Before we begin our story today, I’d like to take a minute or so to set the stage. And to catch us up a little bit. Since the start of this series, each Sunday we’ve heard a story about one of Israel’s patriarchs. We began with Noah and that cosmic story of the flood and God’s attempt to re-create a world that had become completely evil. Along with God’s promise to never again destroy the earth and the sign of the rainbow.
Then, we heard the story of Abraham and of God’s call to him to lead God’s chosen people. There was another promise by God in this story--that God would bless Abraham and Sarah with many generations who would grow into these chosen people and be given a land that would be their land. That they would be blessed so they could be a blessing.
Then, there was Joseph last week--great grandson to Abraham. We especially saw God’s hand at work in protecting Joseph in Egypt, even as he was falsely accused.
Today, we hear the story of Moses.
Between Joseph and Moses, there were many, many generations. By Moses’ time, the promise that God made to Abraham that Israel would be a large people had come true. The Israelites lived in Goshen - an area of Egypt. They had multiplied with a population, by some estimates, of over 2 million people. They had flourished in this land, even though it wasn’t the land that God promised them.
But, then, things began to change. In the first chapter of the book of Exodus, verse 8, we read, “Now a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph.” This new king, or pharaoh, began to worry about how large Israel had become. He worried that, if a war would break out with Egypt’s enemies, the Israelites would join with those enemies, fight against Egypt, and escape.
So, he forced them into work gangs. He enslaved them, making their workload harsher and harsher. The second chapter of Exodus reads, “The Israelites were groaning because of their hard work. They cried out, and their cry to be rescued from the hard work rose up to God. God heard their cry of grief. And God remembered God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked at the Israelites, and God understood.”
It was at this point, that we hear of Moses, who is our focus today.
God calls Moses, along with his brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, to set God’s people free. God sends Moses to the pharaoh to tell him to set Israel free. But, the pharaoh won't listen. The Hebrew scripture tells us that he “hardened his heart.” He became stubborn. So, God sends a series of plagues. Ten of them. Who remembers what some of those plagues were (water into blood, invasion of frogs, Lice/insects, flies, livestock disease, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, death of the firstborn)? By the end of the last plague, pharaoh had enough. He told Moses to lead Israel away. To go out of Egypt.
So, they left. And, eventually, they reached the Sea of Reeds. And camped. It is here where today’s story picks up. We read from Exodus, chapter 14.
When Egypt’s king was told that the people had run away, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people. They said, “What have we done, letting Israel go free from their slavery to us?” So he sent for his chariot and took his army with him. He took six hundred elite chariots and all of Egypt’s other chariots with captains on all of them.
As Pharaoh drew closer, the Israelites looked back and saw the Egyptians marching toward them. The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Weren’t there enough graves in Egypt that you took us away to die in the desert? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt like this? Didn’t we tell you the same thing in Egypt? ‘Leave us alone! Let us work for the Egyptians!’ It would have been better for us to work for the Egyptians than to die in the desert.”
But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand your ground, and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never ever see again. The Lord will fight for you. You just keep still.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to get moving. As for you, lift your shepherd’s rod, stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two so that the Israelites can go into the sea on dry ground.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord pushed the sea back by a strong east wind all night, turning the sea into dry land. The waters were split into two. The Israelites walked into the sea on dry ground. The waters formed a wall for them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians chased them and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and cavalry. As morning approached, the Lord looked down on the Egyptian camp from the column of lightning and cloud and threw the Egyptian camp into a panic. The Lord jammed their chariot wheels so that they wouldn’t turn easily. The Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites, because the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt!”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the water comes back and covers the Egyptians, their chariots, and their cavalry.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. At daybreak, the sea returned to its normal depth. The Egyptians were driving toward it, and the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the cavalry, Pharaoh’s entire army that had followed them into the sea. Not one of them remained. The Israelites, however, walked on dry ground through the sea. The waters formed a wall for them on their right hand and on their left.
Israel saw the amazing power of the Lord against the Egyptians. The people were in awe of the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. Exodus 14:5-7, 10-16, 21-29, 31 (CEB).
Do you ever wonder how frightening it must have been for Israel as they turned back and saw the Pharaoh approaching with his army? Trapped there? Awaiting slaughter? Nowhere forward and certainly nowhere backward.
In his book Messengers of God, Elie Wiesel writes about this scene. Wiesel, who experienced the Holocaust, was a man who, like the Israelites, knew what it was like to live under a leader and a government that had become pure evil. Just like the pharaoh in Egypt. Wiesel writes this about Israel and their experience at the edge of the sea: "One could see people running. Running breathlessly. Without a glance backward. They were running toward the sea. And there they came to an abrupt halt. This was the end. Death was there, waiting. The leaders of the group, urged on by Moses, pushed forward: Don’t be afraid! Go! Into the water! Into the water! Yet, according to one commentator, Moses suddenly ordered everyone to a halt. Wait a moment! Think! Take a moment to reassess what you are doing. Enter the sea, not as frightened fugitives, but as free men and women!"
This Friday, after we had witnessed the spectacle in Washington, the appalling spectacle that we have allowed our country to become, my morning devotion featured appointed verses from the prophet Micah, which read, “The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright; they all lie in wait for blood, and they hunt each other with nets. The hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire; thus they pervert justice...Put no trust in a friend, have no confidence in a loved one; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your embrace; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; your enemies are members of your own household. But as for me, I will look to the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
As I read these words, it was a reminder for me once again, that our salvation comes not from principalities or powers. But, from God. From a God who, as Israel found out on that fearful day at the edge of the water--is faithful and who keeps promises.
We have this same God. Faithful. A promise-keeper. Who calls us to “Go, go into the water.” Into the waters of baptism, where we stand at the edge reassessing what we are doing. And realizing that we go into the water, not as frightened people, but as free women and men. Into the water, where, through God’s faithful and never-ending grace, we are washed in the blood of the Lamb, our Savior Jesus Christ. And freed.
Friends, I don’t know what will happen in our country. But, what I do know is that God hears our cries. And I know that God is working in our midst. To bring about a more just world. More just than the world we experienced this past week as we watched two families be destroyed. Somehow, God is working in the midst of this to turn our world around so that all may experience God’s saving grace.
This is what Israel learned that day at the edge of the water. This is what we know in the water of our baptisms. That God is faithful. That God is just. And that, through God’s grace and only God’s grace, we are freed. It is in this knowledge and only this knowledge, that we place our hope and our future. Amen.
Preached Sunday, September 30, 2018, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Pentecost 19
Readings: Matt. 2:13-15; Ex. 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29, 31.
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