Tuesday, September 26, 2017

THE PARTING OF THE RED SEA AND SALVATION IN CHRIST.

Moses told the people to “stand by and watch the Lord save…”; God had a different response… “tell the people to go forward…”

Exod. 14:13-14 – But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”
Exod. 14:15-16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.
Exod. 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Faith and obedience, when the people did as the LORD commanded, the people still ‘saw’ the salvation of the LORD; notice:
Exod. 14:30-31 – Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.

How often it is that people are preached the same message as Moses’ words, “do nothing; keep silent...just believe in God to do it all; sit back and let Him save; you can’t be saved by ‘doing anything’; salvation is by faith alone...”.

God has given commands for us to obey and He will save us…do we believe that? THAT is exactly what happened in this story from Exodus. Their deliverance from bondage was by the Lord’s hand, yet they were not to sit idly and watch, doing nothing…they were to ACT on their belief in God to save. They were commanded to apply blood, to march as directed by the pillar of cloud and fire that HE provided; and at the Red Sea, they were to march across; Moses was to do something as well. “Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it…”. Now think for a moment on that command…did Moses, by his own power, cause the waters to divide, or was it God who caused the parting? What did this command have to do with anything…could not God part the waters without Moses doing this act with his staff?

But if Moses did NOT do what was commanded, would the results have been the same? We need look no further than another instance when God gave a command to Moses about causing water to flow by speaking to a rock, yet Moses smote the rock. Water came forth, but what effect did it have on Moses? Who caused the water to come forth? Did Moses please God, or disobey God? Did it matter?
Truth is simple, we can easily see the implication that is meant from these stories…that’s why they’re there for… “our learning”; “our admonition” [Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:6, 11].

These stories are in our bibles that we might know for sure HOW to be saved from our bondage to sin. Faith in God’s power to save us ~ the gospel message (Rom. 1:16). The gospel calls upon us to exercise our faith in obedience to particular commands, given by God, whether those commands have relevance in our minds or not. Did the raising of Moses staff have anything to do with parting water; was it related in any way? From another story (the walls of Jericho); did marching around the city walls contribute to, or cause the walls to fall? Was it not God who accomplished it? Why then, give the command to march, have priests blow on ram’s horns and everyone shout? All these things were to be done BECAUSE GOD COMMANDED IT TO BE DONE!

Nothing commanded was acts of merit, nor understood to be robbing God of the glory due Him. So it is with belief, repentance, confession, and immersion in water ~ these are to be done BECAUSE GOD COMMANDED IT TO BE DONE!

Truth is simple to see, but, as the hymn we sing says, will we “TRUST AND OBEY”?

9/26/2017
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