Don't Miss This - Part 1

"Don't miss this!" A common catch phrase mentioned by my spouse on a Sunday morning. Usually he frames the key take-home point with this phrase. Within this warning he often highlights some poignant statement made by Paul or Christ himself. He is urging our congregation to digest the passage in a new way...to chew on it instead of just accepting it. The awe of God and His splendor. The mercy of His forgiveness. The firmness of His law and teaching. The application to us, His followers. So often, Jeremy will bring to light a passage that has often been misinterpreted or misunderstood and paints it with such color that makes it impossible to miss.

Last night he was reading through the Bible with our girls and was covering the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the parted water. I heard the voice of the Lord clearly say to me, "Don’t miss this, Jodi!"

Exodus 14
10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.11 They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" 13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." 15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground…21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Oh my goodness, to be there. I’m a crier and an emotional roller coaster, so as I think about the very thought of being delivered from captivity at all, I know I would be in tearful humility. Yet, it is mentioned in verse 11 the fear and questioning of God’s deliverance through Moses with sarcasm and pessimism. Jodi paraphrase:

“What? Were there not enough graves where we were, so you just moved us to an easier place of burial? We told you we were afraid this was a mistake. We told you this was impossible and that the odds were against us. Did you not look at us compared to the Egyptian army? We stand no chance. But we trusted you and look at where we are now? We will try to swim and most likely ½ of us will drown or we can just stand here and take the beating that is going to come upon us by this enraged mob heading toward us. Thanks, Moses. Thanks a lot. (or even Thanks, God! Thanks a lot!) “

We look back at this passage and say to these Israelites, you ungrateful people. Don’t you know what all God has done for you prior to your life of enslavement? Don’t you know how God protected you in Egypt from the angel of death? Don’t you see how you WALKED out of Egypt with no resistance? Don’t you see how He has provided for you? Wow, you guys are just a bunch of brats. Right? You know where I’m going don’t you.

In our family, there has been constant events of, mmmm shall we say, challenge. One instance that comes to mind when I think about times where I have been at my wits end was in 2003 when I get the call that my mom has breast cancer. Now, I know that is familiar for many as it is a large plague that is upon our current culture. My husband and I were in the parking lot of Compass Bank in Fort Worth, Texas. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had locked my keys in my car and we had just left the bank with some stressful meeting. I know that probably another 50 things of conflict had happened prior to that moment because I do pretty good to not break under pressure. My dad called. At this time in my life, my dad did not just up and call at random. That was Mom’s job to check in on us.

So when I answer the phone and it is my dad, I get this overwhelming feeling of fear. “I need to talk to you a minute,” were the words out of his mouth after the standard greetings. He proceeds to tell me my mother’s condition and I asked the hundreds of necessary questions. When I was able to detach from them, meaning I had ended the phone conversation and they could no longer hear me, I lost it – right there in the middle of the parking lot of Compass bank for everyone in the bank to see and for everyone driving by to see. I wasn’t just crying I was throwing a tantrum to God. My poor husband did his best to console me, but he also just let me have my episode.

“Why God would you do this to my mother? She has been so faithful to you? She is more than a follower of you; she is in love with you, Lord? Why would you place this fear upon her? Why would you do this when I am so far away and I cannot even hug her right now? Please make this a mistake! Please perform a miracle! She has served you with all of her talent and energy from the time she could stand and sing your praises. God, she is our family’s rock! Fix this! Fix this now!”

Yep, I was an Israelite! I looked at the Egyptian army (cancer) running towards me and all I saw was the water. But God did not forsake us! My family persevered. And, as you might have guessed, I gained composure pretty quickly after my loving Heavenly Father pulled me into His lap and let me sob. And as I sobbed, He whispered words of promise and of hope. He washed over me His loving patience with me even as I questioned Him. He blessed me with a support group that is irreplaceable. He brought medical specialists that tended to my mother with great care and adoration. Let me tell you though, you would absolutely just have to be a toot for my mother not to love you. She loved everybody and everybody loved her.

Her oncologist was quite young, so my mother doted on him like a son who just so happen to have medicine to make her better. Mom came out of her first round of cancer with single mastectomy, chemo and radiation and a 5 year plan for a pill form of chemotherapy. Mom didn’t just survive round one, she maintained normal activity. She worked the ENTIRE time she was undergoing chemo and radiation. She participated in church. She traveled to Texas to see pathetic me. She was a beast.

God showed me the parting of the Sea through the strength of my mother. God delivered our family on dry land on her shoulders. Yes, I prayed a LOT, as did the rest of my family. But my mom’s stoic face of joy and faith in the God whom she was in love with was also the cloud that went before us. How in the world can you question that? When someone is faced with a challenge (an army running at them full speed with arms) and they just smile and say, “I will trust in the Lord,” how can you not say, “me too!” Let’s cross this sea!

Don’t miss this. There is a wall of water that you have already walked by in your life. It probably will not be the last. But praise God that you walked by it. He didn’t have you do that for fun. He wanted you to be in AWE of the DRY land and the WALL of water. Be in Awe of what He has done for you today.