PICTURE IT: (Exodus 3-14)

Imagine that you are an Israelite living in the land of Goshen.  Every day you work long hours of hard labor with hardly a break.  Very little payment, if any, is grudgingly given and definitely no gratitude expressed.  You rarely see your family or friends because they are always relentlessly working as well.  Sleep is a welcomed commodity just to simply escape and rest for a moment from the harsh toil of life. 

You can remember growing up hearing all about the stories of how God would one day rescue His people from slavery. But, the burden of slavery has only gotten worse over time. Oh, how you long to be rescued. How you long to be free. Constant cries and prayers of deliverance are heard daily all around from the weary lips of Abraham’s many descendants. Does God hear them? Does God hear you? Does God care? Will God come through for his children… for you? It seems as if God had forgotten His promise.

But then, one day a man named Moses came and told you that God appeared to him in a miraculous burning bush, and that the time of deliverance had come.  He said God told him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let His people go. You want to believe what he said, but you knew Pharaoh would never let you go. You knew that would never happen. And then…things…strange things started happening. God started sending plagues down upon the Egyptians just as Moses spoke, one after the other, just like he said. Maybe it is true…maybe “this is the time of my deliverance, of my salvation”, you thought. You pray that it is. Maybe you will finally be free from the chains of slavery.  Maybe you will finally go to the LAND of milk and honey that was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  It all sounded too good to be true.

And then… that night…… that last night… that night that you would never forget. That night you gather your family into your little quaint modest home, your house that looks just like everyone else’s, very simple, very plain. You take a hyssop branch and smear the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of the house as you were told to do by Moses.  It seems so odd and feels so awkwardly strange to see blood drip and even at times pour down from the entrance of the house… but you do it. And as you finish painting the bright color of red, and take that last step over the threshold and into the house, a drop of blood falls from overhead and hits your cheek. You wipe it away with the brush of your hand and wonder exactly what it all means.

That night was filled with such stillness and anticipation. No one could sleep. And then started the deep, heavy, dreadful sounds of faraway wailing and crying that filled the void of silence of the night.  Heartbreaking pain was heard from those… those without the blood on their doorposts… those… who were the grieving parents which sadly held the lifeless bodies of their firstborn sons in their arms.  It was a heavy night. It was a hard night. The night felt so dark and thick as if you could actually feel the weight of darkness. The smell of death was overwhelming. It was surreal. You felt such a wide range of emotions that you could not explain or knew how to exactly deal with, but you knew that everyone was experiencing them. But yet, even within the thick darkness that surrounded the night, somehow, you could feel the unexplainable hope that welled up inside us.

And then, just as the ever so slight glimmer of the very first peek of light gently pierced the blackness of the night, while no movement was being made, while silent prayers were being raised, while breaths were being held, suddenly we heard a call break through the houses. A call of victory loudly cried out with a loud sound of a trumpet blast, a trumpet blast of deliverance. The sound that we had all been waiting for. It was a victorious call of freedom! Shouts of joy could be heard from the mountains to the sea.  “We are free! We are free!” 

You know that you are ready. You are ready to go at a moment’s notice.  You have waited for what seems like endless hours with shoes on your feet and staff in your hand. You were told to be ready at a moment’s notice, and you were. You grab your family, your few modest animals, the quick bread you had baked earlier and a few things you had prepared. Everyone is quickly coming out, even running out of their houses with excitement and praising God. There is celebration in the air. The day of deliverance is here! It is finally here!

You follow the lead of others as you quickly start the journey down the long dusty road. Without even slowing down, you take a quick glance over your shoulder to take one last look and bid farewell to what you leave behind. You see all the empty houses one after the other, lined as far as the eye could see, each reflecting blood from the first light of the dawn of the early morning sun. What a beautiful, yet so… eerie sight to see. You notice what looks like the fading remnant of a thick heavy cloud which seemed to linger overhead and engulf the vacant shells of the left behind houses, but was slowly lifting and fading away.

You tighten your cloak and pull it closer to your chest as you quickly turn your head back around. The road ahead would be long and hard, but this is your journey. Not what lies behind but what lies ahead. This is your future. This is your hope. With a slight nod of determination, as a sparkle of glimmer comes to your eye, a smile lights up your face. It is a new day. It’s a new dawn.  You know there is no going back. Ever! You now have a future ahead of you. You now have deliverance.

Along your way, as you pass by the bigger, nicer, richer homes and palaces in the city, the Egyptians start coming toward you and handing you some of their possessions, things like gold, silver, jewelry, beautiful clothing and other treasures.  They tell you to just “Please leave!” They even beg you to leave.  You could never have imagined what you are seeing had you not experienced it for yourself.

And then, as if God had not already shown the power of his mighty hand displayed through the ten terrible plagues, or by the evidence of the unforgettable night of the Passover, or by the unbelievable sight of two million people just freely walking past Pharaoh’s court and all of Egypt in plain sight to see. Everyone walked hand in hand with… with their own precious firstborn sons…hearts filled with excitement and anticipation with each step.

But then, God shows his awesome and mighty power once again at the Red Sea.  Just as it looked as if you had reached a dead end, a brick wall, just as it appeared that you were hemmed in all around with no escape, Moses, this mighty man of God, lifted his hands in the air toward heaven and the most amazing and the strangest thing of all happened. The mighty waters of the Red Sea… just rolled back… parted… separated… just like that! Solid dry land appears right in front of you.  God had made an impossible way possible. How would anyone ever believe something like this? Surely no one would ever believe such miracles, such sights! But yet, they did.

This miracle brought fear to all the surrounding people and nations for centuries to come. God has rescued you again! And, He has brought down your enemy at the same time by using the same water to destroy them as He used to save you. Absolutely amazing! You are in complete “awe” of God! God has shown you, and has shown all of Israel and all of Egypt and all of the nations…exactly who He is!  He is the Mighty God of Israel.  He is your God!

Praise be to God!