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 15:1–18
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
“I will sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.
“The Lord is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
are drowned in the Red Sea.
The deep waters have covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, Lord,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, Lord,
shattered the enemy.
“In the greatness of your majesty
you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
it consumed them like stubble.
By the blast of your nostrils
the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood up like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy boasted,
‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
and my hand will destroy them.’
But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
in the mighty waters.
Who among the gods
is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
“You stretch out your right hand,
and the earth swallows your enemies.
In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling.
The nations will hear and tremble;
anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people of Canaan will melt away;
terror and dread will fall on them.
By the power of your arm
they will be as still as a stone—
until your people pass by, Lord,
until the people you bought pass by.
You will bring them in and plant them
on the mountain of your inheritance—
the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling,
the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established.
“The Lord reigns
for ever and ever.”
CONSIDER THIS
There is a short Latin phrase which has captured my attention from the moment I read it. It is attributed to Saint Augustine: Solvitur Ambulando.
It means: “It is solved by walking.” Even better, I like this translation of the Latin into English: “The way is made by walking.”
This truth is on full display thus far as the Israelites walked out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and now walk the way through the wilderness. The way is being made by walking. Today, they take it a step further. (See what I just did there?) I want to amend or at least add to the phrase and say it like this: The way is made by worship.
No less than six times, just chapters earlier (7:16; 8:1; 8:20; 9:1; 9:13; 10:3), we get some form of this decree from God to Pharaoh through Moses: “Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness'” (Ex. 7:16).
Here’s what strikes me about this word. God wants our worship in the wilderness.
He wants our worship in the midst of the difficulty of deliverance. Notice how the song in today’s text begins with the nature of God and how it moves to the story of deliverance:
“I will sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.”
I sat across the table from a young man last week. He is part of a powerful recovery ministry I have gotten involved with near where I live in southeast Arkansas. It’s called ARM180. There was hardly a space on this man’s arms not covered in tattoos. He was telling me the story of how Jesus delivered him from enslavement to the idolatry of drug addiction. Now, he lives in the glorious freedom of the goodness of God. He was a worshipper in the wilderness. He knew in his bones he had been set free from slavery so he might worship God in the wilderness en route to the promised land. I noticed what looked to be the centerpiece of the tattoo on one of his arms. It said these words: “Though he slay me, yet will I praise him” (inspired by Job 13:15).
Those are the words of a man who knows the cruelty of slavery in Egypt, who knows the difficult deliverance from Pharaoh, who knows the impossible crossing of the Red Sea, and who knows the challenge of walking the way of God in the wilderness. The way is made by worship. It reminded me of an insight Jesus gave me a few days earlier. The opposite of addiction is abiding.
The way is made by worship.
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I am learning that I am a worshipper. I am not a worshipper because I worship but I worship because I am a worshipper. I confess that my soul is looking for someone or something to worship, whether I realize it or not. Deliver me from the worship of idols, which is whatever I think will make my life work and to which I become dependent on and even addicted to. Deliver me into the worship of the one true and living God, and teach me this way of worship in the wilderness like I have not yet known. Yes, Lord, the way is made by worship.
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!
