So your fathers cried out to the LORD, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, over whom He brought the sea and engulfed them. Your very eyes saw what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. But when they cried out to the LORDThis phrase highlights the Israelites' recognition of their dependence on God. The Hebrew root for "cried out" is "צָעַק" (tsa'aq), which conveys a deep, earnest plea for help. This reflects a pattern seen throughout the Old Testament, where the Israelites turn to God in times of distress. It underscores the importance of prayer and reliance on God, reminding believers that God is attentive to the cries of His people. He put darkness between you and the Egyptians
The "darkness" here is a divine intervention, reminiscent of the plague of darkness in Exodus 10:21-23. This miraculous act served as a protective barrier, demonstrating God's power and His commitment to safeguarding His people. Historically, this event is a testament to God's ability to alter natural circumstances for the deliverance of His chosen ones, reinforcing the theme of divine protection. and brought the sea over them
This phrase refers to the parting of the Red Sea, a pivotal event in Israel's history. The Hebrew word for "brought" is "בּוֹא" (bo), indicating a purposeful action by God. The Red Sea crossing is a symbol of salvation and deliverance, illustrating God's sovereignty over creation. It serves as a powerful reminder of God's ability to make a way where there seems to be none. and covered them
The word "covered" signifies complete and total destruction of the Egyptian forces. The Hebrew root "כָּסָה" (kasah) implies a thorough and final act. This act of covering the Egyptians in the sea is a demonstration of God's justice and His ability to protect His people from their enemies, reinforcing the idea that God fights for His people. Your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt
This phrase emphasizes the firsthand experience of the Israelites, who witnessed God's mighty acts. The emphasis on "your own eyes" serves as a call to remember and testify to God's faithfulness. It is a reminder of the importance of personal testimony in the life of faith, encouraging believers to recall and share their experiences of God's work in their lives. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time
The wilderness period was a time of testing and reliance on God. The Hebrew word for "lived" is "יָשַׁב" (yashab), which can also mean to dwell or abide. This time in the wilderness was crucial for shaping the identity of the Israelites as God's people. It serves as a metaphor for the Christian journey, where believers are called to trust in God's provision and guidance through life's challenges. Persons / Places / Events 1. The IsraelitesGod's chosen people, who were delivered from slavery in Egypt and witnessed His mighty works. 2. The EgyptiansThe oppressors of the Israelites, who pursued them even after their release. 3. The LORD (Yahweh)The God of Israel, who performed miracles to deliver His people. 4. The Red SeaThe body of water that God parted to allow the Israelites to escape and then used to destroy the Egyptian army. 5. The WildernessThe place where the Israelites wandered for 40 years after their exodus from Egypt. Teaching Points God's DeliveranceJust as God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, He delivers us from our own "Egypts"—situations of bondage and oppression. Trust in His power to save. The Power of PrayerThe Israelites cried out to the LORD, and He responded. This teaches us the importance of prayer and reliance on God in times of trouble. Witnessing God's WorksThe Israelites were eyewitnesses to God's miracles. We, too, should be attentive to God's work in our lives and testify to His goodness. The Wilderness ExperienceThe time in the wilderness was a period of testing and growth for the Israelites. Our own "wilderness" experiences can be times of spiritual growth and reliance on God. Faith and ObedienceThe crossing of the Red Sea required faith and obedience. We are called to step out in faith, trusting in God's promises and commands. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt encourage you in your current life challenges? 2. In what ways can you cultivate a habit of crying out to God in prayer, as the Israelites did? 3. Reflect on a time when you witnessed God's work in your life. How did it strengthen your faith? 4. What "wilderness" experiences have you faced, and how did they contribute to your spiritual growth? 5. How can the account of the Red Sea crossing inspire you to act in faith and obedience in your daily life? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 14This chapter provides the detailed account of the crossing of the Red Sea, where God miraculously delivered the Israelites and destroyed the Egyptian army. Psalm 106This psalm recounts the history of Israel, including their deliverance from Egypt and their time in the wilderness, highlighting God's faithfulness despite Israel's rebellion. Hebrews 11:29This verse in the New Testament references the faith of the Israelites as they passed through the Red Sea, emphasizing the importance of faith in God's deliverance. People Aaron, Amorites, Balaam, Balak, Beor, Canaanites, Egyptians, Eleazar, Esau, Girgashite, Girgashites, Hamor, Hittites, Hivite, Hivites, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jebusites, Joseph, Joshua, Nachor, Nahor, Nun, Perizzites, Phinehas, Seir, Serah, Terah, ZipporPlaces Canaan, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gaash, Gibeah, Jericho, Jordan River, Moab, Red Sea, Seir, Shechem, Timnath-serahTopics Bringeth, Cover, Covered, Covereth, Covering, Cried, Cry, Dark, Darkness, Desert, Dwell, Dwelt, Egypt, Egyptians, Season, Setteth, Thick, Waste, Waters, WildernessDictionary of Bible Themes Joshua 24:7 4230 desert
5230 beggars Joshua 24:5-7 7223 exodus, significance Joshua 24:6-7 4810 darkness, natural Library February the Tenth Registering a Verdict
"The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey." --JOSHUA xxiv. 22-28. Here was a definite decision. Our peril is that we spend our life in wavering and we never decide. We are like a jury which is always hearing evidence and never gives a verdict. We do much thinking, but we never make up our minds. We let our eyes wander over many things, but we make no choice. Life has no crisis, no culmination. Now people who never decide spend their days in hoping to do so. But this kind of life …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling YearA Summary of Israel's Faithlessness and God's Patience
'And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. 2. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3. Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Jesus Sets Out from Judæa for Galilee.
Subdivision B. At Jacob's Well, and at Sychar. ^D John IV. 5-42. ^d 5 So he cometh to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 and Jacob's well was there. [Commentators long made the mistake of supposing that Shechem, now called Nablous, was the town here called Sychar. Sheckem lies a mile and a half west of Jacob's well, while the real Sychar, now called 'Askar, lies scarcely half a mile north of the well. It was a small town, loosely called …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him that he will command his sons and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety The Promise to the Patriarchs.
A great epoch is, in Genesis, ushered in with the history of the time of the Patriarchs. Luther says: "This is the third period in which Holy Scripture begins the history of the Church with a new family." In a befitting manner, the representation is opened in Gen. xii. 1-3 by an account of the first revelation of God, given to Abraham at Haran, in which the way is opened up for all that follows, and in which the dispensations of God are brought before us in a rapid survey. Abraham is to forsake …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
"So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12). In our last chapter we considered at some length the much debated and difficult question of the human will. We have shown that the will of the natural man is neither Sovereign nor free but, instead, a servant and slave. We have argued that a right conception of the sinner's will-its servitude-is essential to a just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The utter corruption and degradation of human nature is something which …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God And for Your Fearlessness against them Hold this Sure Sign -- Whenever There Is...
43. And for your fearlessness against them hold this sure sign--whenever there is any apparition, be not prostrate with fear, but whatsoever it be, first boldly ask, Who art thou? And from whence comest thou? And if it should be a vision of holy ones they will assure you, and change your fear into joy. But if the vision should be from the devil, immediately it becomes feeble, beholding your firm purpose of mind. For merely to ask, Who art thou [1083] ? and whence comest thou? is a proof of coolness. …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius Covenanting Performed in Former Ages with Approbation from Above.
That the Lord gave special token of his approbation of the exercise of Covenanting, it belongs to this place to show. His approval of the duty was seen when he unfolded the promises of the Everlasting Covenant to his people, while they endeavoured to perform it; and his approval thereof is continually seen in his fulfilment to them of these promises. The special manifestations of his regard, made to them while attending to the service before him, belonged to one or other, or both, of those exhibitions …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The First Commandment
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Exod 20: 3. Why is the commandment in the second person singular, Thou? Why does not God say, You shall have no other gods? Because the commandment concerns every one, and God would have each one take it as spoken to him by name. Though we are forward to take privileges to ourselves, yet we are apt to shift off duties from ourselves to others; therefore the commandment is in the second person, Thou and Thou, that every one may know that it is spoken to him, …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments Moses and his Writings
[Illustration: (drop cap W) Clay letter tablet of Moses' time.] We now begin to understand a little of the very beginning of God's Book--of the times in which it was written, the materials used by its first author, and the different kinds of writing from which he had to choose; but we must go a step farther. How much did Moses know about the history of his forefathers, Abraham and Jacob, and of all the old nations and kings mentioned in Genesis, before God called him to the great work of writing …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making "The Carnal Mind is Enmity against God for it is not Subject to the Law of God, Neither Indeed Can Be. So Then they that Are
Rom. viii. s 7, 8.--"The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." It is not the least of man's evils, that he knows not how evil he is, therefore the Searcher of the heart of man gives the most perfect account of it, Jer. xvii. 12. "The heart is deceitful above all things," as well as "desperately wicked," two things superlative and excessive in it, bordering upon an infiniteness, such …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Gen. xxxi. 11
Of no less importance and significance is the passage Gen. xxxi. 11 seq. According to ver. 11, the Angel of God, [Hebrew: mlaK halhiM] appears toJacob in a dream. In ver. 13, the same person calls himself the God of Bethel, with reference to the event recorded in chap. xxviii. 11-22. It cannot be supposed that in chap xxviii. the mediation of a common angel took place, who, however, had not been expressly mentioned; for Jehovah is there contrasted with the angels. In ver. 12, we read: "And behold …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Manner of Covenanting.
Previous to an examination of the manner of engaging in the exercise of Covenanting, the consideration of God's procedure towards his people while performing the service seems to claim regard. Of the manner in which the great Supreme as God acts, as well as of Himself, our knowledge is limited. Yet though even of the effects on creatures of His doings we know little, we have reason to rejoice that, in His word He has informed us, and in His providence illustrated by that word, he has given us to …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting Joshua
The book of Joshua is the natural complement of the Pentateuch. Moses is dead, but the people are on the verge of the promised land, and the story of early Israel would be incomplete, did it not record the conquest of that land and her establishment upon it. The divine purpose moves restlessly on, until it is accomplished; so "after the death of Moses, Jehovah spake to Joshua," i. 1. The book falls naturally into three divisions: (a) the conquest of Canaan (i.-xii.), (b) the settlement of the …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Joshua 24:7 NIVJoshua 24:7 NLTJoshua 24:7 ESVJoshua 24:7 NASBJoshua 24:7 KJV
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