Losing his first born son, the heir to his empire; Pharaoh could no longer laugh in the face of the Holy One of Israel, the LORD. “Let my people go!” became a death warrant throughout Egypt; among man and beast; all first born died. Death struck every house and every place; from Pharaoh’s palace to the captive in the dungeon, and all of the firstborn livestock. Only in Goshen; under the blood of the LAMB was there deliverance, as the death angel passed over Israel. In the middle of the night, Pharaoh called for Moses and told him to, “go and serve the LORD as you said.”
Exodus 12:30-34 ESV And Pharaoh rose up 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 where someone was not dead. (31) Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, "Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said. (32) Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!" (33) The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, "We shall all be dead." (34) So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.
Death in every house, every stable and every field is a devastation that is beyond comprehension. The Egyptians, who were meticulous about embalming had to turn the entire country into a morgue. It takes 50 days to embalm a body. (see Genesis 50:2). Massive bonfires had to light the night skies for weeks as the carcasses of dead livestock had to be burned to ward off disease and pestilence that would come from rotting dead animal flesh. Mighty Egypt and Pharaoh were brought to their knees as the Children of Israel left Egypt with God’s mighty hand. After four hundred and thirty years of captivity; Israel left Egypt by night. It was to be a night to be much observed forever in all of their generations.
Exodus 12:41-42 KJV And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. (42) It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.
God was fulfilling His promises to Abraham. Israel was a covenant people. They bore the mark of their covenant in their flesh through circumcision. That mark would be an identifying sign for thousands of years; down to the middle of the twentieth century. It was so exclusive to the Jewish people, that Adolf Hitler would drag men into the streets of Germany and Poland; and pull their pants down to confirm that they and their household were Jews. Then off to the death camps for genocide. The Jewish doctors after World War II began to circumcise all male babies of the gentiles under the guise of “Hygiene,” so that God’s identifying mark could never single them out again. A Ukrainian friend’s mother screamed at her son when he considered having his son circumcised. She saw first hand the men dragged into the streets and striped. Back in Bible times among the Children of Israel, all men had to bear this mark; even the foreigner that would sojourn with them. There was to be no distinction in Israel. One people, one covenant, one law and one sign.
Exodus 12:48-49 ESV If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. (49) There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you."
As they left Egypt, the LORD was constantly with them in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Exodus 13:21 KJV And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
Delivering the Children of Israel from Egypt was just the beginning of many deliverances God had to supernaturally perform through His mighty miracles. It wasn’t very long after Israel left Egypt, that Pharaoh’s heart was once again hardened. Even among all of the destruction from ten plagues culminating in the death of all first born, the people rallied behind Pharaoh to pursue the Children of Israel.
Exodus 14:4-9 ESV And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD." And they did so. (5) When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" (6) So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, (7) and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. (8) And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. (9) The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon..
At the edge of the Red Sea, blocked in my mountains and Pharaoh at their heels, The Children of Israel begin to make a claim that they would use for the next forty years; “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” The Children of Israel will become known by this phase and their incessant murmuring.
Exodus 14:11 ESV They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
God brings His people to impasses that are hopeless in order to help them grow in faith. God took Israel to the Red Sea with seemingly no way out. God performs a miracle through Moses and parts the sea and they pass over on dry ground.
Exodus 14:21-22 ESV Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. (22) And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Pharaoh in his usual invincible conceit and anger; followed Israel into the sea while it was parted and they could follow on dry ground. As soon as the Children of Israel were completely across; God let the sea flow back onto the Egyptians and drowned them.
Exodus 14:27-28 & 30 ESV So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. (28) The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. (30) Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
God will never try us more than we can bear and nothing happens to us individually that doesn’t happen to others. God promises to always provide a way of escape.
1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Our trials build character before the LORD. He in return gives us faith. But we must be immersed in the WORD because Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD of God. We are in spiritual warfare just as real as the physical pursuit of Pharaoh. God will vanquish our enemy and we already have the victory promised. But we still need to go into battle. We need both the Armor of God and the Fruits of Spirit in our daily lives.
SEE Anointings 2010 Archive Series on Spiritual Warfare and Anointings Archive Series on the Fruits of the Spirit.
We are here for God’s good pleasure and His good pleasure is for us to develop Holy, Righteous, Perfect, Godly character. This is impossible for God to create because character can’t be created. It can only be developed out of Free Will. God does not want robots. All God can do is create the circumstances for us to make choices. It is through our choices that we grow in character. As we shall see, Israel is a stiff-necked people and despite daily miracles and God’s presence being with them 24/7; 365 days a year; Israel could not seem to follow the LORD. We need to be more pliable in God’s hands than Israel. As King David discovered the hard way through experience; the sacrifice, that God wants of us is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart.
Psalms 51:17 KJV The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, your grace and mercy are free gifts from you. Thank you for calling me out of the world as you called Israel out of Egypt. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to have a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Copyright © 2006, 2011 Thomas C. Blake
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