My son Elijah and I just started re-watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I forgot how fun all those movies are. There are not a lot of movie series that are worth re-watching. Typically, the sequel is nowhere near as good as the original. “Blues Brothers 2000” (with John Goodman instead of John Belushi), “Caddyshack 2”, "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd" these are all sequels that failed, in spectacular fashion, to live up to the original. Most sequels are not worth watching. However, there are a few exceptions to that rule. Elijah and I just finished watching the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie and I have to say I thought it was just as good as the first. Now, there are five movies in the series, so I don’t know if I am ready to say all the sequels are worth re-watching but so far so good.
Every now and then you come across a sequel that measures up to the original. However, very rarely do you come across a sequel that surpasses the original. That is what we have before us today. In Isaiah 43:16-21 the prophet invites us to “rewatch” one of the greatest events of all time and then when it is over, he piques our interest in the sequel by saying, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
The event that the prophet invites us to “re-watch” is the Exodus. In verses 16-17 Isaiah writes, “16 This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, 17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:”
The antagonists during the Exodus event were Pharaoh and the Egyptian army. You will recall, after he released the Israelites from slavery Pharaoh had second thoughts and led his army out of Egypt to recapture them. The soldiers that Pharaoh led into battle were not a bunch of poorly trained Russian conscripts who had little training and experience. The Egyptian soldiers were a well-trained, well-equipped, highly organized fighting force that were feared the world over. Most feared of all were the Egyptian charioteers. The chariot was the armored vehicle of ancient warfare. The charioteers (often there were two per chariot) moved with greater speed and were more heavily armored then the infantrymen who followed behind them. Thus, the charioteers were very effective at breaking through enemy lines. Once through enemy lines, the charioteers, who were trained to shoot a bow with deadly accuracy even when their horses were at full gallop, decimated their enemies. In Exodus 14:7 we are told that Pharaoh “took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them” and set out to recapture the Israelites.
The obstacle the people needed to overcome in order to escape Pharaoh and his army was the Red Sea. There are some who like to call the Red Sea the Reed Sea and claim that its waters were only a few inches deep. Such people like to suggest it was not an act of God that allowed the Israelites to escape the Egyptian army but rather that the tide simply went out and allowed them to walk across the Reed Sea on dry-ish land. That’s not how the prophet describes it. He calls the waters “mighty”. Likely because he has read Moses’ eye-witness account of the event. In Exodus 14:21-22 Moses writes “21… The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left” (The phrase “wall of water” is repeated in verse 29). My favorite recreation of this event is the 1998 cartoon “Prince of Egypt” which depicts a whale swimming on the other side of the wall of water. At its widest the Red Sea is just under 200 miles wide and is almost 10,000 feet deep. At its most narrow part the Red Sea is 12 miles wide and the depth at the section is over 200 feet deep. I share these statistics to underscore the fact that the Sea the Israelites faced was not an inconvenient marsh, as some suggest, but, rather, it was an impassable obstacle.
During the Exodus event, the Israelites were pursued by a powerful enemy, and they faced an impassable obstacle. Thankfully they had an incredible hero who would deliver them. He name is… the LORD. You thought I was going to say Moses, didn’t you. I would understand if you did. Moses is the instrument the LORD used to perform amazing miracles such as we have here. However, as the prophet invites us to “re-watch” the Exodus event he makes sure that we understand who the real hero of the Israelite people is. Moses may have stretched out his hands and raised his staff, but it was the LORD who “made a way” and provided “a path” for the Israelites. It was the LORD who “extinguished” the Egyptian army and “snuffed out (Pharaoh) like a wick”. In Exodus 14:27-28 Moses himself concedes “27… the Lord swept them into the sea. 28 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.” I think part of what makes this such an incredible victory is the ease with which the LORD defeats Pharaoh and his army. Mighty Pharaoh was no match for the LORD, it took but a breath to defeat him.
The prophet invited the Israelites to “re-watch” the Exodus event because he knew they needed to see it again. When Isaiah began writing his prophecy the nation of Israel was enjoying a golden age like the age of king David and king Solomon. Their borders were secure, their military was strong, and their economy was prosperous. However, all that glitters is not gold. The Israelites misinterpreted the peace they enjoyed as permission to indulge their sinful natures and they allowed their prosperity to distract them from religious matters. As a result, they were consumed with materialism and plagued by spiritual apathy. (Sound familiar?) The prophet Isaiah wanted the Israelites to “re-watch” the Exodus event so that they would regain some of the religious fervor that once filled them. The prophet hoped that it would cause praise to leap from their lips as it once had done. He had hoped that they would echo the words and actions of king David who once proclaimed, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’”[1]
This pastor hopes for the same religious revival among us. Covid has caused some hearts to grow cold. Even as our government has lifted most of the restrictions that were enacted during the pandemic and many people have returned to their normal lives; going to work and school, taking vacations, and participating in social engagements, still many have not returned to church. But lest we think those people are the only ones in need of revival, perhaps we ourselves would benefit from a look into the mirror of God’s law. When you look into that mirror do you see a person who rejoices over an invitation to come to the house of the Lord, or do you see a person who attends worship? Do you see a person who celebrates salvation, or do you see a person who appreciates it? Do you see a person who lives their life in gratitude toward God, or do you see a person who occasionally goes through the motions? I don’t need to know what you see when you look into the mirror of God’s law, but if your reflection in any way resembles mine, I know you cannot be happy with what you see.
We need to “re-watch” the Exodus event as much as anyone. We need to see the LORD defeat a powerful enemy and deliver His people from an impossible situation. But as great as the Exodus event was, the prophet says you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. In verses 18-19 the LORD says, “18 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing!” It is not that the LORD does not want us to “re-watch” the Exodus event. Indeed, He wanted the Israelites to “re-watch” it every year during their Passover celebration. The Exodus event is one of the LORD’s greatest hits, but once you see the sequel; once you see the “new thing” the LORD has done, you might almost forget about Pharaoh and the parting of the Red Sea.
In verse 19 the prophet invites us to see what that “new thing” is. Isaiah writes, “Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
We are pursued by something far more dangerous than a prince of Egypt; we are pursued by the prince of darkness. The devil and the demons of hell know that we are the people the LORD formed for Himself and chose to be His own; they know how much the LORD loves us… and they hate us for it. Our antagonist is not an all-powerful enemy, but it is more powerful than the likes of us. The devil and the demons are fallen angels and as such they possess abilities far superior to our own. As scripture so painfully points out, they are the lions; we are the sheep. They are a skilled and seasoned horde. They have spent thousands of years watching us; they study our weaknesses and know precisely which tactics to use to break through our defenses, and, once through, the destruction they cause is at best devastating, at worst damning.
The obstacle we needed to overcome to escape the devil and his demons is not something as swimmable as a Sea; the obstacle before us was sin. There are some who do not wish to see sin as an obstacle. They wish to see sin as a condition that can be treated with pious works and acts of penance. They want to believe sin is something that can be managed by the likes of us so that they are not forced to depend on anyone but themselves. But that is not how the LORD sees sin. Through the prophet the LORD describes sins as the great separator; it is a “desert”, it is a “wasteland” we cannot cross. Later, in chapter 59 the prophet writes, “2 your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” A 200-mile wide 10,000-foot-deep sea is nothing compared to the obstacle that was before us. Sin is the ultimate impassable obstacle.
We were pursued by a powerful enemy, and we faced an impassable obstacle. Thankfully, like the Israelites we have a hero Who has delivered us. His name is still not Moses, it is the Messiah. The prophet tells us our hero “springs up”. He is the one who grew up like a “tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground”[2] before the LORD; He is the “shoot Who came up from the stump of Jesse”[3], the promised Savior from the house and line of David. The prophet calls our hero “a way in the desert”. Shortly before He stretched out His arms on the cross Jesus told His disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”[4] The prophet calls our hero a “stream in the wasteland”. Jesus once offered to give a spiritually dehydrated Samaritan woman, living water. He told her “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”[5] Jesus is the hero the Isaiah prophesied about. Jesus is the one who defeated our enemy the devil and overcame the obstacle of our sin. I do not mean to suggest it was easy. Humanly speaking what Jesus endured at the hands of both priests and Pilate was anything but easy. What Jesus suffered on the cross; being forsaken by God, was an agony beyond compare. However, I cannot help but appreciate the poetry of His victory. With a breath the LORD destroyed Pharaoh and the Egyptian army, with a breath the LORD provided passage for His people through the Sea. With a breath, His last breath, Jesus defeated the devil and his demons. With a breath, his last breath, Jesus provided passage for His people through sin.
Today the Prophet Isaiah invites us to “re-watch” two episodes where the LORD delivers His people from a powerful enemy. And though the original episode was amazing, I think we can all agree the sequel was better. In verses 20-21 the LORD tells us what effect He hopes the sequel has on the audience. There the LORD says, “20 The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.” When the Israelites were safely on the other side of the Red Sea and headed toward the promised land, they proclaimed the LORD’s praise. Moses sang a song, the women played tambourines, and the people danced. Can you think of any reason why our reaction should be less than theirs? I can’t. Through Jesus, the LORD has provided us safe passage through sin. Because of Jesus we are headed toward The Promised Land. We have more reason than anyone to proclaim His praise.
The deliverance the LORD provided His people in Egypt was amazing, but it was nothing compared to the deliverance He has provided for you and for me. Therefore, let us be happy to go to the house of the LORD, let us celebrate our salvation, let us live our lives in gratitude to God. Let us proclaim His praise. Amen.
[1] Psalm 122:1
[2] Isaiah 53:2
[3] Isaiah 11:1
[4] John 14:6
[5] John 4:14