More Afraid After the Storm

Picture a crowded camp on the shore of a sea. These families left home in such a hurry that their bread had no time to rise (Exodus 12:34, 39). In front of them is deep water. Behind them, getting closer, is the army of the country that used to own them.

They are terrified. By the end of the story they are safe, and the Bible says they were afraid again. But the second fear points at someone far bigger than an army.

The story is in Exodus, the second book of the Bible. Its name comes from a Greek word, exodos, meaning "the way out." The people in the camp are Israel, a family that had grown into a nation. For generations they had been slaves in Egypt, making bricks for its king, called Pharaoh (Exodus 1:13-14).

God chose a man named Moses to lead them out. After God sent ten disasters on Egypt, Pharaoh let them go (Exodus 12:31). Then God told Moses to camp beside the sea, so Pharaoh would think they were lost and shut in (Exodus 14:1-3). Pharaoh changed his mind and chased them with six hundred of his best chariots, fast horse-drawn carts that carried soldiers into battle (Exodus 14:5-7).

The speakers are Moses, God, and a crowd of frightened former slaves. One later song pictures this night as a thunderstorm (Psalm 77:16-19). The New Testament, the part of the Bible written after Jesus, uses it to explain what Jesus did.

1. They were trapped, and they could not save themselves

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.

Exodus 14:10

"The LORD," in capital letters, stands for God's own name. Stuck between deep water and soldiers, the people cry out to him. Then they turn on Moses with a bitter joke: were there no graves in Egypt, that you brought us out here to die? We should have stayed slaves, they say (Exodus 14:11-12). Fear can make a cage look safe.

They have no army and no boats. And God chose this spot on purpose, to "get glory over Pharaoh" (Exodus 14:4). Glory means honour and credit. Nobody would be able to say Israel saved itself.

A later song admits how badly they behaved that night:

Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works... but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name's sake...

Psalm 106:7-8

A psalm is a song or prayer from the Bible's songbook. In this one, later Israelites own up to what their ancestors did. "Rebelled" means turned against God. Then comes the key word, "yet." God saved them anyway, "for his name's sake," to show who he is, not because they had earned it.

Paul, an early leader who spread the news about Jesus, wrote this to Christians, followers of Jesus, in Rome:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:6

Christ is a title for Jesus, meaning the King God promised to send. "Weak" here means helpless, like someone who cannot swim. The "ungodly" are people who have turned away from God. Like Israel on the beach, they could not rescue themselves, and Jesus died for them anyway.

Our trap has a name: sin, the wrong things we do and the way our hearts lean toward them. Imagine a boy who tells a lie that hurts his best friend. He can say sorry, and he should, but he cannot un-say it. We cannot undo our sin or escape where it leads, which is death (Romans 6:23). We are on that beach too.

2. God made the way, and God did the saving

Moses answers the crowd:

Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today.

Exodus 14:13

Salvation means rescue, and notice who does the work: "he will work for you." Exodus was written in Hebrew, Israel's language. Its word for salvation is yeshuah. That sounds almost exactly like the name Yeshua, which we say as Jesus, and both come from the Hebrew word for rescue. Before Jesus was born, an angel, a messenger from God, came to Mary's husband Joseph. He told Joseph to give the baby that name, "for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

But standing still is not all. God tells Moses, "Tell the people of Israel to go forward" (Exodus 14:15). Then Moses stretches out his hand:

...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. 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.

Exodus 14:21-22

"The midst" means the middle. Moses lifts his hand, but the LORD moves the water. The people walk, but on a road they did not build, between walls they could not hold up. Faith here does not do the rescue. It walks into the rescue God made. When the Egyptians follow, the water returns and their army is gone (Exodus 14:27-28). "Thus the LORD saved Israel that day" (Exodus 14:30).

Luke wrote one of the four books about Jesus's life. He tells of a day on a mountain when Jesus's face changed and his clothes turned dazzling white (Luke 9:28-29). Two men came to talk with him: Moses, and Elijah, who had carried God's messages to Israel centuries before.

...Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Luke 9:30-31

Luke wrote in Greek, and his word for "departure" is exodos, the word Exodus is named after. Moses, who led the first way out, is talking with Jesus about a new one. Jesus would carry it out in the city of Jerusalem. Paul spells out what it was:

...Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

The Scriptures are the holy writings Israel already had. "Raised" means brought back to life. Paul wrote this to Christians in the Greek city of Corinth. Israel walked through the water. Jesus walked through death itself, for our wrongs, and came out alive. And Paul says all who belong to him will be made alive too (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

3. The right fear comes after the rescue

In the morning, Israel stands on the far shore:

Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Exodus 14:31

In Hebrew, "feared" is the same word as "feared greatly" in verse 10. In between, Moses said, "Fear not." Now the fear has a new target: the LORD instead of the army. And in the same breath they believe him, which here means they trust him.

This fear is awe: the feeling of standing next to someone far greater than you, who is on your side. Imagine a girl pulled out of a fast river by a lifeguard. She is not scared of him the way she was scared of the water. But next time he says, "Stay out of the deep end," she listens.

Centuries later, at the crowning of Israel's first king, its old leader Samuel retold this rescue to the nation (1 Samuel 12:6-8). He told them, "Do not be afraid" (1 Samuel 12:20). Then:

Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.

1 Samuel 12:24

The pattern is the same: do not be afraid, and fear the LORD. "Consider" means stop and think. This fear grows from remembering what God has done. It is the respect of someone who was rescued.

How does Jesus sort these two fears out? A New Testament letter called Hebrews, written to early Christians, explains:

...that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Hebrews 2:14-15

"He" is Jesus, who became human so that he could die. The devil is God's enemy, an evil spirit who holds death over people like a threat. "Deliver" means set free. Fear of death and slavery: that is the beach in Exodus 14. Jesus went into death to break that fear. The fear that makes you a slave goes. The fear that makes you listen stays.

Now the hard part. After three days in the desert, Israel found only bitter water, and they grumbled against Moses (Exodus 15:22-24). Psalm 106 admits it:

Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.

Psalm 106:12-13

"Counsel" means advice. They sang on the shore and forgot within days. Right fear has to be fed by remembering, or it fades. Yet God made that bitter water good to drink (Exodus 15:25). Their trust failed. His care did not.

What to do this week

Name the thing you cannot fix. Maybe it is a lie you cannot un-say. Tell God plainly: I cannot get out of this, so you will have to save me. Then take the next step he shows you, like telling the truth to the person you hurt. That is walking forward on a road you did not build.

Set a reminder for three days from today. Israel forgot in three days. Write down three things God has done for you, starting with Jesus dying and rising for you. Read the list on that third day.

Choose the right fear. Maybe you are about to go along with something wrong because you are scared of being laughed at. Stop and ask what the one who rescued you wants.

The chapter ends with people on a shore, alive when they should be dead, still afraid, but now of the right person. Jesus made a new way out, through his own death and back to life. Anyone who trusts him can stand on that shore too.