|
|
July 13, 2008 - "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" - Rev. Vicky Ney
|
July 13, 2008 “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” The Rev. Vicky Ney
Text: Exodus 14:1-14,
The story of Moses and the people of Israel crossing the Red Sea is one of the great narratives of the Bible. For Jewish people, this is a defining moment in the history with their relationship with God. It’s included in this series of sermons because I am almost sure that if you went to Sunday School as a child, you heard it there. One little boy named Joey, who heard this story in Sunday school, looked a little shaken when he got home from church. His mom asked him what he learned that morning. He said, “Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind the enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. Then he used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.” His mother looked surprised, and finally said, “Is that really what your teacher taught you today?” Joey, said, “Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!”
Without a doubt this is a miraculous story!
The chapters preceding this story in Exodus introduce us to Moses (we actually looked at his birth two Sundays ago). At the time of his birth, Pharaoh was trying to kill all Hebrew male children. As you probably remember, Moses mother hid baby Moses and floated him down the Nile River in a basket so that Pharaoh’s daughter would find him. As it turns out, Pharaoh’s daughter adopts him and Moses is raised in the Pharaoh’s palace. At some point, Moses notices how terribly his fellow Israelites are being treated by the Egyptians. One day, Moses witnesses an Egyptian slave master beating a Hebrew. Moses loses his temper at the injustice, intervenes in the fight, and ends up killing the Egyptian. Now a wanted murderer, he flees for his life to the wilderness and lives there in obscurity for many years.
At the place where we begin today’s scripture reading, the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for about 400 years. As conditions worsened, the people cried out to God.
The Bible is very graphic and very clear about God’s response. Hebrew, as a language, can be a little obscure at times. But in this case the verbs are very clear. It says: God heard, God remembered, God saw, God knew—and so God went and got Moses out of hiding.
God calls to Moses from the burning bush and tells him to go to Pharaoh with the message “Let My People Go.” Moses thinks this is a very bad idea and comes up with a lot of excuses why he can’t possibly go back to Egypt. But God is persuasive and Moses agrees.
Of course, you remember, Pharaoh does not like this idea of his slaves going free so he refuses. God brings on 10 plagues—drinking water turned to blood, then gnats, frogs, flies, sick livestock, sores on people, hail storms, locusts, darkness and finally death to the firstborn child of every house that is not marked by the blood of a lamb—all of these things to convince Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery.
What is very interesting here, and the subject for another day, is that God is not only going to prove to Pharaoh that God is powerful; God is actually taking on, as it were, the deities of Egypt in “head to head” combat. In the end it is eminently clear that God is more powerful than any Egyptian deity and that Israel’s powerful God is working FOR the people—for Israel.
So….finally after Pharaoh’s son dies with the last plague, Pharaoh says “Enough! You can go” and the Israelites quickly take off for the desert. God himself is leading them—in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. I guess the people think the worst is over and it’s clear sailing, so to speak, from here on out.
But then Pharaoh thinks about the financial impact of losing his slaves (scholars tells us the Hebrews probably numbered about two million people) and decides to go after them with his soldiers. Imagine Pharaoh’s glee when he realizes that he has the slaves boxed in—his soldiers are at their backs, mountains on two sides of them, and the Red Sea in front of them.
The Bible even makes a big deal out of Pharaoh’s chariots and chariot drivers. In fact, they are mentioned 14 times in two chapters. At the literary level, the emphasis placed on Pharaoh’s powerful and sophisticated military machinery is to make sure we realize how defenseless the Hebrews are fleeing on foot. The writer here really wants to emphasize what a really impossible situation this is. The Israelites are literally and figuratively between a rock and a hard place.
At the edge of the Red Sea, the Israelites have nothing—no weapons to fight, no vessels, no ships, no boats, no canoes, not even a raft.
That’s when the grumbling and complaining started. With voices dripping with sarcasm they cried to Moses: “Was it because there were not enough graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die here in the wilderness?” (Ex. 14:11). The future looked impassible and the present seemed impossible. They saw insurmountable odds and lost their perspective.
Then God said, “There’s no way but me. Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you; you only need to be still.” (Almost sounds like Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”)
All the people had was the power and presence of the one Lord God. And that, of course, was more than enough.
Exodus tells us that “The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.” (Ex. 14:21-22). Quite a rescue! Walking on dry ground, walking through two walls of water.
But it gets better. All of those bright and shiny chariots—the tell-tale sign of the might of the Egyptians, were actually their undoing. Those shiny wheels got stuck in the mud. The mighty chariot drivers panicked. The once helpless Israelites watched as God flooded the entire army of Pharaoh with the waters of the Red Sea and wiped them out. Exodus winds up the story in verse 30 with: “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” Their worst nightmare never materialized and this enemy is gone forever.
We know the famous story of this crossing. And we give thanks that God was so wonderful and powerful enough to save the lives of his chosen people.
But what happens when we come to a Red Sea in our own lives. When that sea is in front of us, we often become like those Hebrew people, groaning and complaining and looking for boats to start rowing ourselves.
I think we’ve all seen that sea stretching out before us just before the panic sets in.
We look at the sea when we’re faced with a serious illness, with all the fear and doctor’s appointments and exhaustion and pain.
We look at the sea when we look at a lost relationship, with feelings of regret and uncertainty and self-doubt.
We look at the sea when there’s a death of a loved one, with shock and anger and confusion and grief.
We look at the sea when we face financial fears with responsibilities and bills and bank statements staring at us.
We even look at the sea when we face brand new situations—new jobs, new schools, new places to live—with all of the unexpected challenges and responsibilities and CHANGE.
We feel the same fear those Israelites felt when they stood in front of the Red Sea.
Someone once gave a great definition of fear. They said: “Fear is false evidence appearing real.” In other words, fear is what we get when we take a physical inventory of the things going on around us and begin to doubt God’s ability to be and do all he says he can be and do. Fear is when we begin to have more faith in something overcoming us than in God’s ability to overcome ANYTHING—to have the final word. Fear is when we fail to realize that the God who brought us this far has not brought us here to leave us.
We’ve all had times when we reach situations in our lives that have our knees knocking, our hearts racing and the tears flowing. But regardless of the situation, regardless of how bad things look, when we’re between a rock and a hard place, our God says, “Stand still and let me fight the battle for you.” Our God says “Have courage. Don’t be afraid.” We’re reminded that God has not given us a spirit of fear but instead God has given us a spirit of power and love and strength and a sound mind.
I love how the Apostle Paul said it in the New Testament: “If God is for you, who can stand against you?” (Romans 8:31) The God who has given us everything—even his own Son—promises to be with us and keep us no matter what. All God asks is that we stay as close to him as he is to us, and that we trust him to be always at work for good in our lives.
We should recall that there is another famous sea story in the Bible. This time, Jesus and his disciples were in a boat being threatened by a terrible storm. Jesus was exhausted and fell asleep. Meanwhile, a storm came up and the waves were swamping the boat. The disciples were panicking, so they woke Jesus up. They said, “Lord, don’t you care what happens to us?” Jesus got up and said three simple words to the sea: “Peace! Be still!” The storm stopped immediately. The disciples were astonished. Afterward, Jesus asked the disciples, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:35-41).
These are the questions Jesus asks us, when we face the wild sea of life. Do we have faith that God will preserve us from destruction? Do we trust that the Lord will give us courage and victory in the middle of our struggles? Do we believe that God will see us through the storm and deliver us safely to the other side?
The sea is large and our boat is small. But God will never let us sail alone.
|
|
|
<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Next >> |