Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Dead Egyptians

Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 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.

Exodus 14:30-31

Egyptians drown

The same Red Sea that God parted to let Israel escape the sword of Pharaoh’s army became the means of destroying that army. The Jews walked across the dry land, yet the chariots of Pharaoh were mired in mud. When they realized what was happening, they could not turn around fast enough to escape their judgment. The walls of water fell in on the Egyptians and they drowned.

Egypt has been a source of pain and fear for Israel. These people had only known slavery there… as had their grandparents, and even earlier generations. To walk along the shore and see the bodies of dead soldiers, their former slave-masters, made their deliverance very real. It started to sink in, and the result was worship. They feared and believed God and his servant Moses.

God wants to deliver His people. He is in the saving business. And that principle extends to the things that enslave us today. I know that people struggle with the past, whether it is an abuse that they suffered, or a personal failure that seems to define them, the past can be a cruel master. And God wants to wash away that past in a flood of forgiveness letting us cross over to a land where we see our dead Egyptians for what they are: past controllers that now have no power over us. Praise the Lord that He delivers in just this way!

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