Caleb Walker

Title: Power Revealed

Text: Exodus 14:19-31

Memory Verse: Exodus 14:13, ““And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.”

Theme: God displays His power.

Opening Discussion Question: Has there ever been a movie or a movie scene that’s special effects impressed you?

Summary: God’s power enabled Israel to successfully depart Egypt, defeat Egypt through the watery walls that collapsed on Egypt, and in this God displayed His power to Israel that filled them with reverential awe.

1. The Escape (The Departure by God’s Power) (vv. 19-22)

“¹⁹ Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night^[a] without one coming near the other all night. ²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. ²² And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.”

Discussion: When have you seen God make a way when it seemed there was no way?

II. The Defeat (The Defeat by God’s Power) (vv. 23-28)

“²³ The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. ²⁴ And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, ²⁵ clogging^[b] their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.’ ²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.’ ²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw^[c] the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. ²⁸ The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.” 

Discussion: How does it influence our faith to know that God is always in control?

III. The Powerful One (The Display of God’s Power) (vv. 29-31)

“²⁹ But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. ³⁰ Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. ³¹ Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.”

Gospel:

Doctrine: God

“God is all powerful and all knowing” (p. 64, Leader Guide).

Jeremiah 23:27, “who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?”

Matthew 19:26, “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”

Closing Discussion Questions: In what ways has your faith been strengthened because of seeing God’s power? Why is praise the natural response when we have seen God work in a meaningful way?