"Moses Stories For Our Times: Deliverance, Then and Now"Dr.
James L. Mayfield
September 22, 2002
Text: Exodus 13:3-15:21 (in worship read selected verses from chapter 14) There are times when the future is frightening and the bad stuff from our yesterdays is about to overwhelm us. We look at our options and it appears that regardless of what we choose, we are damned if we do and damned if we don't. We feel trapped between a rock and a hard place. When this is the way our lives seem to be, the Moses story for today has something to say to us. The Moses story for today begins where we ended last Sunday. No sooner had Pharaoh given the Israelites freedom, than he and his advisors regretted it. Now who was going to do the hard work the Israelites had been doing? Once again, Pharaoh changed his mind and hardened his heart. He called out the troops, and off they went into the wilderness to recapture the Israelites and bring them back to serve Pharaoh. In my imagination, I can see the Israelites in a barren wilderness, moving away from Egypt. Aware of how often Pharaoh had changed his mind and heart, they kept looking over their shoulders. Sure enough, way back in the distance, there was a large cloud of dust moving in their direction. Dread overcame them. Ahead of them was the Red Sea, behind them the approaching army of Pharaoh. They turned on Moses: "What have you done to us? Didn't we tell you back in back in Egypt to leave us alone? It would have been better to live as slaves than to die out here in the wilderness." "Don't be afraid," Moses told them. "Stand firm and just watch the way God is going to deliver you from the Egyptians. God is going to take care of you; all you have to do is draw on faith and courage. Stand firm." Stand firm? How could they do that when ahead of them was the Red Sea and behind them were the chariots and soldiers of Pharaoh? God had provided the Israelites with what they needed. During the day God provided a pillar of cloud to guide them and remind them God was with them. At night, in the darkness, God provided them a pillar of fire. These signs were to give their lives both direction and hope. But focused on the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them, what faith they had evaporated. Overwhelmed by their fears and anxieties, they cried out to God and complained to Moses: "Why did you bring us out here to die?" We know what happens next in the story. God divided the waters of the Red Sea and the Israelites escaped. Whenever I think about this part of the story, I remember another story I was told some years ago - you may have heard it also. As a family was driving home from worship, the mother asked her young son what he had learned at Sunday school. His report went something like this: "When Moses and the Israelites were being pursued by Pharaoh's army they came to the Red Sea. Moses used artillery fire and attack helicopters to slow the advance of the Egyptians while his army engineers built a pontoon bridge across the Red Sea. Then, Moses laid down a smoke screen so Pharaoh could not fire on the Israelites crossing to the other side. When the Egyptians tried to follow them, Moses sent his air force to bomb the bridge and destroy the Egyptian army." There was silence in the car. Then, his mother said: "Are you sure that is what you were taught? I find that hard to believe." "Mom," the boy said, if you can't believe my story, you sure won't believe the story we were told." The Moses story is hard for us to believe, but I am not talking about the specific tactics God used to get the Israelites across the Red Sea. At its deepest level this story is difficult for us to believe. This story is much, much more than a tale about a once upon a time miracle crossing of the Red Sea. It is a classic story about God setting us free from our fears of the future and our fears rooted in the past. It is a classic story about God moving us to a new place in our lives, a place we had not envisioned much less thought possible. At its deepest level this story is difficult for us to believe because it is about God being at work among us, delivering us the way God delivered the Israelites. But as difficult as it may be for us to believe, I am convinced most of us, if not all of us, have experienced the truth contained in this story. Whenever we have found ourselves trapped between our fears about tomorrow and the pain from our past, and then found we had been delivered from our bondage to those fears and pain, we have experienced the truth of this story. God's rescue may not have been quite what we ordered or longed for, but looking back now, it is clear to us that we experienced some sort of deliverance. The hell we had been caught in is now somehow behind us and what lies ahead is new possibilities. And when we look back on all that happened, our most honest way of talking about it is to say: "It was by the grace of God." This is what the poet who wrote "Amazing Grace" was talking about when he wrote: "Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come; 'tis grace hath brought me save thus far and grace will lead me home." Somehow, someway, by the grace of God, we walked through what we thought would drown us and not only were we not drowned, we did not get stuck in the mud either. This story about the Israelites getting across the Red Sea is not merely a story about their going to a new place to live; it is also a story about their movement toward a new place in their living. It is the story about their being set free from all that bondage in Egypt represents. However, they were not truly free from that bondage until the waters closed behind them and drowned the pursuing Egyptians. And so it is. We are not truly free from the bad stuff that tries to pursue us and fill our lives with dread, until by the grace of God, the armies of dread are drowned by the waters of God, just as the Egyptians were. Being set free from the bad stuff in our past does not mean we are exempt from the consequences of what we did or failed to do in our yesterdays, but it does mean we are set free from the demonic armies of bitterness, defensiveness, resentment and self-contempt rooted in our past experiences. God divided the waters; and like the Israelites we were led to a new place in our living, and behind us the waters closed and drowned the demons from our past that could have held us in bondage forever. By the amazing and mysterious ways God's grace works in our lives, we were delivered from where we were in our living and moved to a new place in our lives. It is also worth noting that when the waters closed over the Egyptian army the waters also blocked the Israelites return. This part of today's Moses story says to me that once we have been led by God out of our bondage and through some sea of troubles to a new place in our living, it is impossible for us ever to go back to the way it was. Even if we return to Egypt, it can never be the way it was because we have experienced being set free, and the freedom from bondage we experienced, if only for a brief time, will haunt us and leave us restless in our old familiar slavery. Once we have experienced the redeeming grace of God setting us free and giving us a new future, even if we go back, we will not be able to forget what we have experienced. We may reject it or deny it, but what we have experienced we have experienced. And it is impossible to live as though that experience had never happened. The waters closed behind the Israelites; and there was no way back to where they had been in life. The Moses story we read today, is not merely a story about a once upon a time miracle. It is a story, a dramatic story about the way God's grace was at work in the time of Moses and it reveals the way God continues to work even in our times -- especially those times when we feel trapped between a frightening future and a painful past. God, help each of us learn what we need to learn from this old story. Amen. Pastoral Prayer: Let us thank God for the gifts and blessings we have received. We have come here with a variety of concerns and problems. Let us ask God for guidance and help. God, as you rescued the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, rescue us from all that we have allowed to enslave us. Rescue us from bondage to materialism and the illusion that our worth or lack of worth is somehow related to our financial statement. Rescue us from envy that blinds us to the gifts that are ours. Rescue us from jealousy that hinders our relationship with others. In the midst of our problems, rescue us from self-pity that prevents us from seeing the possibilities made available by your grace. As we deal with the consequences of our mistakes and failures, rescue us from hiding from reality in self-serving excuses and rationalizations that prevent us from gaining wisdom from our experiences. Rescue us from the fears that give rise to prejudice and intolerance. Rescue us from all the kinds of bondage that enslave us and keep us from becoming and being the persons you intend us to be. As you rescued the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, set us free from all that distorts our living and prevents us from living as you intend. Enable us to live as Jesus was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: "Our Father ...."
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