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 14:19–20
Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
CONSIDER THIS
Maybe you’ve heard the story of the seven-year-old boy who learned the story of the Israelites and the Red Sea in Sunday school. Upon being asked by his mother what he learned in class, he said:
“Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelite people out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his army build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. Then, he radioed headquarters for reinforcements. They scrambled a squadron of F-16 Falcon Fighter Jets to blow up the bridge, and all the Israelites were saved.”
“Now, Billy, is that really what your teacher taught you?” his mother asked.
“Well, no, Mom, but if I told you what the teacher said, you’d never believe it in a million years!”
Today’s text gives us the incredible true story of what happened on that night at the Red Sea. Here it is again. It merits a second reading to take it all in:
Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
Imagine trying to explain your iPhone or the Internet to your great-great-grandmother. Where would you start? You would say things like, “Grandma, I can talk to a person in London, England, right now while seeing their face on the screen and sending them a photograph of my children via a text message at the same time.”
What is she going to do with that? Would she even remotely believe it, even if we demonstrated it before her very eyes? All we could do was give her the outlandish, incredible, unbelievable, yet true facts.
That is all Moses did here. He gives us the outlandish, incredible, unbelievable, yet true facts. It is one thing to try to explain something from today to an earlier time. Moses was telling the story of something way back then to people thousands of years hence—believe it or not.
Angels and armies, pillars of cloud and fire, as a group of millions of refugees, walked toward an impenetrable wall of water (a.k.a. the Red Sea) while being pursued by the most formidable army on earth. And then we get this:
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. (vv. 21–22)
Rather than say anything else here, I want to invite you to an exercise of holy imagination. We are the only creatures on planet Earth who possess the gift of imagination. It makes sense, doesn’t it—divine image-bearers are gifted with imagination? When the Holy Spirit touches our imagination, we are given the capacity to enter into a kind of sacred seeing. The word is beholding.
I want you to behold this ancient scene. First, read the text Exodus 14:19–22 out loud. Your ears need to hear it. When we read, the information enters through our eyes and goes straight to our brain. Remember, we walk by faith, not by sight (see 2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith does not come through sight but by hearing. Faith, through hearing (see Romans 10:17), gives something beyond mere eyesight. Faith gives our heart and soul the vision of God.
It’s why Paul prays in Ephesians 1:17 for God to open the eyes of our hearts. After hearing the text read aloud, I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to behold this vision—and open your heart to visualize it happening in as much detail as your Spirit-empowered imagination can muster.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I marvel at this word, “the cloud brought darkness to one side and light to the other side.” There is none like you, Lord.
I marvel at this word, “The waters were divided, and we went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on our right and on our left.” There is none like you, Lord.
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. I want to see you—high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we cry, “Holy! Holy! Holy!”
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!
