What do you think Moses thought when he saw the waters being
rolled back at his outstretched arm?
That which had been their obstacle became their ally. I always think it isn’t surprising that God
dealt with the Red Sea because the rest of creation cooperates with Him rather
than hardening its heart against Him. It
was easier to part the sea than to change the hearts of Pharaoh and his
army. The last verse sounds like now
everything will change, “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.” So from now on they will
move ahead, trust the Lord and follow Moses as His anointed leader no matter
what. We are too fickle for that to be
the case aren’t we? What have you done
for me lately is more true.
Again we see Jesus making an extraordinary claim to equality
with the Father, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” I cannot say the same about my own father and
neither of my sons could say the same.
Jesus and the Father are one at a level we cannot begin to approximate
in this life. Jesus has no separate
identity from the Father and in the Revelation we see that the Father is made
known through the lamp that is the Lamb.
Can or does any other religious figure make such a claim? Jesus promises that those who believe in Him
will do even greater works than He has done and this through the agency of the
Holy Spirit and prayer. Loving Jesus is
evidenced by keeping His commandments and we are enabled to do so by the
presence of the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
The one-ness we have is not only in prayer but in the living of life and
as we live according to the Spirit we too reveal Him. Is that our goal?
We have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus from the dead. We have been
given the Spirit of true and eternal life as a pledge for our own resurrection
and the inheritance that is stored up for us.
The way to that inheritance is as straightforward as the path through
the Red Sea. In this life we will have
trials and difficulties yet we know that we will ultimately pass through these
trials to abundant and eternal life if we continue on the path that Jesus
blazed for us. We are called forward by
those who have already passed through to join them in glory everlasting and
this life in obedience to the commands of God is to be lived for Him.
We would not live by
bread alone,
But by Thy Word of grace,
In strength of which we travel on
To our abiding place.
But by Thy Word of grace,
In strength of which we travel on
To our abiding place.
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