Midweek Reflection - March 14

Text: Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21

As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, 'Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness." But Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the LORD will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still."

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers."

The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, "Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt."

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the LORD tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the LORD did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."

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The waters parted. That’s the part that sticks in our minds. The waters parted; the sea was split like a log and the Israelites crossed safely..

We’ve seen it in pictures; we’ve seen it on TV; we’ve seen it on the big screen in countless movie adaptations. Moses raises up his staff; the waters part; the children of Israel cross on dry land and the waters crash back upon the Egyptian chariots, claiming their price for the indignity visited upon them.

In the beginning, we read in Genesis, the earth was without form, and void, and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. God forced the waters back, created a firmament upon which humankind could stand and sin and be redeemed.

And so the Spirit of God again forces the waters apart, again creating a firmament upon which the people of God can stand.

We remember this as a grant triumph of God’s deliverance. But it is also a sign of covenant, between God and God’s people.

In Abram’s time, God appeared to Abram and bid him to sacrifice: a heifer, a goat, a ram, and turtledove, and a pigeon. These things Abram sacrificed, and walking between them made a sign of God’s covenant to bring him safely into Canaan and the father of a multitude.

In Moses’ time, God split the great waters of the sea in two and the Israelites walked between them; a sign of God’s covenant to them that they would be remembered, and prosper.

God did not show glory over Pharaoh by destroying him; God showed glory over Pharaoh by showing the god of the Egyptians that the God of the Israelites would save his people.

But the Israelites turned, and instead of rejoicing in God’s preservation of life, sang instead of the death of hundreds, if not thousands. Before celebrating a covenant; they praised destruction.

Today, our voices again, still, praise destruction before celebrating covenant; we speak darkly of retribution and divine punishment; hint at terrible consequences to torture our consciences into believing that we can save ourselves.

We praise destruction before we celebrate covenant; praise death before believing in life.

The Son of Man is lifted up; his body is broken and those who gather, gather to celebrate death; for to them as to us, it is the ultimate power. They taunt and bicker, knowing that even if they are crucifying God they are killing the source of their rage and frustration; what is the use in believe that God kills those opposed to you if God does not and you are oppressed?

At least, they dispose of a meddlesome troublemaker who speaks of covenant and forgiveness; at best they are putting God to death and ceasing discussion about where ultimate power is: death, or God.

They, like we, choose death.

But God speaks still to the Israelites after the sea is parted and their new firmament is created. God speaks still to us, who linger over the tomb, expecting still that death is more powerful than God, only to find that when the waters are crashing back it is, in fact, God who made the waters, God who caused them to part; God who brought them back together. The wages of sin is death; but to God who knows no sin death is not ultimate; death is not final; death is not the end.

God’s covenant is louder, stronger, more stubborn than death. But for us who see death as power, death is praised, feared, believed, more than covenant of life. God does not look, nor act, like us. Thus, God defeated death, neither looking, nor acting, like; us but embodying the promise of God’s own covenant to us: that chaos and death will not have the last word, but that covenant, and life will. God, triumphant looks like God, defeated. We long to see not God, triumphant, but us, triumphant, as we see the death of those who oppose us. God does not look like god we want. And that God we seldom recognize.

Small wonder, on that clear, cold morning, that the women at the tomb took him to be the gardener.