In order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not be willing to allow the Israelites to go out into the wilderness to offer sacrifices and worship to their God. Moses had originally only requested a couple of days that they would go out to have a festival, but that refusal to allow them to do it subsequently brought the Israelites out of Egypt as Pharaoh would eventually tell the Israelites to leave.

This was all part of God’s plan, of course. God’s intent was that the Israelites would not only leave Egypt, but this would be used for an even greater purpose: that God would be known and glorified throughout the earth.

For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Romans 9:17

This is exactly what happened. The story of God destroying the Egyptians, the story of God parting the Red Sea, the story of God saving his people out of Egypt came to be known far and wide. God had saved his people, the Israelites, out of slavery in Egypt, to be set free, having destroyed one of the most dominant countries in the process. That story, of course, is one that would get out. This story had to be told, and it was destined to speak not only of the Israelites, but primarily of their God, the God that they followed and served. It was God’s power that led them and it would be God’s power of which the people all over the face of the earth would speak, both immediately and for centuries to come.

When the Israelites arrived in the promised land, the land of Canaan, the people knew that these were the same people who had been brought out of Egypt 40 years before. They knew that these were the same people who had destroyed some other cities on their way to cross the Jordan River. They knew that they these people were coming for them.

It is ironic, of course, because 40 years prior, the Israelites had cowered in fear, saying that they considered themselves to be like “grasshoppers” in their own eyes as they compared themselves to the people in Canaan.

The Canaanites understood what the Israelites seemingly did not understand, though. They understood that it wasn’t the power of the Israelites that made them powerful. No, it was God’s power as the God of the Israelites that allowed the Israelites to do what they had been doing. God himself was their source of strength. Not themselves. God.

So as the Canaanites saw the Israelites coming, their hearts melted. They were afraid. They were terrified, in fact. Of course the Israelites didn’t understand that, but once they arrived to Jericho and spoke with Rahab, they understood:

I know that the LORD has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

Joshua 2:8-11

Rahab isn’t talking about the Israelites, necessarily. Yes, the Israelites were the ones who escaped Egypt. They also had the armies that destroyed Sihon and Og. But Rahab is talking about God. He is the God of heaven above and earth below. He is the God who dried up the water of the Red Sea. He is the God who did all of these things for the Israelites. Without him, the Israelites would be able to do nothing. But with him, they were unstoppable.

God does all that he does so that he will be glorified. God does everything to glorify himself. There is nothing greater than God and for him to lift up and glorify anyone or anything else would simply be idolatry, but God’s intent is that he would be glorified, both by his own people and throughout the whole earth.

That is his same intent and same plan even today. We have been made to glorify God. Our plans, our movements, our work, our play…everything that we do should be aimed at glorifying God. That is the reason that he made us and that should be the reason that we live.

That is what happened as God led the Israelites out of Egypt. God was made known everywhere and was glorified as the God of the universe, the king and ruler over all things. That fact may have, at times, been forgotten, or possibly was denied along the way, but it has been known and is still known today. This is the God that we serve. The same God that led the Israelites. The same God that Rahab and all of the Canaanites instinctively knew about having seen what God had done through the Israelites, and this is the same God that we serve today.