Throughout the exodus story, God is “testing” the people (15:25), and the people are “testing” God (17:2, 7). But what does that mean? How are we tested today?
What does it mean to walk in the way of Jesus when you’ve been raised in the values of the Empire? This is a tension every person living the Spirit-filled life experiences; but it can easily go undetected. The danger for many Christians isn’t sudden wickedness–it’s a subtle drift toward allowing our vision of “normal” life to be built around priorities God doesn’t share.
We all experience those moments of regret, embarrassment, and self-doubt. Even the most brash among us, when they are alone and honest with themselves, can admit they don’t feel they measure up. The call of Moses in Exodus 3-4 is a key moment defining what grace means in scripture.
On the seventh day, the Lord rested but He never told you to… until the Exodus… so there’s more to the Sabbath than a day off .. a lot more.
The social and political climate of our day gives us plenty of reason to despair, to expect the worst, to be overly critical, to find a culprit and blame them. There is a pathology to despair that follows us long after we’ve left Egypt. The good news of the exodus is that we can be delivered from this. But deliverance involves choosing what to believe and practice.
In the establishment and execution of his covenant with Israel, God was anything but efficient, at least by human calculations. What if our fixation with getting through the desert to the Promised Land comes at the expense of knowing God in deeper and more significant ways. What if in our relationship with God, the journey through the wilderness is just as significant as the destination?
The First Easter is the Last Exodus. Let the march begin!