Egypt is a “type” of the world; the sinful, secular world. Thus, when God brings the children of Israel OUT of Egyptian bondage, we see a picture of salvation. Just as God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, Christ brings us out of slavery to sin.
Notice, however, the way that the Israelites react when the Egyptians (the world) catches up to them in Exodus 14:12. They say “it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”
This is an interesting correlation to the way human beings seem to react whenever a difficult situation arises. It is easier to give in to sin than to continue to struggle against it.
Exercising free will is difficult. Consider the political systems around the globe. The reason why so few nations are truly free, is because freedom is not easy. We seem to be a race bent on being ruled. It’s in our DNA. What causes conflict is that we are supposed to be ruled by GOD, not man. When we put our freedom in the hands of human leaders, they only tighten their fists and squash it.
It also amazes me just how quickly the Israelites forget how awful their bondage was. They are just a few miles away from slavery, and already want to return. Freedom is scary, and fear makes us irrational.
Another interesting note is with regards to Pharaoh’s apparent mental illness. Not only did he go back on his promise to free the Israelites several times as the plagues were ravaging his country, but in Exodus 14:5 he says “why have we done this?” It’s as if he woke from what he thought was a delusion, only to find out that the reality is that he gave up his slaves. He completely forgot the ten plagues and death of his firstborn son.
The picture here is that sin is a delusion. It makes us believe that we can ignore the pain and suffering of our actions as if we deserve no punishment. This is a fitting reminder that an entitlement culture, such as ours, is filled with selfish megalomaniacs who refuse to accept blame. The result of which is our utter destruction; just as Pharaoh’s obsession with the Israelites led to his drowning in the Red Sea.
My final observation from this passage is in Exodus 15:3. “The LORD is a man of war:”
Western Christians seem to forget that we are engaged in a spiritual battle. God is a man of war. Jesus Christ will return as a conquering King who destroys his enemies in the book of Revelation. We, as believers, are soldiers. We are to fight spiritual battles here on Earth, which is why we are directed to put on the “whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17).
We are not to be whiny cowards who give up our freedom to carnal leaders. We are not supposed to battle against the Word of God by constantly trying to change it. We are not supposed to “educate” ourselves out of the warfare that is going on around us. Too many Christians would rather hole up in their ivory towers of academia trying to learn dead languages (looking at you, Koine Greek) and overthrow the perfect, inspired Word of God (the KING JAMES VERSION) causing division in our ranks. There are traitors in our midst. There are traitors in our pulpits! My beef is not with them, but with the spiritual wickedness that they represent!
The pollution of God’s Word is the removal of our primary weapon (Eph. 6:18). Without the Sword of the Spirit, we are only left with defense. No battle can be won without an offense. Those who seek to take away our Bible want us disarmed, and too many Christians today gladly throw their weapons down.
My Bible is my sword. It is purified as silver refined in a furnace seven times (Psalm 12:6). How can we expect to engage in battle when you remove our perfect, pure, refined silver swords and replace them with cheap imitations?
The Church as it stands today fears its freedom. Like the Israelites, Western Christians would rather be slaves to this world than die free in Christ. They gladly lay down swords for shackles. Fear not, for I will put on my armor AND take up arms so that I might be ready to wage war alongside Jesus Christ, for my God is a “man of war!”
Are you?
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