Exodus 12-14 offers us one of the most amazing events in the entire Old Testament: the parting of the Red Sea. Yet before it happened we are read of Moses instructing the Israelites not once, but twice how the Passover was to be observed every year forever in Israel’s history. God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery is an amazing “redemption” story. After all, redemption is freeing slaves by paying the cost of their freedom. The Passover foreshadows Jesus’ redemption of humanity through His death on the cross. Many have noted the Israelites were to put the blood of the Passover lambs over the tops of their doorframe and on the sides. If you “connect the dots” it forms a cross. Jesus told His disciples of the New Covenant He was about to establish through the shedding of His blood at a Passover celebration. The connection is obvious and intentional.
We read when the Israelites left Egypt they numbered 600,000 men, and of course the men had wives and children, so the population of Israel had multiplied from 70 people when Jacob went into Egypt to about two million 430 years later! God’s promise to Abraham was being fulfilled, and it had taken place through many storms. The storms weren’t over, as we read in chapter 14. As the Israelites left Egypt God had Moses lead them by a circuitous route rather than the direct one, because He didn’t want them to face battle against the Philistines. God knew His people, and even though they looked like an army as the left Egypt, they were not battle tested. As we start to see even in chapter 14, the slaves were leaving Egypt, but the slave mentality of Egypt was still in them.
When Pharaoh changed his mind and sent soldiers to attack the Israelites, the Israelites were literally stuck in the middle. The Red Sea was on one side and the Egyptian army on the other. They cried out in panic to Moses, but Moses’ words of reassurance are some of the most incredible in the entire Bible. Even though you have already read them, let’s read them again together: 13But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. 14The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Exodus 14:13-14 (NLT) Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today…Just stay calm. How many times we need to hear and heed those words. Most of us are activists. We live by the old adage, “Don’t just stand there, do something!” Many times this is good advice. But there are times when God says, “Don’t just do something. Stand there. I have this.”
I’ve been going through a bit of that this past week with the death of Cheryl Marshall, my sister-in-law, who was like a second mother to me. I spent most of my summers with Tom and Cheryl from the time I was eight until I was in my early teens. When I received the call that Cheryl had experienced a major stroke, I drove to Ohio immediately to be with the family, but what could I do? The outcome was literally in God’s hands. I spent Thursday night next to Cheryl’s bed, and occasionally she would open her eyes, and she recognized me, but the stroke had paralyzed the right side of her body and taken away her ability to speak. She tried several times to say something, but she couldn’t. What could I do? Again the answer was nothing. I prayed with Cheryl. I quoted Scripture to her. And I sat and waited through the night. The next morning the doctors told us what we already knew. Nothing could be done for Cheryl. Tom and Lee Ann (Tom and Cheryl’s daughter) decided to have Cheryl transported to a facility in the Dover area where they live. That couldn’t be arranged until the next day. Once again, we stood (or sat) and waited.
The next day, which was Saturday, as Cheryl was being transported to Dover from the Cleveland Clinic, she made the transition every follower of Jesus longs to make one day. She died to this life, and as the Apostle Paul reminds us, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Many times in the days ahead we will grieve our loss. Cheryl won’t be with us any longer. But we will also stand and wait, knowing God is in charge, and in the big picture, our day of being with Cheryl and all those who have gone before us in the Lord is coming soon, very soon from an eternal perspective.
In the case of the Israelites, God delivered an amazing miracle, parted the Red Sea, saved the Israelites and destroyed the Egyptians. Wow! What an amazing God. In our case, God destroyed sin and death, and created a home for us with Him forever. Wow! What an amazing God. I drove out to Ohio again yesterday to invest the day with Tom. I helped him clean up the house in preparation for the guests who will be coming on Wednesday and Thursday for Cheryl’s funeral. We reminisced about Cheryl, and at times we simply stood and waited. This storm is devastating from our temporal perspective, but we will get through it, because we know that God is good, and He ultimately has this, just as He has every moment in our lives whether we perceive the moment to be good or bad, regardless of what we are stuck between in our life. Pray for Tom, Lee Ann, and the rest of our family, because while we know the ultimate truth that God is good and Cheryl is better off, we grieve one who has been so important to us for so long.
As we read Mark 2 again, we’re reminded how early in Jesus’ ministry the Jewish religious leaders came against Him. They couldn’t accept His power to forgive sin, or His choice of disciples, or His lack of observance of the religious rules. At every point, Jesus reminded them He was Lord – Lord over sin, over disease, over people’s destinies and over the Sabbath. I am so grateful that Jesus has this, whatever the “this” may be in our lives right now!