Egypt to Canaan (2): Readiness, Redemption, Remedy, Rest — Norman Crawford

Exodus 12–15: Readiness, Redemption, Remedy, and Rest

I'd like to read tonight in Exodus chapter 12 again, please. Exodus chapter 12, and we're just going to read the verse that we're interested in tonight. Verse 11. Exodus 12 and verse 11. And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand.

And ye shall eat it in haste. Chapter 14, please. Verse 26. 14 and verse 26. 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 Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against it. And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians, and the Egyptians 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 seashore. 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 and the children of Israel.

Chapter 15 please, 22 of chapter 15. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.

Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which, when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee.".

And we're glad to see you tonight, as I've already said, and hope you remember the meetings as they continue this week, each night except Saturday at eight o 'clock. We were looking last night at the wiles of Satan to hold Israel in slavery in the land of Egypt, to try to keep them from getting too far away from Egypt's dominion.

Four Stages of Israel’s Redemption

And although we read chapter 14, we did not get to the passage of the Red Sea, nor try to point out the truths that are connected with it. Now, I have four very simple things tonight to help keep me in order and to help you to follow what I have to say.

In Exodus chapter 12, I'm going to call it readiness to march, because in Exodus 12 and verse 11, we read of a people who were waiting for marching orders. They were feasting upon the roast lamb, they were sheltered by the blood, and they were waiting for the marching orders to move out of Egypt.

So Exodus 12 and verse 11 is a people ready to march. We read in chapter 14 of redemption at the Red Sea. Now I'm sure you understand what I mean by that. You'll say, well, I thought redemption was by blood on the Passover night in the land of Egypt.

Well, redemption was not completed there. Redemption was completed here at the Red Sea, for this was redemption by blood, and this was redemption by power, as I'm certain you have often heard. So I'll say that chapter 14 is redemption at the Red Sea.

In Exodus 15, we read of the remedy, and then we read in the closing verse, redemption at the Red Sea. I read the passages tonight, read far more last night, and didn't speak on a good bit of it. But tonight, perhaps it'll be the other way around.

Perhaps I'll speak on a little more than I've read, and it might be a good thing if you make sure your Bible is open before you. I have always found that I get far more help if I'm able to follow exactly in the word of God what the preacher is saying, and able to check with the scriptures to make sure I understand what particular passage is being referred to.

Egypt, the Wilderness, and Canaan as Pictures of Christian Experience

Now, we pointed out last night that these people were in Egypt. They were slaves under the dominion of Pharaoh, who is a type of Satan himself. We read that they were a people in the wilderness, and of course, a people in the land of Canaan.

And what these people were in those three stages of their experience, we are at the present time. In other words, we pointed out that as to our surroundings, we are in Egypt. As to our experience, we're in the wilderness.

And as to our position, we're in the land of Canaan. Now, perhaps we should try to develop that a little for the sake of those who are younger in Christ. In the land of Egypt, they were sheltered by blood.

They were underneath the blood of the slain lamb, and they had the shelter of the blood. That's a great subject for the heart. And of all those in the meeting tonight who have been saved for many years, there isn't a Christian who has ever lost their appreciation for the solitary dignity of the blood of Christ, the blood of Calvary's lamb.

And if you're not saved here tonight, if you know not Christ, my friend, there's only one hope that you can ever be in heaven, and that is to be sheltered by the blood, to know what those Israelites knew that night, that God would pass over them, that the judgment would not fall upon them because of the sheltering blood.

But in the land of Egypt, they were not only sheltered by blood, they were feasting upon the roast lamb. We'll come back to that in a moment. That's feasting upon Christ. That's the occupation of believers.

And then we pointed out tonight that they were waiting for marching orders. So those three things were true of them in the land of Egypt, sheltered by blood, feasting on the roast lamb, and waiting for marching orders.

Now in the wilderness, there were three characteristic things about them too. In the wilderness, they were a separated people unto God. In the land of Egypt, they were sheltered by blood. In the wilderness, they were separated unto God.

They were a holy nation chosen by God and brought out into the wilderness. Separated unto God, a chosen nation. There's something else that the wilderness was to them. It was the school of God. If you keep that in mind, it'll help you to understand the wilderness experience.

Moses had been to this school in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses had been to God's school, and now God was going to take Israel, the nation, under Moses its leader, to the very school that Moses had already graduated from.

The wilderness was a school. We'll likely be speaking about that a little more as the nights go on. What about the land of Canaan? Well, if in Egypt they were sheltered by the blood, and if in the wilderness they were separated people unto God, of course, when they got into Canaan, they were settled in the land.

There was conquest and victory, and they ate of the old corn of the land, which speaks of Christ in resurrection. Now, the people who were sheltered by blood were feasting on the roast land here that night at the Passover.

We read just a verse of that in chapter 12 of Exodus. I hope we get you out of Egypt tonight. I wouldn't want to leave you in the land of Egypt again tonight. I thought I was going to get you out last night, but we didn't manage to get out of Egypt last night.

We stayed in Egypt, but we certainly hope we get out of Egypt tonight. But just before we leave the land of Egypt, I believe there are some truths we can learn yet. Now, we pointed out that feasting upon the roast lamb was necessary if they were going to be able to keep the feast of unleavened bread, which began that very evening.

Mind you, they were sheltered by the blood first of all. Then they feasted on the roast lamb, and then they kept the feast of unleavened bread. That's always God's order. Don't expect power in your life to put out evil.

Don't expect in your life that there's going to be power over sin unless you've known something what it is to be feasting on the roast lamb. God has no lawless children. I think you know that. Someone asked me here the other day how it was that they got all the way to Sinai before they had any law.

That was two months of journeying before they got to Sinai. They spent 11 months there at Sinai before they moved on. But what did they do for a law from the time they come out of Egypt until they got to Sinai when they had no law?

Well, they weren't without law, because you see, they had a new beginning there that night of the sprinkled blood. They had a new beginning with God. In other words, to us, it means the new birth. And the moment I was saved, I got a law written on my lungs.

Thank God I was born with that law written on my lungs, the law of breathing. I don't have to think to breathe. That's a law on my lungs, and my lungs breathe automatically. When I was born again, I had a law written on my new nature.

It was a law of obedience to Christ. I was under law to Christ. I had become a bond slave of Jesus Christ. The loaf had sprung up spontaneous, which I could not force before. And when I took my place as sinner, and at mercy's footstool lay, Jesus took his place as Savior, and at once put sin away.

And when he became my Savior, he became my Lord. And I do not believe, brethren, or sisters. I do not believe. I heard a sister say this just very recently. So I'll have to address the sisters as well as the brethren.

I do not believe you can receive Christ the Savior and not receive him as Lord. Colossians 2 and 6 says, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. How did we receive him?

We had come to an end of ourself. We were helpless. We were hopeless. We had come to the end of human resources. If there was ever once in our life when we had no pride, it was the moment when God saved us.

He had taken every shred of it away. I never had one ounce of pride the night God saved me. I'm sorry to say that I've had a good bit of it since. And it should be a cause of grief to every one of us.

But the night God saved me, he had stripped it all away. I was just a poor lost sinner going down to hell. But I thank God that not only was Christ my Savior that night, Christ was my Lord. And the principle of the Bible is in the very spirit in which I received him.

So in that spirit, I should walk in him. Now you know that Romans 10 and 9 tells you that Christ is Lord at conversion. I hardly need to convince you of that, do I? If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord.

The Lordship of Christ in Individual and Corporate Life

But you say, does every Christian own his Lordship? Well, now there are different departments of his Lordship. There are various departments of the life and of the practice of the people of God. For instance, there are those who know a great deal about the Lordship of Christ individually in their life, who know nothing about the Lordship of Christ collectively in an assembly.

Those are two different things. And I readily admit that after Christ has been received as Lord, there can be a denial of his Lordship. I would agree that many of the people of God, including the one who is standing before you, have had times in our experience when there was a denial of his Lordship.

But you see, those people were under new ownership that night. They had come under a new Lord and a new master. They were now the people of God. Weren't they the people of God before? No, they weren't.

Don't you ever get the idea they were? They were just slaves in the land of Egypt. But now they are a blood-bought redeemed people. They've had a new beginning. And so, of course, God has written a law upon me.

It's a law of obedience to his word. The man I was saved through, Mr. Sam McEwen, used to say that all that God expects of a Christian could be written on their thumbnail. Obedience. Now they were ready to march.

Readiness to March and the Imminent Call of Christ’s People

Here they were in the land of Egypt. Their staff was in their hand. Their shoes were on their feet. They were clothed. They were girded. They were ready for marching orders. Had you gone into one of those houses with the blood on the door, you would have found people reclining and feasting.

No, you would have found people standing with their staff in their hand, ready for the wilderness, ready for the march. You know, I love that picture because I believe that that's a picture of believers now.

We're waiting for marching orders. And I'm applying this now. I hope you understand that. I should really make it clear when I'm trying to interpret Scripture and when I'm trying to apply it. I'm applying this.

I believe we're waiting for marching orders. We're soon going to go out. As to our surroundings, we're in the land of Egypt still. But, oh, thank God, we're waiting for the marching orders that will tell us to leave and we're going to be called away.

Thank God it's very, very near. Now, that night, they were ready to march. But it wasn't very long until they were ready to faint. We're going to look tonight in chapter 12 and verse 33. And maybe you should look at it with me just for a moment and you'll see what I have in mind.

In Exodus 12 and verse 33, the Egyptians were urgent upon them, it says. The Egyptians were urgent upon the people that they might send them out of the land in haste. They were glad to get rid of them.

God had done that. Pharaoh, who had been trying to keep them in slavery here in Egypt, now he's glad to see them go. And they actually hurried the people to get them out. God had brought a mighty miracle, many miracles.

But the final one was the death of the firstborn that night in Egypt. And how did they go out? That's of the greatest interest to me. And I hope I can point out to you how they went out. Did you think perhaps they went out as a kind of a rabble crowd?

Was that your idea? Did you think that when they left the land of Egypt, they kind of fled for their lives and scurried out and got out the best they could? Perhaps half stumbling over one another and just a route.

You know what a route is, don't you? Just to flee for their lives. Is that the way they got out of Egypt? That's not the way they got out of Egypt. I'm glad to tell you that's not the way they got out.

You know, there were three things about their leaving Egypt that are of the greatest interest and importance to us. The first is they went out rich with treasure. It says in this very passage in Exodus 12 that the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.

This is verse 36. So that they, now they didn't lend unto them. That's a very poor rendering. These people ask and they let them have what they asked. That's what the revised version says. They let them have what they asked.

And the close of verse 36 says, and they spoiled the Egyptians. They went out rich with treasure. You know, God had said to Abraham in Genesis chapter 15 that his people would go out of the land of Egypt after 400 years with great substance.

And God is as good as His word. Way back there in Genesis chapter 15 in verse 14 God had said to Abraham that his seed were going to be sojourners in a land of captivity for 400 years. And after that, that God would punish the nation that had kept them captive and that then God would bring them out and He would bring them out with great substance.

They didn't go out poor. They didn't go out empty handed. They got some of the back wages. They had been slaves there for the Egyptians for all those years. And now God gave them some of the back wages and they went out rich.

You know, I'm glad to tell you I'm rich. It's too bad that there are so many poor Christians. And I'm not talking about temporal things. Ah, we have every reason to be rich. Some of the people I know in this world who have a good bit of the world's substance are the most miserable people I know.

I think of a doctor in the city of Jackson where I live and he told me not too long ago that he didn't have a thing to live for. He lives in a mansion. He could have any kind of a vehicle to drive any desired.

Or a plane to fly in. Or a boat to sail in. He could have anything he wanted. He told me he didn't have any reason for living. And he was the most miserable man in the world. I tell you the riches of this world doesn't provide satisfaction or joy.

But we are rich. God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him. And I thank God for all the riches that I have in Christ. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And when I got Christ I got everything that God can give when I got his son. And so these people went out rich. They went out according to the promise of God. That should be an encouragement to us. God will never fail.

His word will never fall to the ground. 430 years of bondage. 30 years of Joseph's stay in Egypt. 400 years of captivity for the Israelites in the land of Egypt. And after all that time God brings them out by mighty power.

Israel’s Orderly Exodus and the Riches of Salvation

And they came out by orderly rank. You know I really appreciate this. If there's anything I can't stand it would be the thought of those Israelites coming out of the land of Egypt just like a mob. Somehow or other that just goes against the grain in my thinking.

I just can't accept that. And I don't have to accept it. I'd like you to notice what it says in chapter 12 and verse 51. The closing verse of the 12th chapter we've been reading. It came to pass the selfsame day that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

Now there's a word added to that. It's not left there. Look in chapter 13 for a moment and verse 18 but God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up, harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

And the revised version says they went up by five in a rank. They went out like a marching army, but in order. What order? God's order. God is not a God of confusion. God is a God of order. It wasn't any mad flight from Egypt.

They went out in victory that night. They went out in all the dignity of the children of God. And they went out with loaded with rich treasure. There's a remarkable word spoken about them in Psalm 105.

I never noticed this until very recently. It says about those people that there was not one feeble one in all their hosts. Not one. What a miracle. God would bring them out with such victory from the land of their captivity.

Listen, I was saved from the bondage of sin and Satan. I was delivered from the captivity that held me for so long in darkness and blindness. And when God delivered me, it wasn't some kind of a poor beggarly deliverance.

I tell you, he delivered me into all the dignity of a son. And I was brought into all the rich treasures and all the blessings of an heir of God. What a great salvation I have. It says about these people that they had a good start.

That's what I wanted to point out to you. They had a good start. Didn't we all have a good start? If you're only saved a few weeks tonight, or if you've been saved for many, many years, we all had the same start.

We all had a good start. If you began at Calvary, you had the right start. If you began with the shelter under the blood, you had the only start. How have you gone on? God is very honest in telling us about the history of his people.

Do you know that man would not write the Bible if he could? I know he couldn't write it, even if he wanted to. But do you know that he wouldn't write it if he could? Did you ever meet a prouder people than the Jew?

Did you ever find people who were more proud of their history, their ancestry, their background, their antiquity than the Jew? Did you ever read a history so full of failure? So full of sin? So full of waywardness and foolishness and rebellion?

Would the Jew write such a record of himself? Would he describe for us the failure of his greatest leaders? Not at all. This is God's record. This book bears the stamp of the divine hand on every page.

It's the word of the living God. And you'll be sure of it, dear friend, tonight if you don't know Christ. You'll be sure that what the Lord Jesus said is a great reality. The scripture cannot be broken.

Every word of it will be fulfilled to the last detail. God's word will not fail. So we have a people redeemed by blood marching under the command of God. And of course when they got to the Red Sea they were going to experience God's mighty power in redemption.

They were going to be rescued. And then they were going to stand on the wilderness shore of the Red Sea and sing redemption song. Now the crossing of the Red Sea that we finally come to the crossing of the Red Sea has a great deal of meaning for us.

Baptism and Deliverance: The Flood, Red Sea, and Jordan

First of all let me point out to you that whenever Noah and his family went into the ark in Genesis 6 in the days of the flood that ark is a picture to us of deliverance from the doom of the old world.

Noah and his family were saved through the flood. They were delivered from the doom that fell upon that old world. When the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea they were delivered from the dominion of Egypt.

And later on when they crossed the Jordan they were delivered into the new domain of Christ. Now that's very simple but it teaches us the truth that we know in believers baptism. People who are baptized as believers they have been delivered from the doom of this world.

In their baptism they are professing that they are delivered from the dominion of sin. And they are acknowledging that they are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. They are delivered into the new domain of Christ.

So you see it takes all three. The flood the Red Sea and the Jordan to really picture for us the full meaning of baptism. But when these people left the land of Egypt if you turned back to chapter 12 I'm not getting very far from chapter 12 but just for a moment if you look at verse 37 of chapter 12 it says the children of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth.

Now Succoth means tent. And of course here you have the pilgrim character of Israel seen for the first time. They dwelt in houses in the land of Egypt and now they are going to begin a sojourn in tents that will not end until they dwell in the cities and the villages of the land of Canaan.

Now these people are taking up pilgrim character. I'm a pilgrim and I'm a stranger in this world. I'm a traveler. I'm going home. And so you have a people who were pilgrims. They were to take up now pilgrim character.

No sense in talking to people that have never been sheltered by blood of a pilgrim character. That's only for those who have been under the blood. Now in the very next verse you have a statement made that is very important to all we'll have to say in the nights to come.

Verse 38 of Exodus 12 says. And a mixed multitude went up also with them. When they went out of Egypt there was a mixed multitude that went along. That mixed multitude was to be a great curse to Israel.

It was that mixed multitude who first became dissatisfied with the manor way over here. Despised it. Called it late bread. That mixed multitude. A mixed multitude has always been the curse of God's people.

There are those who get in among the people of God who do not have divine life in their soul. Never truly been saved. They're not truly part of the family. And they're a great trouble and always have been to the people of God.

Divine Guidance in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire

But when God brought them out of the land of Egypt you have at this point in the chart the fact that God did not intend to leave them to wander. Up here in the top part of the chart you'll notice Israel was in Egypt.

And then Israel was in the wilderness. But you'll notice over here you have another heading. Israel journeying. There's a vast difference between Israel journeying and Israel wandering. Wandering was a mark of their sin and rebellion against God.

Journeying was the fact that God was their leader. The Lord was amongst them as Balaam the unconverted prophet had to admit that the Lord was among them and the shout of the king was heard in their ranks.

God was their leader. In chapter 13 if you look now with me at chapter 13 of Exodus we did not read this verse for the sake of time. I wanted to show it to you now. The close of chapter 13 verse 21. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them by the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.

He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. What does the pillar of fire the pillar of cloud mean? It was God leading them. Romans chapter 8 and verse 14 says as many as are led by the spirit of God they and the emphasis is on they.

They and they only are the sons of God. Now here were people who were going to be led by the Lord himself. The pillar of cloud by day. The pillar of fire by night was to be their guide. God didn't say to them wander as long as best you can try to find your way to Canaan if you can possibly get there.

Not at all. These were God's people. And of course as Deuteronomy 6 tells us years later God brought them out. He brought them out of this land of Egypt that he might bring them in to the land of Canaan.

God has great blessing in store for you. Blessing beyond anything our lips can ever describe. And we can enjoy some of the earnest of it now. Some of the foretaste of the blessing that's in store. That's what God had in mind for these people.

He didn't have in mind for them 38 years of wandering. That was the result of their own sin. Now that pillar of cloud and pillar of fire has a great deal of meaning to us. What is it to us today? He alone has said on the bottom of this chart the reason we're dealing with these subjects is that these things happened unto them for our example and for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age are come.

What happened to them is for our learning. God gave it to us in his word for our teaching. What do we learn from the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire? Well I believe that the child of God is led by the word of God and by the spirit of God.

Now that pillar that came down to guide them was a gracious gift from God. So far as I know they never even asked for it. But God sent it. And of course it was only to a redeemed people that God could give such guidance.

That's a subject that's of the greatest interest to God's people. How can I know the Lord's guiding? How can I know his path for me? Don't do what a man told me he did lately. He wanted to know what kind of a car to buy.

And he had a dream one night about a cricket match. If you know what a cricket match is, it's a game that's played in Great Britain a good deal. And because he dreamt about the cricket match that night, he went out the next morning and bought a cricket car.

But the thing turned out to be a dud. And he had a lot of trouble with it. And he told me about it afterwards and I said, did you think that was the Lord's leading? Well he said, I really thought it was.

I said, man, don't you have a Bible? Well he said, it doesn't tell me what kind of a car to buy in the Bible. No, I said, I know it doesn't. But it gives you guidance for your life. For every activity of the life.

And I'll tell you one thing it doesn't tell you. It doesn't tell you to dream about a cricket match and then go and buy a cricket car. So, the guidance that some people talk about is just a lot of imagination.

But the guidance I'm talking about is something that's very practical and down to earth. The Holy Spirit of God speaks to me. What language does He use? Does He whisper in my ear? Does He give me visions or dreams?

Not at all. He speaks to me through the written words. The Spirit of God saith. How does He speak? That's His word. The Spirit speaks through the word. Do you know that God spoke from that pillar of cloud to the people?

It was a gracious gift to them. It was a guide for them. It was a light to them. It was a shelter for them. That pillar of cloud that came to rest upon the tabernacle when it was finally pitched here at Sinai.

It must have been a great blessing. The merciless sun that shines down every day in that blazing desert. My, they must have longed for deliverance from it. For years they had labored here in a land where a cloud is scarcely ever seen in the sky.

It's a desert. The only water it knows comes from the River Nile. They were used to the blaze of the sun. My, the shelter of that cloud must have made them realize this is God's provision and it was a blessed provision for them.

God has a tender care for his people. Many years later, Nehemiah, a thousand years later, Nehemiah was to write that when God brought his people out of the land of Egypt, he not only gave them water from the rock to drink and gave them manna for their food, but he saw to it that their shoes never even wore out and the clothes on their back never became threadbare.

God made full provision for his people. In the pillar of cloud and in the pillar of fire, that pillar of cloud was darkness to the Egyptians that night at the Red Sea, but it was light to the children of Israel.

God is a God who reveals himself. He's also a God who can conceal. And then, of course, the pillar of cloud was never to be taken away. We read that at the close of chapter 13 of the book of Exodus, that the cloud was never to be taken from them.

It reminds me of Ephesians 4 and 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. So here were a people and they were now at the Red Sea. How did they get there?

The pillar of cloud had led them to it. Now that's most remarkable. God had led them to a place between Migdal and the Sea where they were trapped. Does God lead people into places where they'll be trapped?

That's what Israel thought. Of course they weren't trapped. God was going to rescue them. There was going to be a great deliverance. God was going to display his power. But of course they began to murmur.

Fear Not, Stand Still, and Go Forward by Faith

Those people who were ready to march three days before, now they're ready to murmur. And they said to Moses, why didn't you leave us in Egypt? Did you bring us out here because there are no graves in the land of Egypt?

Couldn't we have died there just as well? Now we're shut in. The wilderness has shut us in. And before them was the sea. And behind them were marching the armies of Pharaoh. We read that last night, though we didn't speak on it.

Here they were. Mountains on either side of them. The armies of Pharaoh marching behind them. The sea in front of them. Where would they turn? Now there were three words given to them on that occasion.

The first word was, fear not. I wonder, is there a trembling heart here in the meeting tonight? That was God's word to Abraham. It was God's word to Joshua. It was God's word to Gideon. It was David's word to Solomon.