Exodus, Message 6: The Exodus from Egypt and the Crossing of the Red Sea

Crystallization-Study of Exodus, Message 6:

"The Exodus from Egypt and the Crossing of the Red Sea"

The book of Exodus is perhaps the greatest picture book in the Old Testament. The captions of the pictures can be found in the New Testament, particularly the writings of the apostle Paul.
The pictures in this book vividly depict the experience of salvation that all the New Testament believers have, giving us deeper impressions on this matter. And in Exodus 12-14, we can see 3 big pictures related to our experience of salvation: Passover, Exodus from Egypt and crossing the red sea.

 

1. Passover

When the children of Israel were in Egypt, they had 2 big problems. Firstly, because they had already been "Egyptianised," at least externally, they were prone to God's judgment. Secondly, they were living under the tyranny of Pharaoh and enslavement in the land of Egypt.

In typology, Egypt represents the world, and Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, thereby represents Satan. Before we were saved, we also had these 2 problems that the children of Israel had. We were God's enemy and carnally minded, thereby being prone to God's judgment. We were also living under the tyranny of Satan and enslavement in the world, whether we realised it or not.

This portion of the book of Exodus tells us the good news. Passover, which typifies Christ, is God's solution to save us from His divine righteous judgment. All the believers have already been delivered from God's judgment by Christ's accomplished work of redemption on the Cross. However, the deliverance from Satan's tyranny and enslavement of the world is still ongoing process, as will be further described in the following 2 pictures.

 

2. Exodus from Egypt

So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' that you shall say to him, 'By strength of hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 13:14 NKJV)

Exodus is the leaving of the children of Israel from Egypt. In the New Testament, our experience of exodus is therefore our getting out of the world, which is under the usurpation of Satan. Without the book of Exodus, we cannot get such a deep impression on this matter.

All genuine believers have already experienced Passover since they received Christ as their Saviour. But only a very small proportion of them have ever experienced Exodus.

Blood of the Passover lamb is needed for salvation from God's righteous judgment. The hand of the LORD is needed for deliverance from Pharaoh’s usurpation.

In the world, the house of bondage, we are just slaves. We don't have true freedom. We need to metaphorically get out of the world in order to have freedom to serve God and fulfil His eternal purposes. However, the process is not so easy for us. In the story, 12 negotiations and 10 plagues were needed in order for Pharaoh to release the children of Israel from the land. God needed to subdue both Pharaoh and the environment in order to take His people out of Egypt. Likewise, to have the experience of exodus from the world, we need to depend on God's mighty hand to subdue Satan and our environment.

 

And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. (Exodus 12:36 NKJV)

Some people may have surprised why the holy and righteous God approved His children to "plunder" the Egyptians. However, this action was not at all evil. The people had been working for the Egyptians as slaves for almost 400 years and had not been fairly paid. Now as they were leaving the land, they needed the precious materials for something very important - the building up the tabernacle, God's testimony on the earth.

There are 2 extreme teachings regarding worldly possessions: Prosperity Gospel, which says God will make all the believers materially rich, and Poverty Gospel, which denies all forms of material things, believing that all the believers should be poor and suffer for Christ. These views result from the misinterpretation of the Scriptures and are based on only some verses from the Scriptures. To prevent ourselves from these false teachings, we must consider all the passages in the Bible regarding this issue together.

We need material things for our living and for God's testimony on the earth. We need to plunder the world of its wealth. We need to labour to gain the wealth, but not for indulging ourselves. The wealth is from the world but not for the world. ‎It is for God's testimony on the earth.

 

And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies. (Exodus 12:51 NKJV)

Interestingly, the children of Israel did not flee from the land like losers. They victoriously marched out like an army. Their coming out was a great victory.

Like the children of Israel, let us depend on the strength of God's hand to subdue our enemies and victoriously march out of the world as God's army.

 

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine." (Exodus 13:1-2 NKJV)

Exodus chapter 13 is written by Moses as an insert between chapters 12 and 14. It starts with the law of the firstborn. All the firstborn must be consecrated to the Lord. This matter depicts the process of sanctification.

Passover, which signifies redemption, had already been accomplished. The children of Israel had been completely saved from God's judgement. But they still needed to go through the process of consecration or sanctification.

Redemption is for us to have true eternal security, whereas sanctification is for God's purpose. Sanctification is for God to have someone in whom and through whom He accomplished His eternal purpose on the earth.

How can we be sanctified?

For redemption, we need to be identified with Christ as our Substitute who died on our behalves on the Cross. For sanctification, we need to take Christ as our Substitute who lives in us, experience the new beginning of budding or sprouting life (typified by the month of Abib), and deal with any exposed sin.

We have no strength to become holy by ourselves. We cannot become holy by trying to imitate Christ. The only means we can become holy is taking Christ's life as our life and being saturated with His life. We will then be holy as He is.

 

"And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night." (Exodus 13:21 NKJV)

When the children of Israel came out from the land of Egypt, they were led by the LORD in the form of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire.

The cloud typifies the Spirit. The fire, in the sense of enlightening and purifying, represents the word. As the New Testament believers, God in us guides us by the Spirit and the Word. God, the Spirit and the Word are one.

 

19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.
20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night. (Exodus 14:19-20 NKJV)

Interestingly, when the Egyptian army pursued after the children of Israel, the guiding light became the protecting light for God's people.

Praise the Lord that we always have both guidance and protection from the Lord as we follow Him.

 

3. Crossing the Red Sea

The step of exodus from Egypt was necessary. However, we can see that the people were not completely freed from the power of Pharaoh and Egyptians, as they changed their mind and followed the children of Israel.

In order to be delivered from the usurpation of Satan and the influence of the world, we need the crossing of the Red Sea, which signifies baptism. It is not about ritualistic baptism. It is about spiritual baptism.

We must not be confused. In contrast to what some people have taught, regeneration has nothing to do with baptism. We are not saved by baptism. Salvation is by grace and through faith. However, without baptism, we cannot have full enjoyment of salvation.

From the story, Israel feared to death before crossing the red Sea. With Moses leading, they walked on dry land in the midst of the sea. But all the Egyptians who followed them was overthrown and buried in the sea. As a result, the people of Israel greatly rejoiced when they came out of the sea.

Baptism involves our experience of Christ death, and deliverance from the tyranny of the world and Satan. Power of Satan and the world are buried in the water. We come out of the water with a new life full of the joy of salvation and free from the usurpation of Satan and enslavement in the world. We are now free to accomplish God's purpose, which is to build up the church as God's dwelling place on the earth, as typified by the tabernacle and the temple.

 

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea... (1 Corinthians 10:1-2 NKJV)

It is noteworthy that we are not baptised into a religion or a denomination. Don't be in religion. Religion worships God without enjoyment in Him. On the contrary, we must be baptised into a Person.

Moses here was the leader of God's people who exercised God's authority and power. He therefore represents Christ. We as the New Testament believers are baptised in the Spirit (typified by the cloud) and the death of Christ (typified by the sea), and into Christ, who is our centre and our everything.

 

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization-Study of Exodus, week 6.
• Life Study of Exodus, messages 27-29.