Egyptians are swallowed by the sea and God's people rejoice. Moses sings and Miriam dances as they worship the Deliverer. And then Moses leads them on into the wilderness.
I can't help but wonder what the people thought as the singing died down and the celebration completed. What were they thinking as they awoke the next morning realizing they were in a different land with no way to get back?
I was blessed to go to Australia with a friend many years ago, and I remember the first night clearly. I would wake up and think about my family and home, and as the night wore on I became a little unsettled. I was an entire ocean away from my kids. How would I get to them if there was an emergency? Why in the world did I think this was a good idea?! I didn't get much sleep that night.
It must have been a scary place to be. The slaves weren't traveling for a couple of weeks and returning home... they could never return.
It's Good Friday, the place of no return. The day we remember Jesus carrying His cross to Golgotha. Beaten, bloody and bruised the soldiers hammer nails into His feet and hands. The people mock Him and watch as he struggles to breathe and cries out to God.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46There's no turning back now. Our Savior, the Redeemer of the world, is dying. Dying in order to set us free. And as His lungs breathe in one last breath and He whispers, "It is finished," we too cross the sea of death into a new land. This world will never be the same. Our lives will never be the same.
Father God, bless me with the faith to follow Jesus into the wilderness,
to come to the place of complete freedom and no return to who or where I was before.
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