Beyond the Sea: Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29 - Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
 |
| Photo by Behzad Azandaryan Malayeri on Unsplash |
You’re at the doctor’s office for your annual physical. They draw some blood, do some routine tests, hook you up to some machines… About a week later, the doctor calls you back to the office, and the news is not good. You are at high risk for a fatal stroke or heart attack. But you can eliminate that risk completely throughout positive lifestyle change: eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and reducing stress.
So, what will you do? You don’t want to end up in an early grave. But you say to yourself, I don’t have time to exercise. Kale is disgusting! How can I reduce stress if I can’t hypnotize my boss into doubling my pay and acting like a decent human being?
Statistics show that nine out of every ten persons will not change their lifestyle to save their lives. It’s not as though they have a death wish. They may try change, but they will ultimately return to their old habits—and suffer the consequences.
Why is it so hard for people to change their behavior, even when your life depends on it? Why are we so resistant to change?
Take the ancient Israelites in our sermon text for today. For 400 years, they had been brutally enslaved in Egypt. Yet God hears their cries. God raises up Moses to confront Pharoah and demand their release. But Pharoah refuses. So, God ravages the Egyptians with plagues, but still he won’t let them go. God then sends the final plague: the death of the firstborn. But God “passes over” the homes of the Israelites, sparing their firstborn. By now, the Egyptians are so terrified that they sent the Israelites away with all kinds of treasures, just to make all the death and chaos stop.
Unfortunately, Pharoah changes his mind about letting the Israelites go. Like any politician, he’s not about to allow his massive slave labor force to walk away and devastate the economy. He sets out with his army in pursuit, and now, the Israelites are trapped with the Egyptians behind them—and the mighty Red Sea before them. The people panic, and immediately they turn against Moses. “Why didn’t you leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? It would’ve been better for us to die as slaves than die here.”
This will be their cry for the next 40 years as they wander through the Sinai desert, where food and water are scarce. They will even become nostalgic about their four centuries of slavery, as if those were “the good old days.” They weren’t—but at least they knew what they were getting.
Even though they’d witnessed the mighty acts of God, their fear made them to forget what God had done for them—and what God had promised them.
It was impossible for them to see the Promised Land with the Red Sea and the Sinai desert in front of them. It takes faith to keep going when things keep going wrong. It takes faith to see beyond today’s threats to tomorrow’s possibilities. It takes faith to believe that tomorrow can be better than today.
Before you can set out towards the promised land, you must let go of the things that enslaved you to the gods of comfort, control, status, or success. There’s a Red Sea of impossibilities you must cross, and a desert of uncertainty you must journey through before you can get to the promised land.
How do you know God is faithful? How do you know God keeps promises? You remember what God has done in the past. You look for signs of what God is doing in the present. God’s past faithfulness and God’s present graces are what inspire us to a more hopeful vision of the future. You will invest yourself in that future, pyou will bear the costs, and you will face the dangers, when you believe God has something better in store.
You won’t hesitate to change when you believe the change is for the sake of something better.
With God’s guidance, you can make it across the Red Sea; you can not only survive but also thrive in the desert; you can face the dangers and the demons because you have a God who fights for you. You learn to trust God not in the absence of struggles, but amid struggles. You learn to trust God when everything in your life is uncertain, except for God. God will take you to where you need to be, and God will give you whatever you will need in order to get you there.
You can be healed of your wounds; you can leave behind your failures; you can be reborn a new creation. In God’s future, a more purposeful life awaits you. There are people who need your spiritual gifts. God has so many good things for you to give and receive.
The blood of Christ has set you free from slavery to sin and death. It’s time to make our way to the Promised Land, which lies just beyond the sea. And best of all, we get to make this journey together.
Statistics show that nine out of every ten persons will not change their lifestyle to save their lives. It’s not as though they have a death wish. They may try change, but they will ultimately return to their old habits—and suffer the consequences.
Why is it so hard for people to change their behavior, even when your life depends on it? Why are we so resistant to change?
Take the ancient Israelites in our sermon text for today. For 400 years, they had been brutally enslaved in Egypt. Yet God hears their cries. God raises up Moses to confront Pharoah and demand their release. But Pharoah refuses. So, God ravages the Egyptians with plagues, but still he won’t let them go. God then sends the final plague: the death of the firstborn. But God “passes over” the homes of the Israelites, sparing their firstborn. By now, the Egyptians are so terrified that they sent the Israelites away with all kinds of treasures, just to make all the death and chaos stop.
Unfortunately, Pharoah changes his mind about letting the Israelites go. Like any politician, he’s not about to allow his massive slave labor force to walk away and devastate the economy. He sets out with his army in pursuit, and now, the Israelites are trapped with the Egyptians behind them—and the mighty Red Sea before them. The people panic, and immediately they turn against Moses. “Why didn’t you leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? It would’ve been better for us to die as slaves than die here.”
This will be their cry for the next 40 years as they wander through the Sinai desert, where food and water are scarce. They will even become nostalgic about their four centuries of slavery, as if those were “the good old days.” They weren’t—but at least they knew what they were getting.
Even though they’d witnessed the mighty acts of God, their fear made them to forget what God had done for them—and what God had promised them.
It was impossible for them to see the Promised Land with the Red Sea and the Sinai desert in front of them. It takes faith to keep going when things keep going wrong. It takes faith to see beyond today’s threats to tomorrow’s possibilities. It takes faith to believe that tomorrow can be better than today.
Before you can set out towards the promised land, you must let go of the things that enslaved you to the gods of comfort, control, status, or success. There’s a Red Sea of impossibilities you must cross, and a desert of uncertainty you must journey through before you can get to the promised land.
How do you know God is faithful? How do you know God keeps promises? You remember what God has done in the past. You look for signs of what God is doing in the present. God’s past faithfulness and God’s present graces are what inspire us to a more hopeful vision of the future. You will invest yourself in that future, pyou will bear the costs, and you will face the dangers, when you believe God has something better in store.
You won’t hesitate to change when you believe the change is for the sake of something better.
With God’s guidance, you can make it across the Red Sea; you can not only survive but also thrive in the desert; you can face the dangers and the demons because you have a God who fights for you. You learn to trust God not in the absence of struggles, but amid struggles. You learn to trust God when everything in your life is uncertain, except for God. God will take you to where you need to be, and God will give you whatever you will need in order to get you there.
You can be healed of your wounds; you can leave behind your failures; you can be reborn a new creation. In God’s future, a more purposeful life awaits you. There are people who need your spiritual gifts. God has so many good things for you to give and receive.
The blood of Christ has set you free from slavery to sin and death. It’s time to make our way to the Promised Land, which lies just beyond the sea. And best of all, we get to make this journey together.
Comments
Post a Comment