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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Ex. 13
The exodus from Egypt and the book of Revelation are connected. As always, I don’t see the whole message clearly. However I can see the connection. Both stories speak of plagues from God. And in both cases there is a group of people who harden their hearts toward God in the midst of His judgments and a group covered by God’s protection.
The key connection to me, though, is what God said about the observance of this day of freedom and the coinciding consecration of the firstborn. “So let it be a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead for the LORD brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand.” (Ex. 13:16). This directly counters the mark of the beast seen in the book of Revelation. These seem to be marks of ownership, indicating who we serve. They represent the choice we all have. We can stand as God’s redeemed, thus being marked as His and spared from His judgment. Or, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath” (Rev. 14:9b-10a).
Ex. 14
The Israelites did a great job of revealing our human nature. They became afraid when the Egyptian army came up behind them. As far as they could tell, they were trapped and their death at the hand of the Egyptians was certain. So they cried to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Ex. 14:11a). There they were, in the very presence of their life-giving Creator, yet they failed to recognize life in their situation. Instead, they longed for physical life under the heavy burden of slavery to an oppressive ruler, not realizing that such a life wasn’t life at all.
How often do we turn away from our true life in an effort to save what we wrongly perceive to be life? Such has been the human way from the beginning. This is such a critical point that all four of the Gospels mention Jesus’ instruction about it. “The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (Jn. 12:25). Yes, far better to die in the wilderness in the presence of our God than to live in bondage to evil.
Ex. 15
When the people arrived at Marah, they had no water to drink because the water there was bitter. So they did what we seem to do best. They grumbled. And they worried, saying, “What are we going to drink?” (Ex. 15:24b). This sent my mind straight to what Jesus preached in His Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew. “So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?” or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” (Matt. 6:31-33).
This was essentially the response God gave the people at Marah. He told them to seek Him, “For I am the LORD who heals you.” (Ex. 15:26b). He even made it easy for them by taking them directly from this place of testing to a place of abundant provision. How’s that for confirmation of a promise? We don’t always get such immediate and obvious confirmation after a time of testing. But that’s part of why God gave us the Bible. If we simply take Him at His word, we will have all the trust we need.