Pastor Sean leads us through the Exodus story and explains how God's power is not displayed by delivering us to comfort, but delivering us through challenge.
Live Teaching Podcast
Scriptures & References
Exodus: 5: 1-3
Exodus 13:1 7-18
Exodus 14: 4-14
Exodus 15: 1-5, 19-20
“The passage can be read two ways. The first is that what happened was a suspension of the laws of nature. It was a supernatural event. The waters stood, literally, like a wall.
The second is that what happened was miraculous not because the laws of nature were suspended. To the contrary, as the computer simulation shows, the exposure of dry land at a particular point in the Red Sea was a natural outcome of the strong east wind. What made it miraculous is that it happened just there, just then, when the Israelites seemed trapped, unable to go forward because of the sea, unable to turn back because of the Egyptian army pursuing them.
There is a significant difference between these two interpretations. The first appeals to our sense of wonder. How extraordinary that the laws of nature should be suspended to allow an escaping people to go free. It is a story to appeal to the imagination of a child. But the naturalistic explanation is wondrous at another level entirely. Here the Torah is using the device of irony. What made the Egyptians of the time of Ramses so formidable was the fact that they possessed the latest and most powerful form of military technology, the horse drawn chariot. It made them unbeatable in battle, and fearsome.
What happens at the sea is poetic justice of the most exquisite kind. There is only one circumstance in which a group of people traveling by foot can escape a highly trained army of charioteers, namely when the route passes through a muddy sea bed. The people can walk across, but the chariot wheels get stuck in the mud. The Egyptian army can neither advance nor retreat. The wind drops. The water returns. The powerful are now powerless, while the powerless have made their way to freedom.”
— Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation
Reflection
“God is going to lead you, he’s not going to force you,” suggests Pastor Sean. Is there a particular place in your life and story where this hits closely for you? Whether facing a critical decision or crossroads, do you trust that God is waiting for you on the other side of it?
Practice bringing your tambourine along with you in the coming days, with an attentiveness to name and give thanks for God’s blessing and presence as you witness and experience it.
