In part one of this two-part series, we examined the object lesson application of the Passover, how we must internalize Christ, His flesh and blood (John 6:53-55), as the starting point in our exodus from the slavery of sin. Here in part two, we explore further lessons to help us in our journey toward the heavenly promised land.

The First Steps

Once the Hebrews left Goshen, God led them with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. The pillar of fire gave them light to see by and kept back the cold; the cloud sheltered them from the brutal sun and oppressive heat of the day. When we follow Jesus, He provides light to enlighten our minds and guide us through the darkness of this world, and He also shields us from the burning heat and assaults of the enemy.

As the Hebrews followed God’s leading (pillar/cloud), notice where He led them—to the Red Sea, by a route that was bordered by mountains. This resulted in a situation in which it appeared they were trapped, with Pharaoh’s army bearing down upon them and no human way to escape. This was not an accident, oversight, miscalculation, or failure on the part of God. It was purposeful and necessary for the Hebrews to be truly free, not just bodily free, but free mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—free from their fear, guilt, shame, selfishness, and reliance on Egyptian pagan beliefs—so that they could move forward in living trust in God. God brought them to this point so they would face their own fears, doubts, and human limitations and choose to trust Him and, thereby, experience His goodness, love, and faithfulness, and, through this experience, overcome their fears in love and trust to Him.

As we trust God and start following His leading, we are often led to places in our lives where it appears we are trapped and destructive forces—emotions, circumstances, finances, relationships, divorce, child custody issues, job problems—come bearing down on us, and from a human perspective, it appears there is no escape. It is then that God longs for us to stop focusing on the threats and to turn to Him in trust, to remember He is our gracious, loving, powerful, and healing Savior who has led us to this very place. Why? So we can choose to trust Him and be freed from our own fears, doubts, and insecurities.

But notice what the Hebrews did when they saw Pharaoh’s army, and are we in danger of doing the same when we face threats in our life?

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’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:10–12 NIV84).

Notice the spiritual warfare being described by these events and the object lesson’s application. We are born in fear and selfishness. Jesus came to free us from this terminal sin-condition and give us new hearts that love and trust. After we have received Jesus, been reborn with new hearts that love and trust, Satan, the enemy of all that is good, marshals his forces to attack in order to inflame our fear and cause us to distrust God and turn against Him. The goal of the enemy’s attacks is to make us afraid and activate old habits, old maladaptive coping methods, old unhealthy comfort measures, to get us to run back to the old “gods,” rather than turning to our Creator and Savior for deliverance. In other words, Satan tempts us to run back to the things that had enslaved us in order to “feel safe.”

But notice Moses’ response:

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm [other versions “stand still”—in other words, stop being frantic and panicking] and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13–14 NIV84).

And this is the reason God leads us to these very places, so that we have the opportunity to choose—to choose to trust Him rather than trying to save ourselves through our old, destructive, fear-based coping patterns. It is only by our choice to trust God that we heal, mature, grow, and are set free from the slavery of fear and selfishness. Thus, in mercy and love, God always leads us to the various decision points that we need to face in our lives in order to free us from what has been enslaving us so that we will never have to deal with those old enemies again.

But we can’t be freed of the old enemies if we keep choosing to run back to them as a way to try to make ourselves feel safe in the moment of our distress. We need to do as God advised: stop running back to the old ways and simply “be still,” trusting in Him, and watch Him fight for us!

The people listened to Moses—which is an object lesson for us, when we are in distress, fearful, feeling trapped, we must recognize that we are being tempted to turn back to our old enslaving choices and relationships; and it is then that we must listen to Jesus, turn to Him, and follow His directions; it is then that we must be still and watch Him fight the battle and open the way for our deliverance.

Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long (Exodus 14:19–20 NIV84, emphasis mine).

The cloud is a symbol of Jesus, who comes between us and our enemy. He provides a protective hedge, holding back the principalities and power of darkness sufficient for us to move forward in faith, walking through the sea of problems on dry ground.

But notice the cloud also brought darkness to one side while it brought light to the other side. This enacts a powerful truth: God is the source of light and truth, but if we reject the light and truth, if we refuse to walk in the light of truth, then we are left only with darkness. It is only by advancing, moving forward, in the light of truth that we stay in the light, that we stay on the path of truth. Even if we once had God’s light/truth, if we refuse to move forward as more truth/light is revealed, then we leave the light and end up in darkness. Jesus described this process with these words:

If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23 NIV84).

Prior to Jesus’ birth, sinless life, and sacrificial death, the Jews had the truth that the Messiah was coming through the line of Judah and would be born in Bethlehem (Genesis 49:10; Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:5–6). Jesus is the fulfillment of these prophecies, the truth manifested in human history. Yet many Jews rejected this unfolding truth. And having rejected Jesus as the Messiah, when today Jews cling to the old “truths,” and look for the Messiah yet to be born from their descendants in Bethlehem, they are no longer in the light; they are in darkness.

Likewise, Pharaoh, having rejected all the light that had been revealed to him prior to the Red Sea, had hardened his heart and destroyed within himself the faculties that recognize truth, so that even when in the presence of the divine source of truth, he sees only darkness. This is how it is for all those who refuse to advance in the truth, for those hardened hearts, even when in the presence of the source of truth, still see only darkness.

We must develop hearts that love truth, that keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and that eagerly seek to advance and move forward in the light of truth as we comprehend it. When we do this after our conversion, when we do this when faced with the threats and attacks of the enemy, when we do this when our fears are rising and the temptations to run back to our old enslavements are pressing in, then we will see the light, we will see the way God opens through what seemed impossible and impassable to us. Our freedom comes as we trust and as we move forward by choice to apply what we know is true.

Between the Waters

The lesson from Exodus continues,

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 Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore (Exodus 14:29–30).

They were saved by the power of God, but only because they chose to trust and obey, to actually move their own selves forward onto the seabed, walking through the walls of water on each side. And this symbolizes baptism, dying to the old life, being cleansed by the Holy Spirit, and coming out of the watery grave to live new lives in a new land. After conversion, after surrendering to Jesus and having the heart washed clean by the Holy Spirit, we must choose to move forward in truth, in action, in deed to follow the path God opens for us.

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1–4 NIV84).

And the very same waters that symbolically cleansed and purified the people drowned the armies of Egypt. As an object lesson of baptism, the apostle Peter also teaches this lesson when he describes Noah and his family being delivered through the waters that drowned the unbelievers:

In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him (1 Peter 3:20–22 NIV84).

What a powerful object lesson! The waters symbolize the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, that for all who trust God die to fear, selfishness, sin, the old carnal life, and are reborn, washed clean, and given a new heart and right spirit. The saved go through the watery grave by faith in Jesus and surrender their old lives of fear, and they live only because they receive a new life of love and trust, the life of Christ, through the indwelling Holy Spirit. But the wicked refuse to give up their life of fear, sin, and selfishness, and thus, the very same waters that cleanse the righteous destroy the wicked.

This is symbolic of the final end of sin and sinners, when the fires of God’s life-giving glory flow through, transform, invigorate, and revitalize the righteous, as we live forever in God’s glorious presence. But the wicked, who cling to sin, find the fires of God’s presence, the fires of infinite love and truth, terrible to be in because truth and love cause them to experience the truth of who they have chosen to become and the truth of what they have done to others. Their unconverted hearts can no longer deny, distort, or blame. In the unveiled presence of God’s life-giving glory, the unsaved experience full awareness of reality—and they hate it and prefer death over life in God’s presence. Peter makes this connection between the waters and the final end in the fires:

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (2 Peter 3:3–7 NIV84). (If you would like a detailed biblical exploration about the final end of sin and sinners and God’s eternal, fiery, glorious presence, see our blog The Truth About Hell.)

As we’ve seen together, the events of the Exodus are powerful lessons for us. God longs to set you free from everything that enslaves you. The enemy will do everything in his power to inflame your fear, your doubt, your discouragement, tempting you to turn back to your old ways, to enslave yourself all over again. It is at those moments, when you see no human way out, that you stand at the door of your greatest opportunity for deliverance and victory.

God is longing for you, encouraging you, pleading with you to stop your frantic fighting to survive, refuse to run back to your old “god,” your old dysfunctional comfort measures, and simply turn to Him in trust. When you do this, when you stop running and are still in trust, get ready, for God will open the way through whatever obstacle is interfering with His calling, will, and purpose for your life, and you will walk through to a new victorious life beyond your imagining! He is only waiting for you to choose to trust Him and act upon that trust by choosing to follow where He is leading.

He wants you to be free—what will you choose?