PROTECTION THROUGH WORSHIPING THE TRUE GOD

22. What question on ability of the true God to protect his worshipers arises, and how did the handling of the fourth plague answer this?

²² Is there any protection possible through worshiping the true God, even this God with the unliked name? The way in which the fourth plague upon Egypt was maneuvered answered this question in a positive way. Listen to the historic record, in Exodus 8:20-24:

23. What was Moses told to say in announcing the fourth plague, and with what outworking?

²³ “Then Jehovah said to Moses: ‘Get up early in the morning and take a position in front of Pharaoh. Look! He is coming out to the water! And you must say to him, “This is what Jehovah has said: ‘Send my people away that they may serve me. But if you are not sending my people away, here I am sending upon you and your servants and your people and into your houses the gadfly; and the houses of Egypt will simply be full of the gadfly, and also the ground upon which they are. And on that day I shall certainly make the land of Goshen upon which my people are standing distinct, that no gadfly may exist there; in order that you may know that I am Jehovah in the midst of the earth. And I shall indeed set a demarcation between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will take place.’”’ And Jehovah proceeded to do so; and heavy swarms of gadflies began to invade the house of Pharaoh and the houses of his servants and all the land of Egypt. The land came to ruin as a result of the gadflies.”

24. From then on, on what two counts was Pharaoh made to know that God is Jehovah, and after what experience did Pharaoh let Jehovah’s people go?

²⁴ Thus hardhearted Pharaoh was further made to know that the true God is Jehovah on two counts, by the plague of gadflies itself, which also could be said to be “the finger of God,” and by the miraculous separating of Jehovah’s people, the Israelites, and protecting them from the plague of gadflies. If Pharaoh had sent to the land of Goshen, he would have found this to be so, just as he did in connection with the very next plague, which struck all sorts of livestock of the Egyptians with pestilence so that they died. Concerning Pharaoh’s checkup as to whether Jehovah had really made a distinction between the livestock of the Israelites and the livestock of the Egyptians, we read: “Then Pharaoh sent, and, look! not so much as one of Israel’s livestock had died.” (Exodus 9:7) But even this was not enough knowledge of Jehovah for unteachable Pharaoh. It was only after the tenth and last plague had killed off his firstborn son and the firstborn sons of all his Egyptian subjects that he relented enough to let Jehovah’s people go. It was his own fault that he learned to know Jehovah in only the hard way for Egypt.

25. Thereafter God declared to Moses that he would get further glory for himself by means of Pharaoh how, and so the Egyptians would certainly know what?

²⁵ Despite all of this, the God of miracles was not through with forcing Pharaoh and his subjects to know that he is Jehovah. Some days after the departure of the Israelites with all their firstborn of man and livestock with them, they encamped by the Red Sea, on its western bank, near the head of the Gulf of Suez, and “in view of Baal-zephon (“Lord of the North, or, of the Watchtower”).” Near this geographical spot Jehovah purposed to make himself known still more to his enemies. It was just as Jehovah said to Moses: “Then Pharaoh will certainly say respecting the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering in confusion in the land. The wilderness has closed in upon them.’ So I shall indeed let Pharaoh’s heart become obstinate, and he will certainly chase after them and I shall get glory for myself by means of Pharaoh and all his military forces; and the Egyptians will certainly know that I am Jehovah.”—Exodus 14:1-4.

26. How had Jehovah now determined to settle accounts with the Egyptians, and what did he tell Moses was the purpose of this?

²⁶ Really, then, it was not the Israelites that were trapped at the Red Sea with the Egyptian military forces fast bearing down upon them, but it was the Egyptians themselves that fell into a trap for their destruction. By this there was one final lesson that was to be given to the Egyptians in knowing Jehovah. This would settle his accounts with them. When Jehovah now told Moses that he would open up a corridor through the bed of the Red Sea for the Israelites to go forward to the eastern bank and to deliverance, he disclosed to Moses the purpose of this, saying: “As for me, here I am letting the hearts of the Egyptians become obstinate, that they may go in after them and that I may get glory for myself by means of Pharaoh and all his military forces, his war chariots and his cavalrymen. And the Egyptians will certainly know that I am Jehovah when I get glory for myself by means of Pharaoh, his war chariots and his cavalrymen.”—Exodus 14:15-18.

27. At what plight of theirs did the Egyptian forces finally make acknowledgment of God by name, but how timelily?

²⁷ That night, under the light of the Passover moon, the hundreds of thousands of Israelites passed across the bed of the Red Sea with the miraculously parted waters of it on each side of them. Toward morning Jehovah permitted the Egyptian military forces to enter the dried seabed in pursuit of the Israelites. When the God of Israel began to hamper the progress of their pursuers, the Egyptian military forces sensed danger and began to feel that they were fighting against Jehovah. At last making an acknowledgment of Him by name, they said to one another: “Let us flee from any contact with Israel, because Jehovah certainly fights for them against the Egyptians.” But it was too late to flee, for Jehovah sprang the trap upon them. We read:

28. On that day how did Jehovah save Israel from the hand of the Egyptians?

²⁸ “All the while the Egyptians were fleeing from encountering it [the sea], but Jehovah shook the Egyptians off into the midst of the sea. And the waters kept coming back. Finally they covered the war chariots and the cavalrymen belonging to all of Pharaoh’s military forces and who had gone into the sea after them. Not so much as one among them was let remain. As for the sons of Israel, they walked on dry land in the midst of the seabed, and the waters were for them a wall on their right hand and on their left. Thus on that day Jehovah saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel got to see the Egyptians dead on the seashore.”—Exodus 14:21-30.

Chapter 2

His Own People Had to Know Who He Is

1. At the disaster for the Egyptians and the triumph for their former slaves, what did each nation respectively come to know?

TRULY Egypt must have taken a slump as the leading military power of that ancient day. When the news of this disaster reached the Egyptians who had been left back home, they should have known at last that the God of their former slaves was Jehovah, the one living and true God. As for the liberated Israelites, at this triumphant hour they were able to appreciate what their God had said to Moses concerning them: “I shall certainly take you to me as a people, and I shall indeed prove to be God to you; and you will certainly know that I am Jehovah your God who is bringing you out from under the burdens of Egypt.” (Exodus 6:7) Now they could appreciate God’s name as even their forefathers had never been able to appreciate it, just as he had also said to Moses: “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. But I did not let myself be known to them by my name JEHOVAH.”—Exodus 6:2, 3, New English Bible of 1970.