Day 2 - Power at the Red Sea
- Readings: Exodus 14:1-31
- Bonus Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:2
In day 1 we read about Jesus leading the two men on the road to Emmaus through the words of Moses, prophets and scripture. The words of Moses refer to the first 5 books in the Bible. I imagine Jesus thoroughly explained the passage you just read to these men.
You see, the Exodus from Egypt prefigures the saving work of Christ for his people, you and me. What God did through Moses was to provide physical salvation from a physical slavery. What God did through Jesus and the cross was to provide spiritual salvation from a spiritual slavery. As the Israelites were slaves and held captive to Egypt’s bondage, we are held captive and slaves to sin.
The story of the Exodus is a powerful story of God’s mighty works and sovereignty.
We won’t dive deep into it here in the blog post but each plague was aimed to show God’s power over an Egyptian god. (Example, Heket is an Egyptian goddess with a frog head. God made frogs come out of the Nile. )
The events of the Exodus which include the parting and crossing of the Red Sea are wrote about again and again in the rest of the Old Testament especially the Psalms as worship and remembrance of God’s saving word and salvation for them. (Psalm 66:6, 78:13; 106:9; 136:13).
The parting of the sea was the final act in deliverance in the Exodus from Egypt for the Israelites. When Moses stretches his arms out wide, when the waters parted, the Israelites walked to freedom on dry ground. They passed through the waters and were now identified with Moses. We have this same freedom in a spiritual sense when Jesus stretched his arms wide on the cross. His death broke our chains from sin and evil, his death created a path to our Heavenly Creator and we now through baptism part the waters of a new life and are identified with Christ.
Side note: if you want to be amazed by the miracle of the Red Sea and some crazy facts, read here.