Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 14:29–31
But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
CONSIDER THIS
This must be one of the most astonishing sentences in all of the Bible:
But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
The New International Version chose the word “went,” but the Hebrew word is halak, and there is a better word than “went.” The word means “walked.”
The Israelites walked through the sea.
So many of us are in need of some kind of essential deliverance, and yet our experience feels like an unparted sea. The mountain will not seem to move. The cancer is too dug in to leave. The memory loss is not coming back. The depression won’t seem to lift. The marriage won’t mend this time. The grief of a lost loved one is too much to bear. And so many are facing the Red Sea of the end of life, and though you are prepared to pass through, you aren’t ready to let go.
Recently, I visited with an aging man coming to the end of his days. He was hopeful yet deeply discouraged at the same time. I asked him, “Do you want faith to live or courage to die?” He whispered a shout back, “I want both!” We all do, don’t we? We want Eden. Meanwhile, we live in exile. We want a better city. Meanwhile, we live in tents. We want a triumphant victory, but whether we win or lose the present battle we are facing, what we must come to grips with is this fact: We have a triumphant God who won the war.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” (Matt. 28:6–7)
As it comes to our many troubles, what we want is the deliverance of a Red Sea success story. What we get is the struggle of the cross and the story of the empty tomb—a God who struggles as one of us and dies from the cruelty of injustice and who rises from the dead. We are looking for a triumphant victory from our broken circumstances. What we get is a triumphant God in the midst of them.
What if that’s the real story of Exodus? It won’t take long until the Israelites are grumbling at Moses and pining for Egyptian slavery again. What could have been a fourteen-day journey into the promised land turned into a forty-year ordeal of feckless, faithless wandering in the wilderness?
And what if that’s the real story of life? We want everything to work out just like we want it to, and it just doesn’t. But we have a triumphant God. No matter how many battles we may lose. He has won the war.
It’s not the law of averages, but it is the rule of baseball. We are going to win some. We are going to lose some. And some will get rained out. But we keep playing. No matter how many strikeouts, we keep stepping up to the plate and cheering each other on.
I’ll be honest. I can get really discouraged and even depressed when my Red Sea doesn’t part. I need to grow in this area. I go inward and tend to isolate myself. Something I’ve noticed about my parents’ generation—when they get down and out and discouraged about their circumstances and situations, they go help somebody else who is struggling. Though the waters might not be parting in their situation, they always manage to be part of someone else’s deliverance.
But the Israelites went walked through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
It’s what I love about this Hebrew word, “halak.” At the end of the day, that’s what we are doing, isn’t it? We are walking each other home. Whether the Red Sea parts for us this time or not, none of us are getting out of here alive—but every single one of us has the opportunity every single day to help walk somebody home.
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
As you gave up the brutal struggle that was your life—with your final breath from the cross—you spoke the words, “It is finished!” As the curtain tore in the temple, from top to bottom, rending the veil between heaven and earth, the Red Sea of all eternity was parted, opening the way through the wall of water of sin on the one side and the wall of water that was death on the other
Deliver me from my feckless, faithless mentality as I face what feels like Red Sea challenges in my life and deliver me into the resilience of the Holy Spirit who trains my spirit to stand on the ultimate victory in the face of my struggles, hardships, losses, and disappointments.
And lead me to someone whom I can help walk a few miles on the journey home today.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
