Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

Judgment in the Red Sea

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: Judgment in the Red Sea

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 047

Dictation Name: RR171Z47

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God, we give thanks unto thee that thy truth endureth to all generations. That thou art God, the eternal one. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow forever the same, thou changest not. Grant, oh Lord, that as we face the trials and problems of this world, we move in the confidence that thou art God and thy truth stands, and the gates of hell cannot hold out against thy kingdom. Bless us in thy service. Make us zealous in all things to do thy will. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is from the book of Exodus 14:23-31. Judgment in the Red Sea. Exodus 14:23-31. “And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.

The time of the event described in these verses is, we are told in verse 24, the morning watch, which meant between two a.m. and six a.m. In verse 25, the reference to taking off their chariot wheels may mean also binding or clogging the chariot wheels, as the ground began again to be muddy rather than dry. Whatever it was, it included both things probably and it was a disaster.

One point of dispute among some scholars is whether or not Pharaoh followed or led his forces into the Red Sea and drowned with them, or whether he stayed on dry land. According to Psalm 136:15, Pharaoh was with those who were destroyed in the Red Sea. Egyptian records may not record this, but in Antiquity outside of the Bible, defeats were not recorded. The pagan empires almost always recorded only their victories. Of course, Exodus 15:19 also refers to Pharaoh’s death. There is no good reason to doubt that Pharaoh went in with his troops, and was drowned.

In verse 31 we are told that, at least for that day, Israel feared the Lord and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses. This is an important statement. Keil and Delitzsch observed, and I quote, “Faith in the Lord was inseparably connected with faith in Moses as the servant of the Lord.” God often acts independently of men, but He also often ties His work to a man, and He tests people by their reaction to that man. Calvin wrote about this, and I quote, “Meanwhile, let us learn from this passage that God is never truly and duly worshipped without faith, because incredulity betrays gross contempt of Him, and although hypocrites boast of their heaping all kinds of honor upon God, still they inflict the greatest insult upon Him by refusing to believe His revelations. But Moses, who had been chosen God’s minister for governing the people, is not unreasonably united with God. For although God’s majesty manifested itself by conspicuous signs, still Moses was His mediator, out of whose mouth God willed that His word should be heard so that the holy man could not be despised without God’s own authority being rejected. A profitable doctrine is gathered from hence, that whenever God propounds His word to us by men, those who faithfully deliver His commands must be as much attended to as if Himself openly descended from heaven. This recommendation of the ministry ought to be more than sufficient to refute their folly who set at naught the outward preaching of the word. Less than hold fast this principle, that only those who obey God, who receive the prophet sent from Him, because it is not lawful to put asunder what He has joined together. Christ hath more clearly expressed this in the words, ‘He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me.’”

Calvin had much to say on this. He opposed the common silence at false preaching, and the rebellion and disrespect against faithful teaching and preaching.

Many years later, Joshua reminded Israel of what God had done for them, and he reminded them in order to incite them to faithfulness and obedience. Among other things Joshua said, “God put darkness between you and the Egyptians.” This pillar and cloud were indicative of God’s particular presence and concern. This same presence was in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and in the temple as the glory of God. Asaph, one of the Psalmists in Psalm 77, in a time of trouble looked back on God’s deliverance of Israel and he described what happened in these words. “Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”

It would appear, in terms of what Asaph says, that when the Egyptians were well into the Red Sea, lightening, thunder, rain and an earthquake brought quick terror to them. It is no wonder they said, in Moffett’s rendering of verse 25, “The eternal is fighting for them.” According to verse 27, “The Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.” The marginal reading for “overthrew” gives us a clearer picture. “The Lord shook them off.” That is, the wet ground from the pouring rain plus the earthquake broke the chariots as they clogged their wheels and threw out the men with such force that they were buried with their armor in the sea, in the sand, and in the mud.

Thomas Scott, one of the great old commentators of about two centuries ago, wrote of the death of the Egyptian armed forces in these words, which I think are very powerful, and I quote, “The Egyptians had drowned the male children of the Israelites in the river, and now the righteous Lord took vengeance on them for those cruel and multiplied murders, by drowning all the strength and flour{?} of the nation in the Red Sea, it is probable that very many of the dead bodies were driven onshore near the place where the Israelites went up out of the sea. The Lord thus ordering it, and that they were furnished with arms as well as enriched with other spoils by that means. The Egyptians were renowned for their art and embalming the dead, and for their attention to the bodies of their relatives, and especially their princes and grandees, that God now poured contempt upon all the great ones of the nation and caused their bodies to be left unburied on the seashore.”

It is an interesting point that some men working in that area of the world found that their various instruments indicated at one particular point going across the Red Sea, there was a great deal of metal under the waters, and they’re hoping to raise money, so far unsuccessfully, to do some work in that area. But at any rate, Israel was now better equipped for war and also further enriched.

We have here a very remarkable miracle. The modernist usually regard this event as a myth. Because of the supernatural aspect, they say it cannot be history. Evangelicals sometimes turn everything into a vindication of antinomianism. Thus, F.W. Grant, writing about ninety years ago, used this event, the Red Sea crossing, to speak against the law in the name of faith. He said of law, “It implies strength in us, faith finds it in another. God honors it and works by it because it honors Christ.”

Now this is a peculiar position. Such a position assumes perpetual weakness and a perpetual bondage to sin in this life. It says you can never obey God to any degree, or never be good to any degree. But Jesus Christ is now the new man in us. It is He who makes us a new creation. He makes us a people who are now governed by the Holy Spirit and His law word. To neglect that fact leads to doctrines of salvation that are false, and it leads to irresponsible lives. Is sin alone powerful in man and not grace and the spirit of God. But these people are saying God is not as strong as we are, nor our sin.

Michael Waltzer, an historian on writing on Exodus and Revelation, or revolution said, and I quote, “The deliverance from Egypt is unconditional. It doesn’t depend on the moral conduct of the slaves, but it is crucial to the exodus story that this deliverance brings Israel only into the wilderness, only to Sinai, where the conditions of any further advance are revealed.” This is a very important point. Salvation is entirely from God. It is His act of sovereign grace, but sanctification, our growth in terms of our salvation, our growth in holiness is our response to His salvation, to His grace, and it is a maturing in which both the spirit and the believer are involved. Where there is no growth there is no life. So, God delivers them in a mighty way.

But now, they’re in a wilderness, about two million people. Now, in those days, as we shall see next time, the whole of what is now Arabia was very different, although it was beginning to go downhill. In Abraham’s day it was a land of forests and streams, and the Sahara was rich and fertile land. In fact, the Sahara continued to be a productive area almost until Turkish times, and they destroyed the whole of that part of the world. But, all the same, two million people even though there were still forests and animals, was a considerable number. They were going to have problems, major problems, so that when we are saved, we are empowered to meet problems. They are not eliminated, so that they don’t disappear totally. They are there, we now have, by the grace of God, power and help to meet those problems.

Then, one more point, a rather sad one. In verse 31, we have a reference to God’s servant, Moses. Moses is called the servant of the Lord in Deuteronomy 34:5, and Joshua 1:13 and 15, and this term became a familiar title for him, so that over the centuries, Moses was called the servant of the Lord. But quoting Rabbi Plaut, “In Rabbinic times, he was no longer so called because Christianity had appropriated the term for its savior.” But this was what God termed to Moses, and called him a forerunner of the great servant of the Lord. Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God, we give thanks unto thee that by thy so great salvation we are empowered. We are given strength to meet all the burdens and problems of life and become more than conquerors through Christ. For thou hast declared that this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith. Give us growth and give us strength, and make us joyful as citizens of thy kingdom. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] I guess for those that were observant from the southeast part of the United States it was reported in the news this past week the waterspout off the ocean picked up several hundred tons of sardines, carried them thirty miles inland because it had {?} land over several square mile area, so it can happen.

[Rushdoony] Yes, well, there’s a long history of that sort of thing happening. I was once in a rainstorm. I got inside quickly as I saw it coming. It rained rocks, pebbles, and mud, and you couldn’t see out of the window when it was over. Everything was streaked with mud and all you could do was to go out with a hose and hose off the windows in the house. One hundred miles south a day before, there had been 100 mile per hour wind that had picked up all kinds of things, including rock and gravel, and deposited them one hundred miles north in a rainstorm. And waterspouts especially have often manifested very great power. There are accounts of very large fish being rained on people, and in the last century especially, curiously, there are a great many such rainstorms across the United States, and apparently it was out of that we got the expression of it raining cats and dogs. Because various objects were rained upon people.

[Audience] This must be confusing to paleontologists when they discover fish where it’s not supposed to be.

[Rushdoony] [laughs] Yes. Well, I was interested once in northeast Nevada, deer hunting, the elderly Indian I was with said, “Let’s go up the side of this mountain,” and we crawled up there to a ledge where there was an overhang of the cliff and some protection, and there were a great many evidences of fire in ancient times, and a few broken things that obviously were Indian relics, but even more interesting, and it was why he took me up there, there were sea shells. Sea shells, and it must have been, oh about eight, nine thousand feet. And he said, “This must have been left by the flood,” and I said, “You are so right.” But, of course, the answer that our evolutionary science gives is that these mountains were raised out of an ocean depth, whereas, you can clearly see the layers of sediment as they settled in many, many places such as at that particular spot. It was a very interesting little side trip on that day of hunting. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] The commentary you quoted concerning the fact that this judgment on the Egyptians, perhaps this retribution for the slaughter of the children, it occurs to me that perhaps we may see supernatural judgment from God in our own time in retribution for the abortion holocaust.

[Rushdoony] I believe we shall. That commentary was Thomas Scott, who was a very remarkable man. I’m sorry his things are no longer available because they’re good reading. He wrote a commentary on the whole Bible, which was published in the early 1800’s. He was born, I think about 1725, or 30, thereabouts, and was quite a superior commentator, and his life was written up by his son, and it is a very fine account. One of the grand old commentators. There have been excerpts, an abridgement of his commentary written, but it doesn’t have the flavor of the original. Any further questions or comments. Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto thee that thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever, and thy judgments and deliverance are as great now and tomorrow as in the days of Israel and Moses. We thank thee, our Father, for thy so great salvation. We thank thee that having been saved, we have been empowered by thy grace and by thy spirit to be able to serve thee, to meet the problems of an evil world and to conquer. Bless us in thy service. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape