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| Subject: 11 MOSES A THE RED SEA |
MOSES A THE RED SEA
From the history of the Jewish people by Flavious Josephus. This is the account of Moses at the Red Sea when the Israelites were ready to stone Moses for making them so vulnerable to the trap that Alexander and his Egyptian army had set for them, trapping them at the sea shore, surrounded by mountains. First comes his speech to the Israelites and then follows his prayer to God.
When (Moses) was in the midst of them, he said, "It is not just of us to distrust even men, when they have hitherto well managed our affairs, as if they would not be the same men hereafter; but it is no better than madness, at this time, to despair of the providence of God, by whose power all those things have been performed which He promised, when you expected no such things: I mean all that we have been concerned in for our deliverance and escape from slavery. Nay, when we are in the utmost distress, as you see we are, we ought rather to hope that God will succor us, by whose operation it is that we are now encompassed within this narrow place, that He my deliver us out of such difficulties as are otherwise insurmountable, and out of which neither you nor your enemies expect you can be delivered, and may at once demonstrate His own power and His providence over us. Nor does God use to give His help in small difficulties to those whom He favors, but in such cases where no one can see how any hope in man can better their condition. Depend, therefore, upon such a Protector as is able to make small things great, and to show that this mighty force against you is nothing but weakness, and be not affrighted at the Egyptian army, nor do you despair of being preserved, because the sea before, and the mountains behind, afford you no opportunity for flying, for even these mountains, if God so please, may be made plain ground for you, and the sea become dry land."
But when Moses was come to the sea-shore, he took his rod and made supplication to God, and called upon Him to be their helper and assistant; and said, "Thou art not ignorant, 0 Lord, that is beyond human strength and human contrivance to avoid the difficulties we are now under; but it must be Thy work altogether to procure deliverance to this army, which has left Egypt at Thy appointment. We despair of any other assistance or contrivance and have recourse only to that hope we have in Thee; and if there be any method that can promise us an escape by Thy providence, we look up to Thee for it. And let it come quickly, and manifest Thy power to us; and do Thou raise up this people unto good courage and hope of deliverance, who are deeply sunk into a disconsolate state of mind. We are in a helpless place, but still it is a place that Thou possessest; still the sea is Thine, the mountains also that enclose us are Thine; so that these mountains will open themselves if Thou commandest them, and the sea also, if Thou commandest it, will become dry land. Nay, we might escape by a flight through the air, if Thou shouldst determine we should have that way of salvation."
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