Yesterday we spoke of the ten awesome plagues that God put on the Egyptians. The Israelites witnessed it all. After the Plague of the Firstborn, the Egyptians begged the Israelites to go and even gave them their goods, silver, and gold, when they were asked by the Jews.
In another mighty act the Lord led them in the form of a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
In Exodus 13:17 the Israelites are on their way out of Egypt. God has just delivered them singlehandedly from a strong dominant well to do nation. How many versus does it take for them to lose heart? About 15 versus it seems. Pharaoh has a change of plans and decides he wants his slave labor plan back along with everything that was just plundered from them.
Exodus 14:5-9 – 5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7 He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. 8 The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.
I don’t think Pharaoh’s heart needed to change much nor needed a lot of persuasion from God to harden. So with one miracle after another, day upon day from the Lord, how did the Israelites respond?
Exodus 14:10 – 10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.
Crying out to the Lord is the good part. We need to cry out to the Lord for deliverence, but were they crying out to the Lord in confidence?
Exodus 14:11-12 – 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Now I don’t know about you, but when they were upset during captivity when the Egyptians took away the straw and still wanted the same number of bricks, I can understand whining to Moses that more hardship was being brought on by Moses’ boldness. At that time they were trying to go with the flow and they were being beaten for something they weren’t prepared for.
That was before the Hand of God led them out of Egypt. Now after witnessing God’s mighty strength, are they praying to Him stating, “please God, help us again!?”
No. They’re complaining to Moses asking him if it was because there were no graves in Egypt that he brought them out into the desert to die.
They were asking Moses if “he” brought them out of Egypt to die? I’m pretty sure we read that Moses was very careful to explain to the Israelites that it was God that delivered them out of Egypt.
My, how quickly man forgets! I emphasize the human race, as the Israelites are just the example in this story.
We could stop right there and wrap it up, but there is so much more. We could use another day and let’s make that tomorrow.