Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Have you ever found yourself in a predicament, a place that you're not sure

if you can go right or left or up or down or anything? You just don't know what you're supposed to do.

We have a lot of word pictures in the English language to describe being in a predicament.

We hear phrases such as, you sure have painted yourself into a corner.

You've heard that, right? Or being out on a limb, or being stuck between a rock

and a hard place. Sometimes we know that statement, being stuck between a rock

and a hard place. Now that doesn't even make sense.

A rock and a hard place. Well, that's the picture. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

If the person tries to move one leg off of that, what's going to happen?

If he doesn't have some kind of hold on there, he's going to fall down into that crevice.

At least one person has defined this as being like a lawyer who specializes

in suing doctors for medical malpractice, finding himself in need of major surgery.

That's a predicament. That's somebody who has been stuck between a rock and

a hard place, or has their back against the wall, or in a pickle.

You've heard that one before, too. What does it mean, in a pickle?

I mean, I don't get some of these things. But anyway, so Moses and the people

of Israel found themselves in such a predicament.

The Israelites found themselves trapped between Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea.

And I hope that after today's message, we're not like this one little boy.

Nine -year -old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday school that day.

Well, mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind the enemy lines on

a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and

all the people walked across safely.

Then he used his walkie -talkie to radio headquarters and call in an airstrike.

They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved

and the Pharaoh's armies were defeated.

Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you? His mother asked.

Well, no, mom. But if I told you the way that it happened in the Bible, you'd never believe it.

So we're going to read Exodus 14, verses 1 -15, and then 21 -31.

Exodus 14:1–15

Then the Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near

Pi -Ha -Roth, near Big -Dahl and the sea.

They are to encamp by the sea directly opposite Baal -Zephron.

Pharaoh will think the Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion,

hemmed in by the desert, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them.

But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army,

and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. Remember, we've said that is repeated oftentimes.

So the Israelites did this.

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.

So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him.

He took 600 of the best chariots along with all of the chariots of Israel with

the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.

The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the

Israelites who were marching out boldly.

The Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops,

pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they encamped by the sea near Piharoth,

opposite of Baal -Zephon.

As Pharaoh approached the Israelites, looked up, and there were the Egyptians

marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.

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?

Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians,

if it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert?

Moses answered the people, do not be afraid, stand firm, and you will see the

deliverance the Lord will bring you this day.

The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for

you. You need only to be still.

Then the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me?

Tell the Israelites to move on. And then Moses stretched out his hand over the

sea and all that night, the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind

and turned it into dry land.

The waters were divided and the Israelites went through on the sea on dry ground,

with a wall of water on their left and on their right.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen

followed them into the sea.

During the last watch of the night, which would be like three hours,

the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army

and threw them into confusion.

He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving,

and the said, let's get away from the Israelites, the Lord, capital L -O -R -D,

meaning Yahweh, the Lord, Yahweh, is fighting for them against Egypt.

I want to pause for a second.

I believe this is the first time they acknowledged the power of Yahweh.

Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea so that the

waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.

Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place.

The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea.

The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen,

the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea.

Not one of them survived.

But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on

their right and on their left. that day the Lord saved Israel from the hands

of the Egyptian, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.

And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the

Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him and in Moses their servant.".

So here we are, we've read that story many times all of our life,

and how many times do we really look at the, comprehend the magnitude of this

issue, this predicament that they're in?

They're in between the army and the Red Sea.

They're stuck between a hard rock and a hard place. Now, if you read the history

of this and the story of the biblical count,

when the Egyptians came against them, they had 600 chariots and charioteers,

and they had other armies as well.

Okay, so let's say they had 5 ,000, okay?

How many Israelites were there?

We know at that time that there were at least 600 ,000 Israelite men of fighting

age, 20 years and older. At least 600 ,000.

They're backed up against the Red Sea. They've got this army coming at them

with 600 chariots and maybe 5 ,000 warriors.

And there's 600 ,000 of them. And what do they do? They cry in fear. Now, what would we do?

Probably cry in fear, right? We would look at the situation and wonder what really is going on.

So after the death angel's appearance resulted in the death of all the first

born among the Egyptians, Pharaoh finally allowed the Israelites to go.

The Exodus 13, verse 18 says, tells us, so God led the people around by way

Exodus 13:18

of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in orderly

ranks out of the land of Egypt.

I've already told you that the place that they gathered at the Red Sea just

happened to be in front of a land bridge that is underneath the waters of the Red Sea.

They see archaeological evidence, There are Pharaoh's chariots and wheels and

things like that in this land bridge under the Red Sea.

That land bridge at normal levels of the sea is about 900 feet deep.

On either side of this land bridge under the sea, it's about 5 ,000 feet deep.

So we think of this situation and we realize God did not only,

He did something really miraculous to back those waters up,

they were 900 feet deep, or up to 900 feet deep on that laden bridge,

and he backed them up so they could walk through on that ground.

Moses tells us how God guided the children in Exodus chapter 13, verse 21.

Exodus 13:21

He says, 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 by night.

Not take the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night away from

the people of the Lord. He kept them there.

And we understand in this biblical account that when they got to the Red Sea,

God moved that pillar of cloud by day and fire by night in between the Israelites,

and the Egyptians, so the Egyptians could not see the Israelites.

Now that had to be a huge pillar of smoke and a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, don't you think?

To be able to hide two million people, to block out the image of two million

people, this had to be a huge pillar.

I would think it makes you wonder anyway why Pharaoh's armies didn't understand

the predicament they were in when this huge pillar of cloud and this huge,

and at night a pillar of fire stood between them and the Israelites and they

couldn't even see the Israelites.

I would think, if I were the Israelites, I would question what my commander

told me to do, but they still sat there.

So today's passage has four things I want us to learn from this story,

and you'll find these in the entire story that you read in there.

The first thing is this, God's plans are not always logical.

You know, we're told we should tithe, we should give a 10 % of our income to the Lord.

And how many of you have ever done a budget for your expenses and your income

and figured that 10 % in there?

I'm telling you, it doesn't work out on paper, but it always works out in truth.

When we do what God tells us to do, it'll always work out. So his plans are not always logical.

In Exodus chapter 14, verses 1 and 2, God ordered a change of direction,

Exodus 14:1

which to many of the children of Israel must have at best seemed strange and

at worst risky and dangerous.

He said to Moses, tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp at Pi -Havaroth,

between Migdal on the sea.

They are to encamp by the sea directly opposite of Baal Zephon." So in other

words, they were on their way away from the Egyptians, and God said,

no, turn around and go back toward the Egyptians.

Because God was going to show them what God can do. The children of Israel were

in effect asked to backtrack and go back in the same direction that they had just traveled.

Their course was to take a direction which in a very short time would place

them with the Red Sea on one side and on the other side, trackless wilderness

in front of insurmountable barrier of mountains.

They really were boxed in. They really were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

And it was like, it's like running for your life from a gang intent on taking

your life and realizing that you've just turned down a dead -end street.

No place to go. You can't go back, you can't go forward. Your future looks pretty dim and impossible.

But you need to understand that they have been led to this place.

They now stand not by Moses, not by a coincidental wandering, but by God himself.

F .B. Meyer writes it this way. Often God seems to place his children in positions

of profound difficulty. Oh my goodness, that's wordy.

Often God seems to place his children in positions of profound difficulty,

leading them into a wedge from which there is no escape,

designing a situation that no human judgment would have permitted had it been previously consulted.

The very cloud directs them there. You may be involved in a situation like this

at the very hour," he goes on to say, and it does seem perplexing and mysterious

to the last degree, but he's perfectly right.

The issue will more than justify God, who has brought you here to this place.

It's a platform for the display of His almighty grace and His power.

Now God has told Moses, okay, tell the people.

People marching this way through the wilderness. And he says,

okay, turn your two million people around and go back the way you came.

And I want you to stop there and just wait because I'm gonna deliver you.

How many times do we see things in our lives where God is working and his plans

just do not seem logical at all? They don't make sense.

Why would God do that to his people, his chosen people? Why would God put them in these places?

Well, we know the answer to that, because he wants to prove himself.

The second thing we learn from this is God's plans are always made in advance.

God was not surprised. He knew how it would end before it ever began.

In verse three, we are told, for Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel,

they are bewildered by the land, the wilderness has closed them in,

and I will harden Pharaoh's armies,

but I want the Egyptians to know that I am the Lord, I am Yahweh.

God says, now look, here's the plan.

Pharaoh will hear that you are wandering back and forth in the desert and he'll

think, now's my chance, they're headed back to Baal Zephon, I'll trap them and

they will not be able to escape.

But the real trap is for the Pharaoh and his army.

God had it all prearranged ahead of time, he always does, he knows exactly what's

gonna happen, we can trust him in all things.

In verse nine we're told, and the Pharaoh's armies overtook them,

camping by the sea before Baal -Zephron.

And when Pharaoh drew near, the people of the Israel lifted their eyes and they

saw Pharaoh's armies coming toward them and they were afraid, yeah.

So why did the same Israelites who had just witnessed the remarkable power and

deliverance of God now become fearful?

One, not all the company were Israelites.

There was a mixed multitude. Two, Israel had not written scripture at this point

in time. Their history was all oral.

They didn't have it written down what had happened before.

And three, as slaves, they had always lived at the edge of subsistence.

They had always lived in a spirit of fear from their slave masters.

They understood that these Egyptians were their slave taskmasters.

So Israel's response was to give in to fear, verses 11 and 12.

Then they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt,

have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?

We would have been better off if we stayed in Egypt.

Because they had their eyes on the Egyptians and not on the Lord. You know that song.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful grace,

and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the power of his glory and grace.

When we take our eyes off of Jesus, when we take our eyes off of God,

when we take our eyes off of Yahweh, the things of this earth are overwhelming,

and powerful against us.

But when we turn our eyes back to the Lord, we begin to see his ways out.

There are a lot of things that cause us not to trust.

We're diagnosed with a disease from which there is no cure. We have more month at the end of our money.

We have a child who refuses to do what's right.

We have a spouse that has rejected us and gone away, or we lose our job.

Gladys Allward, a missionary to China more than 50 years ago,

was forced to flee when the Japanese invaded Yangcheng.

But she couldn't leave her work behind. With only one assistance,

she led more than 100 orphans over the mountains toward free China.

In their book, The Hidden Price of Greatness, Ray Besson and Renata Hunziker tell what happened.

They said, during Gladys' harrowing journey out of war -torn Yangcheng,

she grappled with despair as never before after passing

a sleepless night she faced the morning with no hope of

reaching safety a little 13

year old girl in the group reminded her of the

much -loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the

Red Sea but I'm not Moses Gladys cried out in despair girl said of course you

aren't but Jehovah is still God and when Gladys and the orphans made it through

they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel,

God is still God, and we can trust Him.

The third thing we see is God's plans do not need your help, only your obedience.

We talked about obedience with the kids this morning. God doesn't need your help.

He's called to be in assistance with them, but he doesn't need it.

He only needs our obedience.

God's answer through Moses to the murmuring Israelites is found in verse 13.

He says, and Moses answered the people, do not be afraid, stand firm,

and you will see the deliverance of the Lord will bring you today.

The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.

The trouble you face today, you will never face again. It's gonna be gone forever.

Will fight for you, all you have to do is be still." That's hard to do when

we face trouble, isn't it?

In fact, Dave and I were talking about this yesterday. It seems like we want to do things on our own.

We think we know God's answers to how to solve all of the problems in life.

And so we go and do certain things, and sometimes God just says,

I want you to sit and be quiet, and let me take care of this one.

God's instruction through Moses are fourfold. One, fear not.

He instructed the people, first of all, don't be afraid. Why does he tell them not to be afraid?

Because I'm God and you're not. Number two, he says, stand still.

Might be better understood to say, stand firm, reflecting faith and confidence

in the delivering power of Jehovah. Third, he says, watch.

Moses says, see what the Lord will accomplish for you today.

God doesn't need your help. You don't need to fight.

You just need to stay out of the way and I'll do what I'm gonna do." And number

four, he says, keep silent, hold your peace.

Oftentimes that's the hardest thing to do, because we feel like we just have

to tell somebody about the predicament we're in.

We have to moan and groan about all of our troubles.

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Don't we do this? Misery, loves.

Wow. Isn't that the way we are? We like to reflect on the troubles we have because

we want people to know how much of a cross we are bearing. What did God say to Moses?

Tell the people stand firm and watch.

I got your back. No, I got your front. I'm gonna take care of this one.

All of these instructions were directed to natural human responses to panic.

First, our natural response is we're afraid.

Second response is to run. Third response is, if we can't run fast enough,

we turn around and fight.

Fourth response to fear, if we can't run fast enough and we're too small to

fight, we injure the person that's with us so the boogeyman gets them first.

Anyway, no, that's not part of it.

That's the story about the two hunters that faced the bear.

One guy shot the other guy's knee and said, at least I can get away.

Number four, God's plans are not limited to what is humanly possible.

Verses 21 and 22, we read, "...then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea

and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind." I can't imagine what that looked like.

I mean, the land bridge, like I said, at full stage of the Red Sea would be

900 feet below sea level, and the waters would push back on either side.

So if that were the case, we can imagine that it was probably,

possibly a 900 foot wall of water on either side of this land bridge.

We don't know if that's the exact case or if we just pushed them all the way

back to where they came from, but we can hardly imagine what that was like.

I can't imagine to be seeing this Red Sea out in front of me,

Pharaoh's armies behind me,

and knowing about the Red Sea and the depth of it, and then seeing this wind

blows all night and pushes the waters back.

I know what I'd be saying, Terry, you go first.

Right? There would be sincere fear in what we're facing.

We know what the fear is behind us. We know what the enemy is like behind us.

We know what that's going to be.

We don't know what's going to happen out ahead of us. How wide of an army or

area was provided for the crossing is not given in the text.

I don't know, I didn't even look up to see how wide this land bridge is,

but it was apparently pretty wide, but here's something to think about.

To get the three and a half or two million people through the Red Sea in one

night was quite a feat. Some say even three and a half million.

If they were to go through the Red Sea in double file, two by two.

It would take, their line would be 800 miles long, and it would take 35 days

and nights to get through.

But we know that they made it through in one night.

To make it through in one night, the land bridge would have to be at least three

miles wide, so that 5 ,000 people could go through at one time.

So you have an army of 2 million people with five...

And abreast, going through the sea. Now if that doesn't stir up the mud,

after the waters had been washed away, then come the Egyptians.

The Egyptians pursued them and all of the horses and chariots and horsemen followed them.

And during the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down from the pillar

of fire and cloud, and he put the Egyptians in confusion. We know the rest of the story.

Their chariots got bound up in the mud and the sand, probably from two million

people walking through ahead of them, and animals, and wagons.

You know what it's like going through a farmyard, right? I don't know if they

had boots, but they probably didn't.

They probably didn't have muck boots. I'm just saying, I don't think so.

But they went through, and it says that the Israelites went through on dry ground.

So then the Pharaoh's armies came through and they got bound up,

their wagons, their chariots got bound up, the wheels jammed up,

and they got stuck in the middle, and Moses waved his arms and the waters came

back, and Pharaoh's army did the dead man's float.

You know, somehow, I almost think that little boy's story makes a lot more sense.

But the sense that it makes to me in all of this is that we may be facing a

lot of predicaments. we may be facing a lot of troubles, and it doesn't seem

like God's plans are logical.

It doesn't seem like...we almost wonder, God, do you really know what you're doing?

And we also...

Knows all things ahead of time. Now that's a study in confusion.

Try to imagine and figure out how God can know everything that's going to happen throughout life.

He's going to know the decisions you make, and yet he doesn't influence your decision.

I mean, he doesn't make you do what he wants you to do.

He leads it up to you in free will. He left it up to Israelites to decide that

they were gonna follow Moses and walk through the Red Sea.

Now, I think I've told this before, I had a Jewish friend in Oklahoma who said,

you know what you get when you get ten Jews together?

The real answer is ten Jewish men together, you're supposed to have a synagogue, okay?

He says, when you get ten Jewish men together, you have eleven opinions.

But can you imagine in having two million Israelites and telling them,

we're gonna walk through the sea.

There's a lot of opinions going on. There's a lot of uncertainty.

But what Moses said is stand firm, stand still, have peace about you,

and you will see the Lord deliver you today. And the Lord will show himself.

And God had said to Moses to begin with, you just watch, I'm gonna do this,

and the Egyptians are gonna know that I am Yahweh.

And what did the Egyptians say at the end?

Yahweh is fighting for them. It's Yahweh that's doing this to us.

So here's what we do when we face those times of predicament,

when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place, when we don't know what's

gonna happen, we don't know where we're gonna go.

Remember these four things, but here's what I want you to remember,

the very last thing, stand firm and watch the deliverance of the Lord.

Instead of trying to do it and overcome things on our own, sometimes we just

have to stand still, be quiet, wait for the Lord to answer in the way He will. He's still God.

Which we had, I'm God, or he's God and we're not, right?

So turn to your neighbor and say, you're not God.

So now we can depend on God to show us what he's gonna have us do.

All we have to do is stand still, be quiet, and wait for God to deliver us from those predicaments.

Sometimes he'll ask us to do something. Sometimes he'll ask us just to wait,

and see what he's gonna do. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time.

We've come to learn these lessons from you. We read these stories,

Father, in the Scripture, and we just can't imagine what it would be like, what it was like.

We know for certainty that these things happened, because you said so,

one, in your Scripture, but two, we have evidence of you working through the

Israelites all along that area over there.

And Father, so we know these stories are true, the stories of the Bible are

true, but yet somehow it seems to be a whole lot easier if we were to think,

well, you will just call in an airstrike.

Father, I pray that you would help us to be silent, help us to be at peace,

help us to trust and know that you are the Lord.

In Jesus' name, amen.