Page 7 - The Divine Quest

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their flesh. The Egyptians were so in awe of Moses and his God that they began to
esteem the Israelites whom they had despised, and when Moses instructed the
Israelites to ask of the Egyptians articles of clothing and gold and silver, we are told
that the Egyptians gave them all they asked for, and so the Israelites plundered the
wealth of Egypt. Finally, the Israelites also were witness to the first Passover where
the firstborn of all Egypt was slain, both of man and cattle, yet all those of Israel were
protected who had placed the blood of a lamb upon their doorposts.

Surely this generation of Israel could not doubt the power of God. They had
witnessed things that astonished both great and small. The power Yahweh exhibited
was so great that the Egyptians begged the Israelites to leave them in great haste,
fearing that they would all be dead if they tarried any longer. There is no possible
way that the Israelites who followed Moses and Aaron could doubt the power of
Yahweh. They had seen His power repeatedly with their own eyes.

The Israelites left Egypt and God brought them to the Red Sea by a circuitous course
to make the Egyptians think that they were lost and wandering in the wilderness.
The Egyptians then said, “What have we done in letting them go? We must bring
them back.” So Pharaoh and his armies pursued Israel and found them camped
before the Red Sea, with mountains on either side. The Egyptians came in behind
them leaving Israel no place to go. They were hemmed in.

See now what Israel did next. Did they remember the plagues and great power of God
and expect Yahweh to perform another miracle on their behalf? Did they stand with
confidence as they viewed the Egyptians, knowing that Yahweh was mightier than
the gods of Egypt and well able to save and deliver them? Did they remember His
words of kindness and His promises to bring them into their own land? No. Instead
they brought reproach upon Yahweh by expressing great unbelief. Yet their unbelief
was not in His power to save, but in His love for them.

Exodus 14:10-12
As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were
marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out
to Yahweh. Then they said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that
you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this
way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt,
saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been
better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."

What an insult this was to Yahweh. When He had demonstrated His mighty power,
and His willingness to bring them out of Egypt; when He had spoken through Moses