what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day; what He did to the army of EgyptThis phrase recalls the mighty acts of God against the Egyptians, emphasizing His power and justice. The Hebrew word for "army" (חַיִל, chayil) often denotes strength and valor, yet here it underscores the futility of human might against divine intervention. Historically, Egypt was a superpower, and their army was formidable. This serves as a reminder of God's supremacy over earthly powers. to their horses and chariots
Horses and chariots were symbols of military strength and technological advancement in ancient times. The Hebrew word for "chariots" (רֶכֶב, rekeb) signifies not just the vehicle but the entire military apparatus. This highlights the totality of God's victory over Egypt's best resources, reinforcing the theme that reliance on God surpasses reliance on human strength. when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them
The miraculous parting and subsequent closing of the Red Sea is a pivotal event in Israel's history. The Hebrew term for "engulf" (כָּסָה, kasah) conveys a sense of overwhelming and complete coverage, illustrating God's control over nature. Archaeological studies have sought to locate the exact crossing point, but the emphasis here is on the divine act rather than geographical specifics. as they pursued you
This phrase underscores the relentless pursuit by the Egyptians, driven by Pharaoh's hardened heart. The pursuit (רָדַף, radaph) is not just physical but also spiritual, representing the ongoing struggle between God's people and their oppressors. It serves as a metaphor for the spiritual battles believers face, with assurance of God's deliverance. and how He annihilated them completely
The word "annihilated" (שָׁמַד, shamad) indicates total destruction, leaving no trace of the enemy. This complete victory is a testament to God's promise to protect and deliver His people. It also serves as a foreshadowing of the ultimate victory over sin and death through Christ. even to this day
This phrase emphasizes the enduring nature of God's acts and their impact on Israel's identity. The historical memory of God's deliverance is meant to inspire faithfulness and obedience. It serves as a reminder that God's past faithfulness is a guarantee of His future promises, encouraging believers to trust in His unchanging nature. Persons / Places / Events 1. The LORD (Yahweh)The covenant God of Israel, who demonstrates His power and faithfulness by delivering His people. 2. The Egyptian ArmyRepresents the oppressive force against the Israelites, showcasing the might of Egypt and its reliance on military strength. 3. The Red SeaThe site of a miraculous event where God parted the waters to deliver Israel and then used the same waters to destroy the Egyptian army. 4. Moses and the IsraelitesThe recipients of God's deliverance, led by Moses, who witnessed God's power and protection firsthand. 5. The PursuitThe event where the Egyptian army chased the Israelites, leading to their ultimate destruction by God's intervention. Teaching Points God's Sovereignty and PowerGod is in control of all events and can use His creation to accomplish His purposes. The parting and closing of the Red Sea demonstrate His supreme power over nature and nations. Deliverance and JudgmentGod's deliverance of His people often involves judgment on their oppressors. The destruction of the Egyptian army serves as a reminder of God's justice and protection for His covenant people. Faith and ObedienceThe Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea required faith and obedience to God's command. Believers today are called to trust and obey God, even when circumstances seem insurmountable. Remembrance and GratitudeRemembering God's past acts of deliverance encourages faith and gratitude. Reflecting on how God has worked in history and in our lives strengthens our trust in His ongoing faithfulness. God's Faithfulness to His PromisesThe event at the Red Sea is a testament to God's faithfulness in fulfilling His promises to His people. Believers can be assured that God will remain faithful to His promises today. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the account of the Red Sea crossing in Deuteronomy 11:4 demonstrate God's power and sovereignty? 2. In what ways can we see God's deliverance and judgment at work in our own lives today? 3. How can the faith and obedience of the Israelites in crossing the Red Sea inspire us in our current challenges? 4. What are some practical ways we can remember and express gratitude for God's past deliverances in our lives? 5. How does understanding God's faithfulness in the past help us trust Him with our future? Connections to Other Scriptures Exodus 14Provides the detailed account of the crossing of the Red Sea, highlighting God's miraculous intervention and the destruction of the Egyptian army. Psalm 136:13-15Celebrates God's enduring love and recounts His deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea, emphasizing His power and faithfulness. Hebrews 11:29Reflects on the faith of the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea, contrasting it with the fate of the Egyptians who drowned. People Abiram, Canaanites, Dathan, Eliab, Moses, Pharaoh, ReubenPlaces Arabah, Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gilgal, Jordan River, Lebanon, Moreh, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, Red SeaTopics Army, Caused, Chariot, Chariots, Completely, Destroyed, Destroyeth, Egypt, Egypt's, Engulf, Faces, Flow, Force, Horses, Lasting, Overflow, Overwhelmed, Pursued, Pursuing, Red, Ruin, War-carriages, WatersDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 11:4 4657 horse
5252 chariots Deuteronomy 11:2-7 5854 experience, of God
8231 discipline, divine Library Canaan on Earth
Many of you, my dear hearers, are really come out of Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the wilderness. "We that have believed do enter into rest;" but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so believed on him as to have entered into the Canaan of rest. You are the Lord's people, but you have not come into the Canaan of assured faith, confidence, and hope, where we wrestle no longer with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus--when …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856The God of the Rain
(Fifth Sunday after Easter.) DEUT. xi. 11, 12. The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. I told you, when I spoke of the earthquakes of the Holy Land, that it seems as if God had meant specially to train that strange people the Jews, by putting them into a country where they …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch Gilgal, in Deuteronomy 11:30 what the Place Was.
That which is said by Moses, that "Gerizim and Ebal were over-against Gilgal," Deuteronomy 11:30, is so obscure, that it is rendered into contrary significations by interpreters. Some take it in that sense, as if it were near to Gilgal: some far off from Gilgal: the Targumists read, "before Gilgal": while, as I think, they do not touch the difficulty; which lies not so much in the signification of the word Mul, as in the ambiguity of the word Gilgal. These do all seem to understand that Gilgal which …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life In the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius Cæsar and under the Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas - a Voice in the Wilderness
THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affords presumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Worship of the Synagogue
One of the most difficult questions in Jewish history is that connected with the existence of a synagogue within the Temple. That such a "synagogue" existed, and that its meeting-place was in "the hall of hewn stones," at the south-eastern angle of the court of the priest, cannot be called in question, in face of the clear testimony of contemporary witnesses. Considering that "the hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and that not only legal decisions, but lectures …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Among the People, and with the Pharisees
It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most influential, the most zealous, and the most closely-connected religions …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Deuteronomy 11:4 NIVDeuteronomy 11:4 NLTDeuteronomy 11:4 ESVDeuteronomy 11:4 NASBDeuteronomy 11:4 KJV
Deuteronomy 11:4 Commentaries
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