testify

Exodus 14:21-15:1; Matt 12:46-50

We continue to read the story of salvation of the Israelites from Egypt. The Israelites are on the run seeking to escape the Pharaoh's chariots and army whom are closing in fast.

The Israelites are panicking and filled with fear and trembling and the Egyptians are blind in their stubborn pursuit with nothing but revenge and hatred clouding their judgment.

Then it happens, the sea is split and Israel walks through it. The Egyptians follow behind only to be swept away by the waters of salvation.

The Israelites enter the waters as slaves running for their lives, overcome with fear and they emerge in safety, lives spared and hearts filled with gratitude. They stand on the banks overlooking the waters of the Red Sea, overlooking the waters of life and death and they testify to God's deliverance.

They realize for the moment something they will realize time and time again, that they were not alone that God's power led them through. Grace is the air they breathe.

Their fear that seemed so paralyzing and so devastating now seems useless and pointless. How often is this the case for us?

Yet, it is important to note how the miraculous deliverance occurred. It was both wonderful and ordinary.

*The waters were split by the rod of Moses yet the wind blew all night and laid bare the sea.
*The waters stood up as a mighty wall on the left and right, yet the Egyptians were drowned when the sea returned to it normal channels.
*Yahweh produced panic with his fiery glance but it was the mud that clogged the wheels of the chariots.

God's deliverance was both in the miraculous and the ordinary. What a combination!

What a deliverance!

ANd yet, God continues to work that way in our lives.

How often I hear people speak of healing brought about in the same way: wonderful and ordinary, the skill of the doctors, the precision of medicine and the hand of God!

How often have I heard doctors testify to the ordinary and wonderful!

Even our redemption is wrought in this way. The incarnation, God becoming man is a ordinary yet wonderful way of deliverance. In blood, sweat and tears; in surrender and trust; in the agony of the garden; in the nails in the hands and the feet; in bowing his head and breathing his last; in the rising from the dead; in his ascension to heaven.

What a combination: wonderful and ordinary.

We too stand on the banks of the river overlooking death and testify to our deliverance.