John 11:1-6, 17-26, 38-44; Hebrews 11:24-29; Exodus 14:9-31; 15:1-18 (abridged); Revelation 7: 10-12; 15:2-4; 21:1-5
After checking my study Bibles, Bible atlases, Bible dictionaries, Bible commentaries, and some Internet sites, I concluded that Moses could have saved a lot of time for modern scholars if he had included with his draft of the First Five Books an authentic map identifying the places that the Israelites stopped on their journey from Egyptian slavery across the Sea through the Sinai wilderness to the Promised Land. In short, the routes marked on your Bible maps are highly debated guesses.
Today, we will leave aside the geographical speculations about whether they crossed the marshes and that day’s equivalent of the Suez Canal north of what we would today call the Red Sea, or toward the north end proper of the Red Sea’s Gulf of Suez or much farther east near the south end of the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba. Instead, we will seek to understand the theology of our text, which is interesting, perhaps a bit surprising, and certainly instructive.
God does not always take the shortest, the quickest, the most comfortable, or the most obvious path through history, but often upends human expectations with what only God can do. Whenever we see God engaged in wondrous deeds of love, grace, justice, and power, our faith, strength, and gratitude grow so that we can live for the praise of his saving and transforming glory.
Israel’s shortest route from Egypt to Canaan would have been along the Mediterranean coast, but Egyptian forts lined the early part of this route, and the oversized Philistines were beginning to take over the latter part of this route. God explained to Moses, that he was not sending them this way, “lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” So the people were sent on a longer, more round-about path through inhospitable wilderness where they could be sustained by God alone.
Perhaps Israel could have escaped speedily away into that bleak wilderness, but that did not fit God’s plans. Despite ten plagues in which every one of the gods of Egypt had been revealed as defeated by the Lord, Egypt’s pharaoh did not yet grasp how utterly powerless he was against the Lord. The Lord wanted one more chance to make it clear to that hard-headed, hard-hearted tyrant.
Wherever we imagine their crossing point to be, Israel apparently had a clear shot of getting away, but the Lord had them turn back and place themselves in a narrow place with the Sea between them and their escape path, where they could be trapped by Pharaoh’s army. The Lord explained, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”
When else has something like this happened? Jesus’ good friends Mary and Martha of Bethany sent word to Jesus that his dear friend and their beloved brother Lazarus was deathly ill and that he should come quickly and save Lazarus. Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus’ illness was for the glory of God, so that the Son of God could be glorified through it. Jesus then delayed his departure to Bethany (sort of like God parking Israel in a trap for Pharaoh), and by the time Jesus had arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had died and been in the tomb four days, by which time it was assumed that Lazarus’ spirit had left his body, and it was too late to resuscitate him even if Jesus had been able to do so.
This presented Jesus with the opportunity to say to Martha, “Did I not tell you that, if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” to say for the sake of the bystanders, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me,” and to call out, “Lazarus, come out.” And Lazarus’ bound body came hopping out of the opened tomb, and glory exploded all over the place.
Mary and Martha of Bethany, not to mention Jesus’ disciples, and certainly not to mention Lazarus, now knew without question that Jesus was the resurrection and the life, and that he held the word that could overturn the one hard fact we commonly think most inevitable and irreversible, the fact of death. Had he come four days earlier or even two days earlier, they would not have--and we would not have--known quite so certainly the glory of God.
When else has something like this happened? When Jesus said to Peter, in effect, “You may already think that I am the Messiah and that you are ready to stand in your own strength as my disciple, but after my arrest, trial, beating, and crucifixion—during which time you will deny me and run away—and after my resurrection, ascension, and your filling with the Holy Spirit, you will no longer merely think that I am the Messiah, but you will know that you know that you know that I am your Savior and your Lord, whom you will serve no matter what the cost.
Had the script gone the way Peter thought it should, Peter and his fellow disciples would not have—and we would not have--known so certainly who Jesus was.
God in his sovereignty over history is a great storyteller; history is His Story, and God knows that a good story must have obstacles and tensions to be overcome so that we can see clearly the joy of redemption. Indeed, I have heard the claim that every truly good story is simply either a pre-telling or a re-telling in disguise of the story of the crucifixion, resurrection, and redeeming work of Jesus Christ. I tend to believe that claim, and I don’t much enjoy other sorts of stories.
The crossing of the Red Sea and the raising of Lazarus are pre-tellings. Our rescues from sin and unbelief are re-tellings. All truly good stories have dramatic tension--or perhaps comedic tension, which amounts to the same thing--and lead to the glory of God.
Back to the Red Sea. So God set up over 600,000 Israelite men of fighting age--along with their wives, their children, their elderly, their fellow travelers, at minimum totaling 2 ½ million—set them up like bait in a trap to lure Pharaoh into an educative defeat. It would turn out for Israel’s good, but, with Pharaoh’s chariots descending on them, it certainly did not look like it. There were the Pharaoh’s select six hundred chariots, but all the multitudinous chariots of Egypt were also there, all under command of Pharaoh’s officers.
The Israelites began to complain to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die?”
Moses answered, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
The Lord told Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the Sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will get the glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.”
The angel of God moved behind Israel, and the pillar of cloud with him so that there was darkness with much lightning separating the Egyptians from Israel. When Moses stretched out his hand a supernatural wind separated the waters and dried the ground beneath so that by morning, when the angel and the cloud moved around ahead of them to lead them, Israel could walk on the sea floor.
Egypt pursued, but their chariot wheels clogged, and they panicked. When Israel reached the opposite side, Moses stretched out his hand again, and the waters came back over the mired Egyptian army, destroying it totally.
Moses and the people of Israel sang of the Lord’s triumph. Here are some excerpts from the Song of Moses: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him…. 11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. 13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode…. 18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
That song is but a pre-telling of another song, sung along another Sea, the figurative Sea, separating earth and heaven. Skipping from Exodus 15 to Revelation 15, we will read from John’s vision, but first an anticipation from Revelation 7, in which a great and countless multitude from every language and tongue and nation, those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, which is to say that they have repented of their sins and received Christ’s gracious gift of righteousness, who have come through the great tribulation, are shouting, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Notice that there were shouting that. And some of you were hoping that heaven was going to be quiet and dignified.
Now on to Revelation 15, where they move from shouting to singing: 2 And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. 3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! 4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
At this point, with the saints having crossed the sea separating heaven and earth, there is still one more transformation to be celebrated. Our ultimate goal is not merely heaven, but a new heaven and a new earth, where God’s purposes for all creation will be fully realized. By Revelation 21, John has envisioned that future, when the separating sea is no more. That does not mean that there will not be oceans, for God created them for good. It means that there will be no more separation between the spiritual realm and the material realm, for evil will have been destroyed, and God will have taken up permanent residence among his perfected people. There ought to be some pretty good shouting and singing then and there.
Today, we are not yet at that future, but there is still good news to be recognized, and shared, and celebrated. In this season, our minds are on our faith in the Lord of resurrection, a faith that enables us to claim the good news of the cross, indeed, that enables us to pick up the cross and to follow Jesus, letting the glory of the cross shine from our redeemed lives. Moses did not know the details of that still coming story, but he anticipated it. He was not perfect. He made mistakes. But he kept orienting toward the promises of God in all their fullness.
Even though his wavering obedience caused him to be excluded from the Promised Land, he gave his last words in Deuteronomy toward preparing the people he had guided to enter into that land, and when, centuries later, Jesus wanted to assure Peter, James, and John that the way of the cross was the way to redeeming glory, Moses joined Elijah in returning to offer such assurance. Understood within the flow of the whole Bible, Moses’ life--first on earth and then in eternal life--pointed to the glory of the cross, and of the resurrection, and of the new heaven and new earth. May our lives do the same.
But, if we want to glorify God, we will when asked have to obediently place ourselves in risky positions where what only God can do is our only hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment