May 12, 2024 • 23 mins
Embark with us on a journey back in time as we explore the gripping saga of Moses, the Israelites, and their daring escape from Egyptian captivity. Feel the sand beneath your feet and the rush of the parting Red Sea in an episode that promises to immerse you in one of history's most awe-inspiring narratives. With the precision of a historian and the vivid storytelling of a master narrator, we piece together the strategic escape route chosen by God, the leadership of Moses, and the ultimate downfall of the Egyptian pursuers. It's a tale that not only demonstrates the might of Yahweh but also forges an unbreakable bond of trust between the Divine and His people.
As we probe deeper, we grapple with the historical and geographical conundrums that have puzzled scholars for centuries. Could the crossing of the Sea of Reeds have been a product of natural disasters, as some suggest, or was it a moment of pure divine intervention? We dissect the implications of these events on the rulers of Egypt, the power struggles that ensued, and how this epoch-defining episode sculpted the nation's destiny. Join me and our esteemed guests as we navigate through this ancient narrative, revealing how these timeless stories continue to shape our understanding of faith, power, and the human spirit.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to our Ancient Future Story, navigating
Scripture Through the Eyes ofFamily, where I share with you
biblical stories like a familymember would share a story
around the dinner table.
As children of God, we are apart of God's family and his
family story has a lot ofhistory.
Each week we will take onestory and talk about it the
cultural, historical,geographical and sociological
(00:32):
impacts.
We will be looking at the storyfrom the perspective of our
ancestors, through the lens andancient times, in hopes of
learning more about our family.
This is our Ancient FuturesStory.
Welcome back to our AncientFutures Story.
(01:01):
I'm Vic and I am so excited toshare with you the continuation
of Moses' story.
When we left off last time,they were celebrating the
Passover as they were leavingEgypt, but today we will see
that there was a problem.
They were leaving Egypt, butthere was a giant sea in front
of them.
Today we are going to seeYahweh's final act of pulling
(01:24):
his people out of Egypt.
So, if you're ready, grab a cupof coffee or something to drink
and let's get ready to diveinto the crossing of the Red Sea
.
Our story today opens with somebackground info.
(01:46):
When Pharaoh had let the peopleof Israel go, god did not lead
them by the way of thePhilistines, lest they see war
and immediately return to theslavery in Egypt.
So instead he took them by theRed Sea.
The people of Israel hadplundered the Egyptians, so they
are armed for war.
And Moses got the bones ofJoseph and took them with him,
just as his fathers had promisedto not leave Joseph's bones in
(02:10):
Egypt.
And they moved from Sikathim,camped in Etham, on the edge of
the wilderness, and Yahweh wentbefore them by day in the pillar
of cloud and by night in thepillar of fire.
And Yahweh said to Moses Tellthe people to turn back and camp
in front of Pi-hah-hi-roth,between Migdal and the sea, in
(02:30):
front of Baal-zephon.
And you are to camp by the sea,Because Pharaoh will say the
Israelites are wandering in theland and the wilderness has
confused them.
But I, yahweh, will hardenPharaoh's heart and he will
pursue you and I will get theglory of Pharaoh and all his
hosts, and all the Egyptianswill know that I am Yahweh.
(02:51):
So Israel did just as the Lordhad said.
And when Pharaoh heard that theIsraelites had fled, his heart
changed and his servants askedwhat have we done?
They were the majority of ourworkforce.
So Pharaoh made his chariotsready and took his army and he
pursued the people of Israel.
The Egyptians pursued with alltheir chariots, horses and armed
(03:12):
soldiers.
They outnumbered the Hebrews.
They camped at Pi-hah-hi-rothin front of Baal-zephon.
As Pharaoh's army got closer,all of Israel looked up with
fear and they cried out to theLord.
But they started yelling atMoses and blaming him for this
predicament.
They said were there not enoughgraves in Egypt that you had to
(03:34):
bring us into the wilderness todie?
Didn't we tell you to leave usalone and let us serve the
Egyptians, because at least wewouldn't die in the wilderness?
But Moses told the people fearnot and stand firm, for Yahweh
will fight for you on this day,for the Egyptians you see before
you.
You will never see again,because Yahweh fights for you.
(03:55):
Only be silent.
Yahweh then said to Moses whyare you crying out?
Go forward, lift your handsover the sea and divide it, and
the people of Israel may gothrough it on dry ground.
Okay, pause.
Can we just take a minute andappreciate the nonchalantness of
God here?
Just go forward, don't worryabout the massive army behind
(04:17):
you or the massive sea in frontof you.
Just trust me and move forward?
And can we also take a minuteto appreciate that God dried the
ground?
He didn't have to.
He could have left it a mushy,marshy mess, but instead he
dried the ground to make it easyto walk across.
Back to our story.
(04:38):
Then God said I will harden thehearts of Pharaoh and his men
and I will get the glory overPharaoh, his chariots and
horsemen, and all the Egyptianswill know that I am Yahweh.
Then the pillar of cloud thathad been leading the Israelites
moved from in front of them tobehind them and stood between
them and the Egyptians, andneither side approached the
(04:59):
other all night.
Then Moses stretched out hishand over the sea and Yahweh
drove back the sea by a strongeast wind all night and made the
sea dry, land, the watersdivided and the people of Israel
walked across on dry ground inthe midst of the waters, being
walled on both sides.
Seeing this, the Egyptianspursued the Israelites in the
(05:21):
midst of the sea.
All Pharaoh's horses, chariotsand horsemen pursued Israel and
in the morning light, the pillarof cloud looked down on the
Egyptians and threw them into apanic, clogging their chariot
wheels so that they droveheavily.
And the Egyptians said to oneanother let's flee from Israel,
for Yahweh fights for them,against us.
Then the Lord said to Mosesstretch out your hand over the
(05:44):
sea so that the waters may comeback over the Egyptians, their
chariots and their horsemen.
So Moses stretched his handsout over the sea and the waves
came crashing down back to theirnormal course when the morning
appeared.
As the waters returned tonormal, all of Pharaoh's hosts,
chariots and horsemen hadpursued Israel were swallowed up
(06:06):
by the sea.
Not one of them remained, butthe people of Israel crossed the
sea on dry ground.
Thus Yahweh saved Israel fromthe hand of the Egyptians, and
Israel saw the great power ofYahweh against the Egyptians, so
that the people feared Yahwehand believed him and his servant
Moses.
And that is where our storyends for today, yahweh fully
(06:30):
rescuing his people from slavery.
They never have to fear againthat the Egyptians would pursue
them into the wilderness or theland that God would show them,
because Yahweh fought for them.
He displayed his power toIsrael and to Egypt and showed
the nations that he is thesupreme God.
(06:57):
If you grew up in church, youhave probably heard this story
many, many times.
It's basically the staple VBSstory.
And even if you didn't grow upin church.
You probably have heard thisstory before.
As I have said in previousepisodes, this is the testimony
of every single Jewish person tothis day.
Every year they remember howYahweh rescued them out of Egypt
(07:19):
.
And I think there are a fewthings we should discuss to help
shape the context of the storyfor us.
The first location Our storytakes place in Egypt, around
1446 BC.
If we take the early date, or1275 BC if we take the late date
.
We are still dealing with thereign of Thutmose III in 1446 BC
(07:41):
or Ramses II in 1275 BC.
But when Israel is releasedfrom Pharaoh, god leads the
Hebrews away from the territoryof the Philistines and towards
the wilderness.
So who are the Philistines?
The Philistines are also knownas the Sea People in history.
They have boats and were masterarchers.
(08:03):
They could shoot their bow andarrows from their ships, which
was a great advantage whenfacing soldiers with weapons for
hand-in-hand combat.
So instead of leading thepeople of Israel directly up
through the Philistine territorythough it would have been
shorter, they would havecertainly faced war, and Yahweh
did not want this ragtag groupof people to get freaked out and
(08:24):
go running back to slavery.
So instead he led them awayfrom the Philistines toward the
wilderness.
Now, at the beginning of thispart of the story, we see Israel
wandering around back and forth, still in Egypt.
They haven't crossed the plainyet to be out of Egypt's control
.
I think we are quick to judgethe Israelites for not believing
(08:45):
Yahweh, but for a second, canwe put ourselves in their shoes?
Here is Moses, who is claimingto hear from God.
We have seen all the wondersthroughout the plagues, we have
packed up all of our stuff andwe are now following a pillar of
cloud by day and a pillar offire by night, but we are just
walking in circles.
We don't know why we started inone direction and then turned
(09:09):
back and went the other way.
Only Moses is hearing what Godis saying.
We are just following the cloudand the fire.
I can absolutely believe peopleare rumbling with doubt.
The next thing I want to talkabout is the numbers.
We have discussed numbersbefore about how many people
were actually leaving Egyptversus how many people were
(09:33):
around at this time and, aswe've discussed before, our
Bibles say that it was about600,000 men plus women and
children, which would have beenroughly 2 million people.
However, if you remember what Isaid about numbers in the Bible
.
Sometimes our English Bibledoesn't always have the best
interpretation of it, and it'sall because of this Hebrew word,
(09:54):
eliph, which can be translatedas a thousand, but it can also
be translated as clan or family,and if we translate this verse
as 600 clans of men plus womenand children, we get a number
much closer to 6,000 than 2million.
I, as I've said before, stilltend to lean toward this idea of
(10:16):
6,000, because there is noarchaeological evidence of 2
million people leaving Egypt atany point in history, but there
is some evidence of a fewthousand leaving.
However, the size of theEgyptian army was massive in
comparison Roughly 20,000 men,16,000 on foot soldiers and
(10:39):
4,000 chariots.
So let's assume for now thatIsrael does indeed have about
6,000 men on foot and they areseeing 20,000 men coming at them
, with 4,000 of them on chariotsand horses.
That is massive and terrifying,especially when you look up and
see an army behind you thatsize and a sea in front of you.
(11:04):
Nevertheless, they come to thesea.
The Hebrew here is yamsuf,which our Bibles translate as
the Red Sea, but it is moreliterally translated as the Sea
of Reeds.
In recent years this has causedsome debate, because scholars
are now saying it wasn't the RedSea but rather the Reed Sea,
(11:27):
which brings up severalquestions like where is this
Reed Sea?
Did the Israelites walkanywhere near this?
And where the sea is supposedlylocated?
And all of these are validquestions.
I will give you both sides andlet you decide where the
Israelites actually crossed.
Let's start with the Red Sea.
(11:48):
The Red Sea is located betweenAfrica and Saudi Arabia.
It is roughly 1,200 miles longand at its widest point is 221
miles wide, and its deepestpoint is just under 10,000 feet.
This is a massive sea and evenassuming the Israelites would
(12:09):
have crossed it the shortestwidth from Egypt to Saudi Arabia
, the Red Sea is still about 30miles across and roughly 300
feet deep.
So God would have had to movetrillions of gallons of water in
a single night.
And not only would God have tomove trillions of gallons of
water in a single night, and notonly would God have to move the
water, but the people of Israelwould have had to cross 30
(12:30):
miles across in a single night,which sounds near impossible
when you think about the factthat the standard for traveling
in a single day was 20 miles.
Is it possible.
Yes, god can move mountains.
He can move trillions ofgallons of water.
However, the Reed Sea hasbrought up a good argument for a
(12:50):
more plausible explanation.
Now, the Reed Sea, on the otherhand, is believed to be Lake
Manzola, which is innortheastern Egypt, in the Nile
Delta.
This lake borders theMediterranean Sea and is only 30
miles long and about 18 mileswide, and at its deepest point
is about 6 feet.
This is drastically smaller inscale and, as its name suggests,
(13:15):
is full of reeds.
But what is interesting aboutLake Manzala is it has been
reported on more than oneoccasion that when an east wind
blows through throughout thenight, the water will disappear,
leaving the muddy marshy ground.
But when the wind stops, thewater will return to its normal
place.
This would have been seen as anact of God.
(13:38):
It's unlikely that anyone inEgypt would have ever seen water
be removed before, and even ifthey had, they definitely would
not have seen the dry groundafterward.
Remember, any natural anomalywas easily explained by the gods
.
This event would have been nodifferent, which is why some of
the Egyptians were scared andwanted to run, because they
(14:00):
believed Yahweh was trulyfighting for Israel.
In any case, the importantthing is that it happened that
the water split and Israelwalked across on dry ground and
the Egyptians chasing after themwere eliminated, but I think it
is interesting how the waterscame back on top of the
Egyptians Around.
(14:21):
This time there was anunderwater volcanic eruption off
the coast of the Greek Islands,known as Santorini Volcanic
Eruption.
This eruption caused multipletsunamis that made their way
across the Mediterranean andwould have easily taken out an
entire army.
In fact, king Thutmose III'stomb has hieroglyphs of
(14:41):
Egyptians drowning.
I find this interesting becausetypically, a pharaoh would
never immortalize a colossalfailure like losing his entire
army in the sea, which does leanme toward the idea that Yahweh
used natural disasters to bringhis people out of Egypt for good
.
Pharaoh would be way morelikely to ascribe to the story
of how the gods brought amassive storm that caused many
(15:02):
Egyptians to drown than to boastabout of how the gods brought a
massive storm that caused manyEgyptians to drown than to boast
about their failure to keep theIsraelites slaves.
Now, if you're like me, you mayhave been wondering how could
these events really havehappened if Pharaoh lived past
these events?
Wasn't Pharaoh leading the armyinto the sea, pursuing the
Israelites?
Well, the answer is no.
(15:25):
Should they have been?
Probably yes, but in both casesPharaoh had a good excuse not
to be with his troops and whenthe waters collapsed, aside from
our scriptures, which don'tactually say that Pharaoh was
among the Egyptians who died inthe sea, we note that Thutmose
III did not go back out to warafter Queen Hatshepsut died.
(15:45):
Even though he was a mightywarrior in his youth, he was not
among the troops when the seacame back over them.
Ramses II, on the other hand,also was not with his troops,
but for a much different reason.
Ramses II had arthritis in hiship and also, in recent studies
have found, he likely also hadcancer, so he was physically
(16:07):
unable to chase the Israelites.
In either case, it is almostworse for Pharaoh that they did
not die in the sea with theirarmies, because now they had to
face the people of Egypt alone.
Remember, egypt is in totalruin.
Every household has someonedead Now the entire army has
drowned.
Ruin.
Every household has someonedead.
Now the entire army has drowned.
(16:27):
How is Pharaoh going to takeback control and convince all of
his people that he is still Godincarnate and reestablish
Egypt's greatness?
As we have said before, egyptnever fully recovers from this
devastation that Yahweh bringson them.
Yes, dynasties continue, butEgypt never regains its
superpower status again.
So how does this point toYahweh?
(16:50):
Each time we get together, wetalk about this story and how it
points to Yahweh.
In today's story, yahweh'spower is put on full display.
Pharaoh's last-ditch effort wasto send his army after the
Israelites, but Yahweh stillgets the glory, not just for
parting the seas, but forrescuing his people from even
the thought that the Egyptianscould one day come after them
(17:12):
again.
And because of this grandiosedisplay, israel, egypt and the
entire known world hears aboutthe power of Yahweh, and it
sends fear throughout all thenations.
And Yahweh gains this respectand honor as the supreme God
that he is.
So as we end our time together,I want to spend some time
(17:34):
reading the scripture, fromwhere our story comes from today
Exodus 13 and 14.
I hope that as we read thistogether in light of everything
we have learned, this story willbe illuminated for you.
Let's read when Pharaoh let thepeople go, god did not lead
them by way of the land of thePhilistines, although that was
near, for God said least.
(17:55):
The people change their mindsand when they see war, they will
return to Egypt.
But God led the people aroundby the way of the wilderness
toward the Red Sea, and thepeople of Israel went up out of
the land of Egypt to equip forbattle.
Moses took the bones of Josephwith him, for Joseph had made
the sons of Israel solemnlyswear, saying God will surely
(18:16):
visit you and you shall carry upmy bones with you from here.
And they moved from Saccothenand Canton Etham, on the edge of
the wilderness, and the Lordwent before them by day in a
pillar of cloud and led themalong the way, and by night in a
pillar of fire to give themlight that they might travel by
day and by night, the pillar ofcloud by day and the pillar of
(18:37):
fire by night, but did notdepart from before the people.
Then the Lord said to MosesTell the people of Israel to
turn back and encamp in front ofPihahiroth, between Migdal and
the sea, in front of Baal-Zephon.
You shall encamp, facing it bythe sea.
For Pharaoh will say to thepeople of Israel they are
wandering in the land, thewilderness has shut them in and
(19:01):
I will harden Pharaoh's heartand he will pursue them and I
will get the glory over Pharaohand all his hosts, and the
Egyptians shall know that I amthe Lord.
And they did so.
When the king of Egypt was toldthat the people had fled, the
mind of Pharaoh and his servantswere changed toward the people
and they said what is this?
We have done that.
We have let Israel go fromserving us.
(19:22):
So he made ready his chariotsand took his armies with him.
He took six hundred chosenchariots and all other chariots
of Egypt with officers over them, and the Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,and he pursued the people of
Israel.
While the people of Israel weregoing out, the Egyptians
pursued them all, pharaoh'shorses and chariots and his
(19:45):
horsemen and his army, andovertook them in camps by the
sea, by Pi-hi-roth, in front ofBaal-zephon.
When Pharaoh drew near, thepeople of Israel lifted up their
eyes and beheld the Egyptianswere marching after them and
they feared greatly.
And the people of Israel criedout to the Lord.
They said to Moses Is itbecause there are no graves in
(20:07):
Egypt that you have taken usaway to die in the wilderness?
What have you done to bring usout of Egypt?
Is not this what we said to youin Egypt?
Leave us alone, that we mayserve the Egyptians, for it
would have been better for us toserve the Egyptians than die in
the wilderness.
And Moses said to the peopleFear not, stand firm.
See the salvation of the Lord,which he will work for you today
(20:30):
, for the Egyptians whom you seetoday.
You shall never see again.
The Lord will fight for you andyou shall never see again the
Lord will fight for you and youwill only be silent.
The Lord said to Moses why doyou cry out to me?
Tell the people of Israel to goforward, lift up your staff and
stretch out your hand over thesea and divide it, and that the
people of Israel may go throughthe sea on dry ground.
(20:52):
And I will harden the hearts ofthe Egyptians so they shall go
in after them.
And I will get the hearts ofthe Egyptians so that they shall
go in after them.
And I will get the glory overPharaoh and all his hosts, his
chariots and his horsemen.
And the Egyptians shall knowthat I am the Lord when I have
gotten glory over Pharaoh, hischariots and his horsemen, then
the angel of the Lord who wasgoing before the host of Israel,
(21:12):
moved and went behind them andthe pillar of cloud moved from
before them and stood behindthem, coming between the host of
Egypt and the host of Israel,and there was a cloud in the
darkness and it lit up the night, without one coming near the
other all night.
Then Moses stretched out hishand over the sea and the Lord
drove the sea back by a strongeast wind All night.
(21:34):
It made the sea dry land andthe waters were divided and the
people of israel went into themidst of the sea on dry ground,
the waters being on wall ontheir right hand and on their
left.
The egyptians pursued and wentin after them, into the midst of
the sea, all pharaoh's horses,his chariots and his horsemen,
(22:11):
and in the morning watched thelord in.
And then the Lord said to Mosesstretch out your hand over the
sea and the water may come backupon the Egyptians, upon their
chariots and upon their horsemen.
So Moses stretched his handover the sea and the sea
returned to its normal coursewhen the morning appeared and
the Egyptians fled into it andthe Lord threw the Egyptians
(22:33):
into the midst of the sea.
The waters returned and coveredthe chariots and the horsemen
and all the hosts of Pharaohthat had followed them into the
sea.
Not one of them remained, butthe people of Israel walked on
dry ground through the sea, thewaters being a wall to them, on
their right hand and on theirleft.
Thus the Lord saved Israel thatday from the hand of the
(22:54):
Egyptians, and Israel saw theEgyptians dead on the seashore.
Israel saw the great power ofthe Lord used against the
Egyptians.
So the people feared the Lordand they believed in the Lord
and in his servant Moses.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode of our Ancient
(23:14):
Future Story.
I hope that you really enjoyedit.
This episode was written andproduced by me.
Vic Harmon Music is Embarkingon an Adventure by Evan
MacDonald.
Please support the show bysubscribing and rating us, and
if you would like to know moreor grow deeper, check out our
website atourancientfuturestorycom.
See you next time.
(23:34):
Bye.
Welcome to our Ancient Future Story, navigating
Scripture Through the Eyes ofFamily, where I share with you
biblical stories like a familymember would share a story
around the dinner table.
As children of God, we are apart of God's family and his
family story has a lot ofhistory.
Each week we will take onestory and talk about it the
cultural, historical,geographical and sociological
(00:32):
impacts.
We will be looking at the storyfrom the perspective of our
ancestors, through the lens andancient times, in hopes of
learning more about our family.
This is our Ancient FuturesStory.
Welcome back to our AncientFutures Story.
(01:01):
I'm Vic and I am so excited toshare with you the continuation
of Moses' story.
When we left off last time,they were celebrating the
Passover as they were leavingEgypt, but today we will see
that there was a problem.
They were leaving Egypt, butthere was a giant sea in front
of them.
Today we are going to seeYahweh's final act of pulling
(01:24):
his people out of Egypt.
So, if you're ready, grab a cupof coffee or something to drink
and let's get ready to diveinto the crossing of the Red Sea
.
Our story today opens with somebackground info.
(01:46):
When Pharaoh had let the peopleof Israel go, god did not lead
them by the way of thePhilistines, lest they see war
and immediately return to theslavery in Egypt.
So instead he took them by theRed Sea.
The people of Israel hadplundered the Egyptians, so they
are armed for war.
And Moses got the bones ofJoseph and took them with him,
just as his fathers had promisedto not leave Joseph's bones in
(02:10):
Egypt.
And they moved from Sikathim,camped in Etham, on the edge of
the wilderness, and Yahweh wentbefore them by day in the pillar
of cloud and by night in thepillar of fire.
And Yahweh said to Moses Tellthe people to turn back and camp
in front of Pi-hah-hi-roth,between Migdal and the sea, in
(02:30):
front of Baal-zephon.
And you are to camp by the sea,Because Pharaoh will say the
Israelites are wandering in theland and the wilderness has
confused them.
But I, yahweh, will hardenPharaoh's heart and he will
pursue you and I will get theglory of Pharaoh and all his
hosts, and all the Egyptianswill know that I am Yahweh.
(02:51):
So Israel did just as the Lordhad said.
And when Pharaoh heard that theIsraelites had fled, his heart
changed and his servants askedwhat have we done?
They were the majority of ourworkforce.
So Pharaoh made his chariotsready and took his army and he
pursued the people of Israel.
The Egyptians pursued with alltheir chariots, horses and armed
(03:12):
soldiers.
They outnumbered the Hebrews.
They camped at Pi-hah-hi-rothin front of Baal-zephon.
As Pharaoh's army got closer,all of Israel looked up with
fear and they cried out to theLord.
But they started yelling atMoses and blaming him for this
predicament.
They said were there not enoughgraves in Egypt that you had to
(03:34):
bring us into the wilderness todie?
Didn't we tell you to leave usalone and let us serve the
Egyptians, because at least wewouldn't die in the wilderness?
But Moses told the people fearnot and stand firm, for Yahweh
will fight for you on this day,for the Egyptians you see before
you.
You will never see again,because Yahweh fights for you.
(03:55):
Only be silent.
Yahweh then said to Moses whyare you crying out?
Go forward, lift your handsover the sea and divide it, and
the people of Israel may gothrough it on dry ground.
Okay, pause.
Can we just take a minute andappreciate the nonchalantness of
God here?
Just go forward, don't worryabout the massive army behind
(04:17):
you or the massive sea in frontof you.
Just trust me and move forward?
And can we also take a minuteto appreciate that God dried the
ground?
He didn't have to.
He could have left it a mushy,marshy mess, but instead he
dried the ground to make it easyto walk across.
Back to our story.
(04:38):
Then God said I will harden thehearts of Pharaoh and his men
and I will get the glory overPharaoh, his chariots and
horsemen, and all the Egyptianswill know that I am Yahweh.
Then the pillar of cloud thathad been leading the Israelites
moved from in front of them tobehind them and stood between
them and the Egyptians, andneither side approached the
(04:59):
other all night.
Then Moses stretched out hishand over the sea and Yahweh
drove back the sea by a strongeast wind all night and made the
sea dry, land, the watersdivided and the people of Israel
walked across on dry ground inthe midst of the waters, being
walled on both sides.
Seeing this, the Egyptianspursued the Israelites in the
(05:21):
midst of the sea.
All Pharaoh's horses, chariotsand horsemen pursued Israel and
in the morning light, the pillarof cloud looked down on the
Egyptians and threw them into apanic, clogging their chariot
wheels so that they droveheavily.
And the Egyptians said to oneanother let's flee from Israel,
for Yahweh fights for them,against us.
Then the Lord said to Mosesstretch out your hand over the
(05:44):
sea so that the waters may comeback over the Egyptians, their
chariots and their horsemen.
So Moses stretched his handsout over the sea and the waves
came crashing down back to theirnormal course when the morning
appeared.
As the waters returned tonormal, all of Pharaoh's hosts,
chariots and horsemen hadpursued Israel were swallowed up
(06:06):
by the sea.
Not one of them remained, butthe people of Israel crossed the
sea on dry ground.
Thus Yahweh saved Israel fromthe hand of the Egyptians, and
Israel saw the great power ofYahweh against the Egyptians, so
that the people feared Yahwehand believed him and his servant
Moses.
And that is where our storyends for today, yahweh fully
(06:30):
rescuing his people from slavery.
They never have to fear againthat the Egyptians would pursue
them into the wilderness or theland that God would show them,
because Yahweh fought for them.
He displayed his power toIsrael and to Egypt and showed
the nations that he is thesupreme God.
(06:57):
If you grew up in church, youhave probably heard this story
many, many times.
It's basically the staple VBSstory.
And even if you didn't grow upin church.
You probably have heard thisstory before.
As I have said in previousepisodes, this is the testimony
of every single Jewish person tothis day.
Every year they remember howYahweh rescued them out of Egypt
(07:19):
.
And I think there are a fewthings we should discuss to help
shape the context of the storyfor us.
The first location Our storytakes place in Egypt, around
1446 BC.
If we take the early date, or1275 BC if we take the late date
.
We are still dealing with thereign of Thutmose III in 1446 BC
(07:41):
or Ramses II in 1275 BC.
But when Israel is releasedfrom Pharaoh, god leads the
Hebrews away from the territoryof the Philistines and towards
the wilderness.
So who are the Philistines?
The Philistines are also knownas the Sea People in history.
They have boats and were masterarchers.
(08:03):
They could shoot their bow andarrows from their ships, which
was a great advantage whenfacing soldiers with weapons for
hand-in-hand combat.
So instead of leading thepeople of Israel directly up
through the Philistine territorythough it would have been
shorter, they would havecertainly faced war, and Yahweh
did not want this ragtag groupof people to get freaked out and
(08:24):
go running back to slavery.
So instead he led them awayfrom the Philistines toward the
wilderness.
Now, at the beginning of thispart of the story, we see Israel
wandering around back and forth, still in Egypt.
They haven't crossed the plainyet to be out of Egypt's control
.
I think we are quick to judgethe Israelites for not believing
(08:45):
Yahweh, but for a second, canwe put ourselves in their shoes?
Here is Moses, who is claimingto hear from God.
We have seen all the wondersthroughout the plagues, we have
packed up all of our stuff andwe are now following a pillar of
cloud by day and a pillar offire by night, but we are just
walking in circles.
We don't know why we started inone direction and then turned
(09:09):
back and went the other way.
Only Moses is hearing what Godis saying.
We are just following the cloudand the fire.
I can absolutely believe peopleare rumbling with doubt.
The next thing I want to talkabout is the numbers.
We have discussed numbersbefore about how many people
were actually leaving Egyptversus how many people were
(09:33):
around at this time and, aswe've discussed before, our
Bibles say that it was about600,000 men plus women and
children, which would have beenroughly 2 million people.
However, if you remember what Isaid about numbers in the Bible
.
Sometimes our English Bibledoesn't always have the best
interpretation of it, and it'sall because of this Hebrew word,
(09:54):
eliph, which can be translatedas a thousand, but it can also
be translated as clan or family,and if we translate this verse
as 600 clans of men plus womenand children, we get a number
much closer to 6,000 than 2million.
I, as I've said before, stilltend to lean toward this idea of
(10:16):
6,000, because there is noarchaeological evidence of 2
million people leaving Egypt atany point in history, but there
is some evidence of a fewthousand leaving.
However, the size of theEgyptian army was massive in
comparison Roughly 20,000 men,16,000 on foot soldiers and
(10:39):
4,000 chariots.
So let's assume for now thatIsrael does indeed have about
6,000 men on foot and they areseeing 20,000 men coming at them
, with 4,000 of them on chariotsand horses.
That is massive and terrifying,especially when you look up and
see an army behind you thatsize and a sea in front of you.
(11:04):
Nevertheless, they come to thesea.
The Hebrew here is yamsuf,which our Bibles translate as
the Red Sea, but it is moreliterally translated as the Sea
of Reeds.
In recent years this has causedsome debate, because scholars
are now saying it wasn't the RedSea but rather the Reed Sea,
(11:27):
which brings up severalquestions like where is this
Reed Sea?
Did the Israelites walkanywhere near this?
And where the sea is supposedlylocated?
And all of these are validquestions.
I will give you both sides andlet you decide where the
Israelites actually crossed.
Let's start with the Red Sea.
(11:48):
The Red Sea is located betweenAfrica and Saudi Arabia.
It is roughly 1,200 miles longand at its widest point is 221
miles wide, and its deepestpoint is just under 10,000 feet.
This is a massive sea and evenassuming the Israelites would
(12:09):
have crossed it the shortestwidth from Egypt to Saudi Arabia
, the Red Sea is still about 30miles across and roughly 300
feet deep.
So God would have had to movetrillions of gallons of water in
a single night.
And not only would God have tomove trillions of gallons of
water in a single night, and notonly would God have to move the
water, but the people of Israelwould have had to cross 30
(12:30):
miles across in a single night,which sounds near impossible
when you think about the factthat the standard for traveling
in a single day was 20 miles.
Is it possible.
Yes, god can move mountains.
He can move trillions ofgallons of water.
However, the Reed Sea hasbrought up a good argument for a
(12:50):
more plausible explanation.
Now, the Reed Sea, on the otherhand, is believed to be Lake
Manzola, which is innortheastern Egypt, in the Nile
Delta.
This lake borders theMediterranean Sea and is only 30
miles long and about 18 mileswide, and at its deepest point
is about 6 feet.
This is drastically smaller inscale and, as its name suggests,
(13:15):
is full of reeds.
But what is interesting aboutLake Manzala is it has been
reported on more than oneoccasion that when an east wind
blows through throughout thenight, the water will disappear,
leaving the muddy marshy ground.
But when the wind stops, thewater will return to its normal
place.
This would have been seen as anact of God.
(13:38):
It's unlikely that anyone inEgypt would have ever seen water
be removed before, and even ifthey had, they definitely would
not have seen the dry groundafterward.
Remember, any natural anomalywas easily explained by the gods
.
This event would have been nodifferent, which is why some of
the Egyptians were scared andwanted to run, because they
(14:00):
believed Yahweh was trulyfighting for Israel.
In any case, the importantthing is that it happened that
the water split and Israelwalked across on dry ground and
the Egyptians chasing after themwere eliminated, but I think it
is interesting how the waterscame back on top of the
Egyptians Around.
(14:21):
This time there was anunderwater volcanic eruption off
the coast of the Greek Islands,known as Santorini Volcanic
Eruption.
This eruption caused multipletsunamis that made their way
across the Mediterranean andwould have easily taken out an
entire army.
In fact, king Thutmose III'stomb has hieroglyphs of
(14:41):
Egyptians drowning.
I find this interesting becausetypically, a pharaoh would
never immortalize a colossalfailure like losing his entire
army in the sea, which does leanme toward the idea that Yahweh
used natural disasters to bringhis people out of Egypt for good
.
Pharaoh would be way morelikely to ascribe to the story
of how the gods brought amassive storm that caused many
(15:02):
Egyptians to drown than to boastabout of how the gods brought a
massive storm that caused manyEgyptians to drown than to boast
about their failure to keep theIsraelites slaves.
Now, if you're like me, you mayhave been wondering how could
these events really havehappened if Pharaoh lived past
these events?
Wasn't Pharaoh leading the armyinto the sea, pursuing the
Israelites?
Well, the answer is no.
(15:25):
Should they have been?
Probably yes, but in both casesPharaoh had a good excuse not
to be with his troops and whenthe waters collapsed, aside from
our scriptures, which don'tactually say that Pharaoh was
among the Egyptians who died inthe sea, we note that Thutmose
III did not go back out to warafter Queen Hatshepsut died.
(15:45):
Even though he was a mightywarrior in his youth, he was not
among the troops when the seacame back over them.
Ramses II, on the other hand,also was not with his troops,
but for a much different reason.
Ramses II had arthritis in hiship and also, in recent studies
have found, he likely also hadcancer, so he was physically
(16:07):
unable to chase the Israelites.
In either case, it is almostworse for Pharaoh that they did
not die in the sea with theirarmies, because now they had to
face the people of Egypt alone.
Remember, egypt is in totalruin.
Every household has someonedead Now the entire army has
drowned.
Ruin.
Every household has someonedead.
Now the entire army has drowned.
(16:27):
How is Pharaoh going to takeback control and convince all of
his people that he is still Godincarnate and reestablish
Egypt's greatness?
As we have said before, egyptnever fully recovers from this
devastation that Yahweh bringson them.
Yes, dynasties continue, butEgypt never regains its
superpower status again.
So how does this point toYahweh?
(16:50):
Each time we get together, wetalk about this story and how it
points to Yahweh.
In today's story, yahweh'spower is put on full display.
Pharaoh's last-ditch effort wasto send his army after the
Israelites, but Yahweh stillgets the glory, not just for
parting the seas, but forrescuing his people from even
the thought that the Egyptianscould one day come after them
(17:12):
again.
And because of this grandiosedisplay, israel, egypt and the
entire known world hears aboutthe power of Yahweh, and it
sends fear throughout all thenations.
And Yahweh gains this respectand honor as the supreme God
that he is.
So as we end our time together,I want to spend some time
(17:34):
reading the scripture, fromwhere our story comes from today
Exodus 13 and 14.
I hope that as we read thistogether in light of everything
we have learned, this story willbe illuminated for you.
Let's read when Pharaoh let thepeople go, god did not lead
them by way of the land of thePhilistines, although that was
near, for God said least.
(17:55):
The people change their mindsand when they see war, they will
return to Egypt.
But God led the people aroundby the way of the wilderness
toward the Red Sea, and thepeople of Israel went up out of
the land of Egypt to equip forbattle.
Moses took the bones of Josephwith him, for Joseph had made
the sons of Israel solemnlyswear, saying God will surely
(18:16):
visit you and you shall carry upmy bones with you from here.
And they moved from Saccothenand Canton Etham, on the edge of
the wilderness, and the Lordwent before them by day in a
pillar of cloud and led themalong the way, and by night in a
pillar of fire to give themlight that they might travel by
day and by night, the pillar ofcloud by day and the pillar of
(18:37):
fire by night, but did notdepart from before the people.
Then the Lord said to MosesTell the people of Israel to
turn back and encamp in front ofPihahiroth, between Migdal and
the sea, in front of Baal-Zephon.
You shall encamp, facing it bythe sea.
For Pharaoh will say to thepeople of Israel they are
wandering in the land, thewilderness has shut them in and
(19:01):
I will harden Pharaoh's heartand he will pursue them and I
will get the glory over Pharaohand all his hosts, and the
Egyptians shall know that I amthe Lord.
And they did so.
When the king of Egypt was toldthat the people had fled, the
mind of Pharaoh and his servantswere changed toward the people
and they said what is this?
We have done that.
We have let Israel go fromserving us.
(19:22):
So he made ready his chariotsand took his armies with him.
He took six hundred chosenchariots and all other chariots
of Egypt with officers over them, and the Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,and he pursued the people of
Israel.
While the people of Israel weregoing out, the Egyptians
pursued them all, pharaoh'shorses and chariots and his
(19:45):
horsemen and his army, andovertook them in camps by the
sea, by Pi-hi-roth, in front ofBaal-zephon.
When Pharaoh drew near, thepeople of Israel lifted up their
eyes and beheld the Egyptianswere marching after them and
they feared greatly.
And the people of Israel criedout to the Lord.
They said to Moses Is itbecause there are no graves in
(20:07):
Egypt that you have taken usaway to die in the wilderness?
What have you done to bring usout of Egypt?
Is not this what we said to youin Egypt?
Leave us alone, that we mayserve the Egyptians, for it
would have been better for us toserve the Egyptians than die in
the wilderness.
And Moses said to the peopleFear not, stand firm.
See the salvation of the Lord,which he will work for you today
(20:30):
, for the Egyptians whom you seetoday.
You shall never see again.
The Lord will fight for you andyou shall never see again the
Lord will fight for you and youwill only be silent.
The Lord said to Moses why doyou cry out to me?
Tell the people of Israel to goforward, lift up your staff and
stretch out your hand over thesea and divide it, and that the
people of Israel may go throughthe sea on dry ground.
(20:52):
And I will harden the hearts ofthe Egyptians so they shall go
in after them.
And I will get the hearts ofthe Egyptians so that they shall
go in after them.
And I will get the glory overPharaoh and all his hosts, his
chariots and his horsemen.
And the Egyptians shall knowthat I am the Lord when I have
gotten glory over Pharaoh, hischariots and his horsemen, then
the angel of the Lord who wasgoing before the host of Israel,
(21:12):
moved and went behind them andthe pillar of cloud moved from
before them and stood behindthem, coming between the host of
Egypt and the host of Israel,and there was a cloud in the
darkness and it lit up the night, without one coming near the
other all night.
Then Moses stretched out hishand over the sea and the Lord
drove the sea back by a strongeast wind All night.
(21:34):
It made the sea dry land andthe waters were divided and the
people of israel went into themidst of the sea on dry ground,
the waters being on wall ontheir right hand and on their
left.
The egyptians pursued and wentin after them, into the midst of
the sea, all pharaoh's horses,his chariots and his horsemen,
(22:11):
and in the morning watched thelord in.
And then the Lord said to Mosesstretch out your hand over the
sea and the water may come backupon the Egyptians, upon their
chariots and upon their horsemen.
So Moses stretched his handover the sea and the sea
returned to its normal coursewhen the morning appeared and
the Egyptians fled into it andthe Lord threw the Egyptians
(22:33):
into the midst of the sea.
The waters returned and coveredthe chariots and the horsemen
and all the hosts of Pharaohthat had followed them into the
sea.
Not one of them remained, butthe people of Israel walked on
dry ground through the sea, thewaters being a wall to them, on
their right hand and on theirleft.
Thus the Lord saved Israel thatday from the hand of the
(22:54):
Egyptians, and Israel saw theEgyptians dead on the seashore.
Israel saw the great power ofthe Lord used against the
Egyptians.
So the people feared the Lordand they believed in the Lord
and in his servant Moses.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode of our Ancient
(23:14):
Future Story.
I hope that you really enjoyedit.
This episode was written andproduced by me.
Vic Harmon Music is Embarkingon an Adventure by Evan
MacDonald.
Please support the show bysubscribing and rating us, and
if you would like to know moreor grow deeper, check out our
website atourancientfuturestorycom.
See you next time.
(23:34):
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.