose they'd gone far enough on the level. So, you know, they were digging straight out. Then an upward shoot was made, so they started running a shaft upwards, with the belief that the digger would find himself behind the protected fence. Yet, there was not, they were not sure of the location, so rather than make a misstep, the digger removed one of his shoes. They poked through and saw just like, stuck the tip of a shoe out.

And then they went back, went to bed, and the next day they went out and they looked to see if they could see the shoe. Because the shoe should have been on the other side of the fence. Guess what? It was on this side of the fence. So, the next night, then, they began to dig again, and for two more nights, they dug.

And finally, they came out on the far side of the fence. Now, they brought a general into the discussion, and the 30 of them, who had eventually ended up working on this project, were allowed to go down, come out, come up, escape. And the general said that he would shut the hole up for an hour, give them a chance to get away.

And then he would reveal to the rest of the prisoners that there was a way of escape. So, that night, 109 of them got out, and when the news finally spread among everybody else, what happened, instead of doing this orderly, there was a wild stampede. Everybody tried to head to the hole. The guards wondered what was going on, came in, checked it out, found the hole, and stopped it. If they had been orderly, and one after another had gone down, probably all 1,200 of them would have gotten out. Just so happened that 48 out of 109 were recaptured, and among those who were recaptured was Colonel Groves, the one who had planned the whole thing.

But eventually, the war was over, and he was liberated. And I think this points out the fact that people will do anything for freedom. People will do anything to escape if they are captured. We find that people do not give up hope. And even prisoners, in fact, I went on the Internet and started looking up great escapes, and found several very interesting stories of people getting out of prisons, and how they ingeniously planned and found ways to outsmart the guards and to be able to escape from the prison.

Now, you might ask yourself, what does that have to do with the days of Unleavened Bread? What does that have to do with us? Well, there's an interesting chapter in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 10, beginning here in verse 1.

So let's go over to 1 Corinthians 10, because here's a chapter that describes the events that Israel went through as they came out of Egypt and as they traveled. And they have been written for our example, the Bible says, to teach us lessons. So we begin in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. So when they went through the Red Sea, they had a cloud above them, water on both sides. So, symbolically, they were baptized, being an example for us. You and I have to be baptized likewise. And they ate the same spiritual food. And you and I have to eat spiritual food. And they drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. And so you and I imbibe of Christ's wheat, as we found in the Passover, of the Word of God, not just physical manum, physical bread, we eat of the spiritual bread that God gives to us. But, verse 5 says, with most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. You might remember they refused to go into the Promised Land. Except the twelve spies then, ten came back with a bad report. Two came back with a good report. They believed the bad report. And God said, okay, because you refused, all of those who were over 20 died in the wilderness. And they had to wander for 40 years in the wilderness. Now, why are these things even recorded in the Bible? Why do they find these stories recorded in the Old Testament? Well, verse 6 says, now all these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lust. So you and I are to learn from their examples. This is why we study history. We study history to learn. We learn from their examples. Now, notice some of the examples that we should be learning from. And actually, it would be good to go back and study these examples during the days of Unleavened Bread. Because if we find that God was not pleased with them, what about these examples was He not pleased with? Well, verse 7, they lusted in verse 6. Verse 7, Do not become idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Well, this is talking about the vatry taking place, and then you're falling down before a golden calf, all of this, that we're well aware of. Let us not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did. In one day, 23,000 fell. And let us, nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by the serpents.

Nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, all these things happened to them as examples.

So, they're examples, and they were written for our admonition. The word admonition means instruction. You and I are to be instructed by these examples, upon whom the ends of the age have come.

So, what was their problem, brethren? Why did they refuse to go into the Promised Land? Why did they constantly complain? Why did they tell Moses and Aaron, you take too much on yourself? Why were they always complaining? There's no water, there's no food, we don't have meat, it's too hot, it's too cold. And they would go on and on and on. Remind you of somebody who doesn't. Well, could remind you of us. Because we tend to be this way. They did not trust God. That was their problem. They lacked faith. It was a matter of faith in God. And so therefore, notice the summation, verse 12. Therefore, this is a summary. Let him who thinks he stand take heed, lest he fall. So, if you think you stand, if you think I'm strong, nothing could upset me. Nothing could derail my cart or take me from the church. I can stand. If you and I are going to stand, what do we need? We need faith. The reason why they could not stand is they lack faith. They walked by sight, not by faith. And when you walk by sight, what you see, what you observe, not by faith, you will fail. And that's the lesson from the Old Testament. As verse 5, again, notice, again, with most of them, God was not well pleased.

Now, he was not well pleased. Remember Hebrews 11.6 says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. So, if we don't have faith, then we will not please God, and God was not pleased with them. So, how do we stand? Well, hold your place here because we're coming back here, but Romans 11.19 tells us what you and I must do to stand.

Hebrews 11.19 Talking about the good olive tree, the wild olive tree, the Gentiles, Israelite, or the Jews. It says, you will say then, branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Talking about the Gentiles being grafted into Israel. Well said, because of unbelief, they were broken off. That's why they didn't believe. And you stand by faith. So, you and I stand by faith. If there's a foundation, a platform that we have to stand on, it is faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. He was telling the Gentiles that they weren't any better. God was grafting them in, because God was going to extend salvation to all races, not just to the Jews. So, they were grafted in. Israel did not stand by faith. They lacked faith. They failed. Now, come back to 1 Corinthians 10.

And again, verse 12. It says, Now, notice the word fall. Could you and I fall?

Do we know anyone today who has fallen from the faith, who has stepped aside, who took a misstep, who stepped over or went in a wrong direction in leaving the church? You'll notice, again, all of these summary statements come back to what he said here. Verse 8, And you find that we can fall. Our security, our stability, rests with Jesus Christ and consists of faith. The question is, how do we remain faithful? What must we do to be faithful? Because you can find people can serve for years and fall away. And we want to make sure that that does not happen to us. So we come to verse 13. Pivotal verse here.

But God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. But with the temptation, we'll also make the way to escape.

You may be able to bear it.

From then, I gave you an example of a great escape in the Civil War. How these Union soldiers, 109 of them, escaped and got away. You and I are going to be faced as we go through our Christian life and Christian experiences. With, as it says here, temptations or tests or trials. And you and I are going to be provided a way of escape. And we have to have faith that God will do what He says. Let's analyze this verse a little bit. It says, no temptation has overtaken you. The word temptation is parasmos. It is the noun form, parazo. And it means a trial or a proving.

The definition from Strong says, the trial of a man's fidelity, integrity, virtue, constancy. But it also can be translated as an enticement to sin.

Same word is used of God trying us and of Satan tempting us. And there is a difference. God will try us to prove us, to prove our character. See how strong we are. See what our mettle is made out of. Satan tempts us to sin. See, one is trying to strengthen you and help you to grow. The other is to undermine you and to get you to sin. And so even though it's the same word used for both, you find that here it's talking about no temptation, even if it means a temptation that wouldn't be coming from God, or no trial, no test that comes along in overtaking you. Except such as is common to man. Sometimes, you and I, when we're struggling along, we think, well, surely nobody else is going through what I'm going through. Nobody is going through the problems and the troubles that I am. And yet the word common here means simply that. Common to man, or such as man can bear, adapted to man's power of endurance. We're just talking about experiencing trials that are common to everyone. So as a human being, it doesn't matter when you live, what time, or who you are, male, female, young or old, we all, during our lifetime, will experience certain trials and tests, simply because of the world and the society we live in, and because of our own natures, and the way we are, and the fact that there is a devil out there. So he tells us, no temptation is overtaking you, and you'll notice the word overtake.

Sometimes a trial or a test that comes along, or if it's a temptation that comes along, it doesn't have to overtake you. And you can't avoid some things, but if it overtakes you, it says, don't worry, except as it's common to man. But God is faithful.

Now the thing that we need to realize is God is faithful. I don't care what another human being is like. We as human beings fail. We make mistakes. We fall short. Sometimes we try to arrest, you know, put our confidence in another human being. And what does the Bible say? Well, you know, don't trust man. It's talking about the fact that we're human, and we can make mistakes and fail. But as it says here, God is faithful. Pistos in the Greek. It's the same word for faith. It can be translated faith or faithful. And God is faithful. We can trust Him. We can rely upon Him. Now, in what way is He faithful? Notice it says, who will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able.

God will not allow something to come on you that He knows will destroy you.

God isn't going to allow you to be destroyed. And so God will be with you. Now, the word tempted here, again, is parazo. And God is not going to allow a trial or a test to come along. That will destroy us. But if you and I are not close to God, if we're not praying, if we're too weak, almost anything can overthrow us. But here we find the promise from God that He will not allow something to come on us. God will test our character. He will see how strong we are, what we lack, what we need to develop. And you and I then need to make sure that we trust in God.

Now, it is, I think, significant here where it talks about the way of escape. And the Greek means the way of escape. Now, God will provide a way to escape. You see, when these soldiers were trying to tunnel out of Libby Prison in Richmond back during the Civil War, there was only one way out of that prison. It wasn't by charging the door and getting shot. It wasn't trying to burn the building down. It wasn't something that silly. They figured that they had to go down, they had to go to the basement, and then they had to tunnel out. And that was the way that was provided. Now, God says that He will provide an appropriate way when a temptation or a trial comes along to escape. But does that mean that it's immediate? That it will always happen immediately to us? No, it doesn't. God says, He goes on to say that we may be able to bear it or to endure it. So sometimes there's a matter of enduring. God will not just take it away immediately. Wouldn't it be nice? I think sometimes when we pray and we ask that God take away a trial or a test from us, it doesn't go away. We pray. It goes on for a week, a month, a year, two years. We began to doubt. And this is where God is working with all of us. God wants us to be able to bear up under or to endure.

Now, all of that I've read to you so far teaches one lesson that we're going to see. We're going to go back to the Old Testament. Why did we go through these tests and these trials, brethren? God must know something about us. God must know that we will be faithful before He gives us eternal life. And how can He know that we will be faithful? By just letting us sail on or by giving us trials and tests, or not taking those trials and tests away from us to see what we will do. God must know that we will never deviate from Him, His plan, His purpose, His calling, that we will always do what is right and that this is our attitude and our heart. And we know there's a struggle going on, as Paul said back in Romans 7. Let's go back and look at the Exodus.

Let's go back to Exodus 3 to begin with. And verse 7, Israel wanted to escape Egypt. They cried out. They were in tremendous oppression and bondage.

And they wanted to come out of Egypt. Let's notice here when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush.

Verse 7, The Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sorrows. So God saw their oppression, taskmasters, sorrows. And they came down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up from the land, to a good and a large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hiberites, Jubicites, or Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel have come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. So guess what? Moses and Aaron come to the Israelites and said, God sent us. God's going to use us to deliver you. And they said, no, you're not. We don't trust you. We don't believe you.

And some of the miracles and some of the things that Moses did, such as throwing his staff down and turning it to a snake, was as much to impress the Israelites as it was the Egyptians. God wanted to bring them out. God had a plan. He had prepared a way of escape. And sometimes God will prepare a way of escape for us, but we don't take it. They didn't have faith, and sometimes we lack faith to step out. So what we find is that God brought ten plagues upon the Egyptians, the last one being the death of the firstborn. Let's go over to chapter 12 and verse 29.

Chapter 12, and we'll read here in verse 29.

It says, It came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive, who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house, for there was not one dead. Somebody was dead in every house. And then they called for Moses and Aaron by night, verse 31, and said, Arise and go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and the Lord, as you have said. And also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also. And the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We shall all be dead men. We're all going to die. So they told them to get out. So Israel, you go on and read here, people took their dough before it was 11, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes and on their shoulders, and they marched out of the land. So here they are, they're marching out of the land. They're headed for the Promised Land. They were free! Free at last. Free from the Egyptians. Free from their taskmasters. They had escaped Egypt. Moses told them, God is going to take us over here to Palestine. God's going to give it to you. So they were headed for the Promised Land. And as the Bible indicates elsewhere, they came out with a high hand. They greatly rejoiced. Now in chapter 13, beginning in verse 17, I want you to notice that God did something strange.

It came to pass that when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said less perhaps the people changed their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people. Now remember, they were following a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. So wherever that cloud went, that's where the people went. So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.

Verse 21. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud that lead the way, by night in the pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

So God led them in the way that they should go. Now the question is, does God lead us?

What did Jesus Christ say? I am the way, the truth, and the life. See, Christ is the way. We follow a way of life. It's called a way of life in the Scriptures. So God has outlined the way that we should go. And we're here today because we're following that way. We attend services on the Sabbath because that's part of the way that God has ordained. We don't eat certain foods because God said, don't do it. That's part of the way. We pray, study, and fast because that's part of the way that God has ordained. There's a way that God leads us. Now God led them in a physical way. He was responsible for the direction that they were going in. He led them in a way that didn't seem logical. If you're looking on your maps in the back of your Bible, you will see that Israel could have just marched straight out, run right up, right into the Promised Land. It would have taken a few weeks, a couple of months, and they would have been there. And they could have entered. God didn't lead them in that way. He directed them where to camp. He was working something out that neither the Egyptians nor the average Israelite knew about. God had more in mind than just bringing them out on the land of Egypt. He was going to do that, but he had another purpose or two or three. Where God led them, you would think, uh-oh, if you were a general, you'd made a mistake. Because he leads them, and here they are at the Red Sea. Mountains on both sides, and Pharaoh decides to come after them. Now, you've got an army behind you, two mountains on both sides, and you've got a Red Sea. Where do you go? What kind of a position does that put you in? It puts you into a position of having to trust God to deliver you. God deliberately put them in that position. They had to learn to trust Him. He said He would deliver them from Egypt. He did. He said they would come out with a high hand, and the Egyptians would give them their goods, and they did.

But He said He was going to bring them to the Promised Land. Now, were they going to believe Him? Well, He leads them in a way that doesn't seem very logical to the human mind.

Notice in chapter 14, beginning in verse 5.

Chapter 14, verse 5, Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the hearts of Pharaoh and his servants returned against the people. And they said, Why have we done this? Why have we let the Israelites go? See a day or two or three fasts, and they say, Ha! We let them go! Yeah, here's all this free labor we had, and let's go get them.

So, they made ready, verse 6, So He made ready His chariots, took His people with Him. Also He took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of the Egyptian captains over each, every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and He pursued the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with boldness. So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, his army, and overtook them camped by the sea, beside by Hararoth, and before Baal, Zephron. And Pharaoh drew near to the children of Israel, or drew near, and the children of Israel lifted their eyes. And behold, the Egyptians marched after them, so they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

So what did they look at? Did they not look at the physical circumstances? They looked at the physical. When they saw Pharaoh coming, did they say, Oh, here comes Pharaoh. I wonder what God's going to do now? But let's just watch. I bet God will do something here, and just watch and see. Well, that wasn't their approach. They were afraid. So then what do they do? Well, they complain. And they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt? Is not this the words that we told you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone? Moses was sent to deliver them. They said, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians. It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in this wilderness. See, the Israelites could only see the present. What were they looking at? They were Satan. What were the Egyptians looking at? Retaliation. Getting even. Bringing these people back. And so, you know, both of them were just looking at the circumstances. As verse 10 very clearly shows, they looked at the physical circumstances and became afraid. They lost faith. They lost confidence and trust in God. Back up here to verse 1.

Verse 1 of chapter 14, we find that there was a great lesson that God was going to teach. The Israelites didn't comprehend this lesson. Neither did the Egyptians. God revealed it to Moses. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn in camp before Pihai, Ha-aroth, and between Magdal and the sea, opposite Belzephon, and you shall camp before it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel, They are bewildered by the land. The wilderness has closed them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them. And I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know something, that I am the Lord. And they did so. God was going to teach the Gentile nation of the Egyptian who was the true God, that the God of Israel truly was God. Not all of these deities that Pharaoh and the Egyptians worshipped. So one of the lessons that God was going to do was, number one, he was going to destroy their army. He had already destroyed their economy. He had already taken the firstborn, the leaders, the next generation. He had destroyed most of their cattle, their fruit trees, their produce, all of this. Now God was going to destroy their army and reduce Egypt to a third-rate nation, from a leading nation on earth at this time. And verse 13, turn over here to verse 13. Notice what Moses then tells the people. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. See how God will deliver you. See how God will prepare a way for you to escape. He will accomplish for you today. It says, for the Egyptians who you see today, you shall see again no more forever.

The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And so God told them what he was going to do. God was going to give Israel confidence in him. One last miracle to Red Sea would be able to prove to them that truly he was with them. Brother, what we find is the same thing that we find here with the Israelites. God fights our battles for us. Too often we think we're the ones fighting the battles. But there is a God in heaven, and Jesus Christ is our Savior. He lives within us. And he fights our battles. He goes to war against our enemies. He is there to thwart Satan and his influence. And he is there to intervene on our behalf. Now in verse 15, the Lord said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. And of course, children of Israel said, Where? You know, we're going to go forward. Where are we going? Lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. The children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his armies, his chariots, and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. So God was going to destroy the Egyptian army, and they would know that the God of Israel was the true God.

How many nations on earth today know that the God of the Bible is the true God?

Very few. What about the whole Muslim world? What about the Hindus? The Buddhists? The Shintoists? The Taoists? You could go on and on and on, talking about the major religions of this world. Many of them who have three-headed gods, or have all kinds of deities that they worship, or they believe in. And they believe that these are gods, and they have a code, and they have a book that they live by. And yet there is a living God. And that God is one day going to do the same thing that he did to the Egyptians, to this earth. God will come down and shake the earth, the Bible says. He will shake the nations. He will intervene on the behalf of his people Israel. He will have to intervene on our behalf, because there will come a day when you and I will be facing the Red Sea. And God will have to intervene to protect us, to guide us, to lead us. And he will have to save his physical people, some of them alive, to go on into the millennium. When the tribulation occurs, the nations will eventually know who the true God is. And that the Bible is the Word of God, and who his people are. When God begins to regather Israel out of the nations and brings them back to Palestine, sets up his government, and finally we find Meshach, Tubal, all of these outlying nations come down. Rosh, and all of the Orientals come down against Jerusalem, and they're destroyed. God finally gets their attention, and then God can begin to extend salvation to all mankind. There is a tremendous amount of duality, as we read through all of these scriptures, that apply on many different levels that you and I can learn from. This notice here in verse 30, chapter 14, 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. So God accomplished two things. The people feared God. They didn't last long, but they feared God. And the Egyptians learned that the LORD, that he was God.

God had provided a way of escape for Israel, and they were free from the Egyptians. Now notice there was another thing that was accomplished by all of this. Let's go over to the book of Joshua. Not everything is revealed in one spot in the Bible. A little here, a little there. Joshua 2, verse 8.

This is where the spies are sent in. They're at Jericho. They come in contact with Rahab the harlot. And verse 8 says, Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, I know that the LORD has given you the land, and the terror of you has fallen on us, that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came up out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of Jordan, the Sihan and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the LORD your God, He is God, in heaven above, on earth beneath.

Now why was Rahab spared and her family? She feared, she was just like everybody else, they had heard what God had done. You see, God put His fear on the nations. And when Israel came to the Promised Land, if they had truly had confidence in God, the nations would have just melted away in front of them. The fear of God would have driven them out. But, you know, they didn't have that type of faith. She was spared because she feared God, she had faith, she had works mixed with her faith, she took action. She protected them. And because of her works and faith being mixed together, God saved her. God had a greater aim in bringing the plagues on Egypt. The fear of God would fall on all the nations, wherever Israel would come. And as a result, would weaken their resolve and give Israel the victory. It would be easier for Israel to possess the Promised Land. Now, did the Israelites know that when this first occurred? They had no idea about that, but God did. That was His plan. Chapter 5 of the book of Joshua. Chapter 5, verse 1.

And so it was when all the kings of the Amorites, who were on the west side of Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we had crossed over, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. And at that time, the Lord said, The Joshua make flint knives for yourself and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.

I say one time, but here's the second time God asked them to do this. Rather than the problem we have sometimes, is we don't see the big picture. God had the big picture in mind. He knew what He was doing. He knew He was going to do it in a certain way because He desired an end result down here. We can see the immediate trial. We can see the immediate test. I'm sick. I'm hurting. I have this problem. I'm out of work. I don't have this. I don't have that. We see all of that. And God doesn't expect us to overlook that. But we need to realize that God is working greater things also in our lives. Sometimes God is accomplishing something that we don't understand with us as well as with others. Now, let's notice a couple of examples that go along with this in the book of Acts. Turn over to Acts 3. Acts 3. I'll just summarize Acts 3 if you remember the story.

Peter and John, after the day of Pentecost, walking along, there's a lame man. A lame man is healed. Nobody can gainsay it. Everybody saw this man lying there for years. He's healed. And you find then in chapter 4 that it draws a crowd.

They preach. A lot of people are converted. Miracles happen. Signs and wonders occur. People are attracted to it. You get to preach. People believe. Now, as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captains of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they had taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. They laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day for already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believe, and the number of men, came to be about 5,000. So by this time, we've got 5,000 converted. God is really moving. He's converting people. And a lot of it is because of what the apostles were doing, the signs and the wonders. So they're arrested because of this. They're brought before the Sanhedra. In verse 13, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled, and they realized that they had been with Jesus. And even the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. He'd been healed. What could they say? Well, he's healed.

Well, they didn't want to give credit because that would give credit to Peter and John. Verse 16, they said, What shall we do to these men? For indeed, a notable miracle has been done through them as evidence to all who dwell in Jerusalem. We cannot deny it. How about being happy? How about acknowledging it? Well, they don't want to do that. Why? Because they looked on them as competition. You see, the church was beginning to be almost as large as the sect of the Pharisees and Sadducees. There were only something like eight or ten thousand of them who belonged to those sects. So at once, the church is just about as big. And now you've got another competition. So, verse 17, So that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them. So they threatened them. Now, God was working something out greater than anybody else understood here. They were, number one, going to witness the apostles to the leaders of the Jews. Number two, it helped to increase the faith of the people. It drew attention from the people to them so that they could continue to preach the gospel. So we find over here in chapter 5 and verse 12, that though, or through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And none of the rest there joined them, but the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of men and women. So the church was growing by leaps and bounds at this time. And we find in verse 15, the shadow of people are Peter crossing people, and they were healed. And they brought people out, the sick and the street, so that the shadow of Peter would touch them. And verse 16, multitudes gathered from the surrounding cities and brought their sick, and they were all healed. In verse 17, we find the high priest rose up, and all those who were with them, who were of the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation. The margin says, jealousy. They were jealous of what the apostles were doing. So verse 18, they grabbed them, they throw them in jail.

And they're in jail. And notice verse 19, at night, an angel, the Lord, opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, Go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. God provided a way of escape. They got out. Now, of course, that escaping was just physical, but it's, again, symbolic. They were put in prison. God made a way of escape. The leaders of the church being put in prison could have shaken their faith. Some of the early New Testament church members could have said, Wait, God is with them. Why would God allow something like that? Why if all the leaders in the church today were suddenly thrown in prison? What would you think? What would you think? Would you say, well, the jig's up, that's it. It was good while it lasted. What would you do? Well, you find that God had a much bigger picture, and God was going to witness to these people. Notice over here in chapter 16, the example of the Apostle Paul. Paul had cast a demon, a divination out of a woman, a man. She was a slave woman. A man had her. Earned a living through her by divining. And so you find that as a result of this, Paul began to preach, and he was in Philippi here. And he preached, and different ones were converted. Verse 16. Now it happened as we went to prayer that this slave woman came along. She constantly was following them, saying, these are the men of God, and so on. Finally, he rebuked the demon. In verse 19, when her master saw that their hope of prophet was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace. I don't know about you, but I don't like to be drugged somewhere. But they grabbed them and they dragged them. They brought them to the magistrates, and they bring all kinds of charges against them. Then the multitude rose up against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them secure later. Having received such a charge, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks. You've seen people in stocks. They're in a stock. They're in the inner prison. They've got chains on. No way they're going to get out of there.

Now, God made a way of escaping, as we know, for them. You'll read the story here that God had not forsaken them. Paul and Silas could have said, God's forsaken us. Nobody likes to be beaten with rods. Drugs, drugs, kicks, thrown in prison, made fun of. And yet, they were. Paul and Silas could have said, God has promised to intervene on our behalf, but he hasn't intervened yet. Now we're being beaten. He hasn't intervened yet. That hurts. I hope he intervenes soon. Then they're thrown in jail and put in stocks and chains. And they're, you know, in the inner prison, one could begin to doubt. What were they doing? At midnight, verse 25, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns. The God and the prisoners were listening. And suddenly, there's a great earthquake. Foundations of the prisoners are shaken. Immediately, all the doors are open, and everyone's chains are loose. They walk out. God provided a way of escape. And they got out. The Philippian jailer went to check. And the prison's empty. He's going to kill himself. And they cried out, We're here. Don't do that. And guess what? He and his whole family are baptized as a result of this. I guess God could have called them some other way. But here was a way that God used to call them. Now, the next day, they say, Let him go. And Paul said, Don't you know that we're Romans? And we have been charged falsely, and you beat us without a trial? And they became very fearful. God worked this out. God had something more in mind. In Acts 21, we find the Apostle Paul arrested. And after a series of trials, he goes to Rome.

And all of this period of time, about four years, two years getting to Rome, two years in Rome, he was in prison.

He was not immediately delivered. That would be like you being sentenced to prison for four years, and you're in prison for four years. He wasn't immediately delivered. Did Paul lose faith? Did he quit? Did he give up? Now, you find during this whole period of time that he continued to preach. Remember when God called Paul, he gave him a threefold commission. What was it? That he was going to take the Gospel to the Jews, to the Gentiles, and that he would appear before kings. That God was going to take his message before the kings, the rulers of the earth at that time. Now, while Paul was a prisoner, he appeared before Felix, king of Griepa, and probably Caesar himself, because finally he said, I appeal to Caesar. And when he appealed to Caesar, he had the right to appear before Caesar, as a Roman citizen. And so, we find that many in the household of Caesar were converted. Some of the servants, those who work there. God was working something out by putting Paul in prison that he didn't understand at the time, but as time went on, he had to realize that at each step of the way of the appeal process, that he kept appearing before these various magistrates, various kings, and he had the opportunity to explain his calling, how God had called him, about Jesus Christ, the message of Christ, and why he was preaching it. And you'll find that he fulfilled the commission that God had given to him. And after that period of time, he was released, and apparently went up into Spain in some of those areas and preached again, and then about three or four years later was killed. Again, in Rome. So, brethren, we find that many times God will work things out that we don't understand, but he knows he's always in charge.

So, the bottom line is simply this. Before anyone of us, before you or I, making it into God's kingdom, we will face our Red Sea. There will be a time when God will place us or allow us to be put in a situation where we have no choice but to trust God, just like Israel was. We're either going to trust God, or we won't. And if we don't, we will be faced with the Red Sea some other time. Because God must know before He says, that's my son, my daughter, I will give that person eternal life. God must know that we will never deviate from His plan. Remove the carnal mind, remove the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. In other words, take away the carnal body, the carnal mind. Put the spiritual character that we're developing, the spiritual life, the spiritual life in a spirit body that's not subject to the pulls of the flesh, and that we will never want to go the wrong way. That's what God is developing within each one of us. We may be tested. We may go through pain and suffering like Paul did, like silence. But God will show us a way of escape. God says He will help us to bear it. That's one of the great lessons that we learn about the days of Unleavened Bread. Part of the days of Unleavened Bread are coming out of this world, putting our trust in God, relying upon Him implicitly. This physical life, even, is not the ultimate, as we learn. How many of the apostles were martyred? How many of the people of God down through the years have had to give their lives? How many of us, every one of us, if you were baptized, said, Luke 14, 26, that I will put you first talking to God, and that we would be willing to give up our lives to obey God. And so this is what God has called us to. Let's notice this couple of the Scriptures quickly. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7.

Why do we go through these trials, the tests that we're faced with? Well, God gives four major reasons here to Paul.

We could give a whole sermon just on these verses. Verse 7 says, So we don't know what that thorn in the flesh was, but Paul went through a trial, a great test. Satan the Buffett means this. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that he might depart from me. Take it away. Give me some relief. And then what did God say?

God said, My grace is sufficient for you.

My strength is made perfect in weakness. So what was God trying to teach Paul here? He said, My grace is what you need. He needed to be humble. As he very clearly says, He was given this thorn in the flesh, lest He be exalted. So God teaches us humility with what we go through. Then we find here, God's strength is made perfect in weakness. So God wants to give us spiritual strength.

So God gives us His strength, and that strength grows. It develops. We become stronger. We're able to endure. And then we read. It says, Therefore, most gladly will I rather boast in my infirmity, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So you and I want more the power of God to rest upon us. So He's saying, Look, I'm weak. I know that. I have these infirmities. But what it's doing, it's strengthened me. It's giving me the spiritual power that I need, that God's Holy Spirit is working in me much stronger. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, and in needs, in persecutions, in distress, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I made strong. So trials and tests that we go through, brethren, make us strong. They humble us. They strengthen us spiritually. The power of God is increased in our lives. And then we are made strong. We become a stronger Christian and able to endure. This is what God is working out in us. Let's turn back over here to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13 again. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13.

Let me read verse 13 to you in the Good News translation. Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. It's normal. It's common. But God keeps His promise, and He will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm.

At the time you are put to the test, He will give you strength to endure it and so provide you with a way out.

So what is the way out? How do we escape? By God giving us the strength to endure. It doesn't always mean He will remove it, but we will have the strength. God promises not to destroy us, but that He will give us the strength. And then the messenger translation, no test, our temptation has come your way, is beyond the course of what others have to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down. That's all we need to remember. God will never let you down. He will never let you be pushed past your limit.

He will always be there to help you through it. So God will help us through it. God has called us today out of the world, just like He called Israel out of Egypt. And just as they face many trials and tests, God, as we go through our Christian life, leads us in a way where we have to face many trials and tests. But God intervenes. He helps. As they went to the Promised Land, they lacked food. He gave them a manna. They lacked water. They struck rocks. Water came out. They lacked clothing, but their clothing never wore out. Their shoes never wore out. God protected them. He was with them. They had to go through it. But finally, what was the end result? The end result was they entered the Promised Land. And, brethren, what is the end result for us? The end result will be one day you and I will be changed if we're left alive at that time. If we're dead, we will be resurrected and made immortal, and we will be in the kingdom of God forever. That's what we're striving for. God promises to be faithful. He promises to never, ever let us down.