And Saves Us Now, Once And For All
For more than 400 years, Israel lived as slaves under the strict rule of Egyptian masters. Nothing they achieved was for themselves or their families. Tied to the whims of those masters, they didn’t even protest when Pharaoh ordered their babies to be slaughtered!
But God had a plan for Israel, a plan that would solidify His place as the One, True God. That’s why He let Pharaoh harden his heart against Him. Because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness in refusing to let God’s people go, the Lord showed His awesome power. He performed miracles the likes of which had never before been seen. He turned the great Nile red with blood, plagued the Egyptians with hordes of frogs, locusts and gnats, damaged crops and livestock, and finally killed the firstborn of every Egyptian family while Passing Over the families of Israel.
The miracles didn’t stop there. He parted the waters of the Red Sea, provided manna for sustenance as they wandered in the wilderness, 600,000 strong, leading them by a mighty cloud by day and a fire at night, His presence always there with them. For forty years, He provided for and protected them as He led them in the wilderness, and then He helped them conquer the Land of Promise.
Despite how He loved them, despite the power He displayed and the love He showed them, Israel stumbled just like the rest of us. They sinned against God, gave up hope in His promises, and even created a golden idol as God appeared in their presence, speaking with Moses up on the mountain, shrouding the mountain in cloud and fire so awesome that the people dare not go near it.
Still, God loved them and longed to seal His covenant with them forever. God longed to be their king, the only King they would ever need. Reading through the Exodus story, we hear God remind His people over and over again, “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, My mighty powers displayed.” God uses the time in the wilderness to teach them how to live a Godly life.
Why was such a God-centered life necessary for Israel? God is pure in a way we humans can only try to perceive. As He led Israel to the Promised Land, God appeared to Israel through the veil of clouds and fire because no one could hope to look upon the full Presence of God and expect to live. When Moses spoke to God personally, shrouded in that cloud, he returned to Israel with a glow on his face, created by the mere reflection of the pureness of God, that literally scared them so, Moses had to wear a veil to shield them from his radiant glory.
The need for a veil separating sinners from a Holy God is further reflected in God’s instructions for His Tabernacle, instructions so that His Presence might dwell there as He lived among His chosen people. The Holy of Holies, the most inner sanctum of that tabernacle, is where only the High Priest might enter, as close to God’s Presence as any person was allowed to be. And to go beyond that veil, the High Priest must himself be pure, atoned for and redeemed by the sacrifices and rituals God dictated for just that purpose.
All along, God continued to remind His people, not only of His power as displayed on the exodus from Egypt, but also of the personal relationship He longed to have with them. The phrase, “God, your God,” repeats over and over in Deuteronomy as Moses instructed the people on God’s commands. And as they began to conquer the Amorites and Canaanites and more to finally settle in the Promised Land, God reminded them of His power, how He would go before them and give them strength, just as He had in the past. Not only was He a personal God, He also must be known as “God, the God of Israel.”
More than a thousand years after the exodus from Egypt, God, our God chose to become God, our Savior, once and for all atoning for the sins you make and I make through the sacrifice of Jesus, God Who came to us living in human flesh, living a life without sin, and innocent, dying on a cross, once and for all saving all who choose to believe and to call Him Lord.
Salvation’s first step is accepting that the best control of your life belongs to God’s Higher Power. Submitting to His will, a problem for Israel even after all they had seen, assures that we are seeds planted in that deeper soil, flourishing for the sake of our Savior and His Kingdom. And in that place where God alone is King, we may kneel before His throne because Jesus’ sacrifice tore the curtain that once was needed to separate us. Jesus’ blood makes us pure before God.
Of the many lessons I learn from the Exodus story, I am most struck by the privilege it is to bow my head in prayer before the One, True God. And I am most aware that I am just as susceptible to mistakes and sin as Israel. How vigilant we must be to spend time in prayer with God, my God, God, your God. Like Israel we should know the Word of God, write it on our hearts, sear it into our souls, and act upon it with regularity and conviction. Like Israel, we must be aware of our susceptibility to fail in that mission.
Christians still need to repent of sins. We still need to acknowledge the will of God in our lives. We need to remember that we have been allowed into that Holy Place where God alone belongs. We fallible humans need the intervention Jesus gives. Because we must understand that need and not get too full of ourselves, I think the stories in the Bible show the good and the bad to warn us how easily we can fall short of God’s glory, too.
How fortunate we are that God’s love means Jesus’ sacrifice has absolved us once and for all! Walking with God in that personal relationship established from Genesis to Revelation, we can be strong and courageous in our real struggles with the challenges of this world, knowing we are no longer slaves to our sinfulness, but freed by the grace of God, the One and Only.
In Christ,
Ramona
Photo by Axel Sandoval
goodchristianfiction 