Day 34: Exodus 13-15

Welcome to five -minute Bible your daily guide for your daily reading today's February the 3rd and we'll be talking about Exodus 13 through 15

Now today's reading moves us from redemption accomplished to redemption sign sealed and delivered

Exodus 13 through 15 records Israel's first steps as a free people after 400 years of slavery and the final overthrow of Pharaoh in the eruption of worship on the far shore of the

Red Sea Is the Egyptians body sank beneath its steps below what began with blood on the doorpost?

Ends with the enemies of God buried beneath the waters. The Lord does not merely rescue his people from slavery

He renders their enemy powerless forever Even though that victory must first be trusted before it is fully seen now

Exodus 13 begins after redemption has already occurred Israel has been freed by the blood of the

Passover lamb and God immediately commands his people to remember and he institutes practices of Remembrance so that salvation will never be treated as a moment that fades out of memory

But as an identity that shapes their worship their family life in the way that they even educate future generations

Freedom is preserved by the memory that is secured in their sight

Now God then leads Israel forward not by the shortest or the safest route but he deliberately brings them into the wilderness and his presence goes before them in a pillar of fire by night and cloud by Day, and the people must learn how to follow

God's movement rather than their own instinct Redemption has happened here. But trust is still being formed now

Exodus 14 brings the story to its decisive Confrontation Pharaoh changes his mind and he pursues

Israel saying I can't let these slaves get out of my control So he traps them between the

Red Sea and certain death and with no strength of their own with no visible escape

Pointed on any side Israel is forced to do nothing But trust in the promises of God before they will see

God bringing the victory. The sea is divided miraculously Israel passes through safely being led by the

Angel of the Lord Which is a which is a type of Christ even right there in the pages of Exodus Egypt follows in defiance and is swallowed alive as the waters come down on top of their head

Israel is safe Egypt is destroyed. The enemy is not just weakened, but it is erased forever

And then in Exodus 15, they don't respond with a kind of post -war

Analysis, but with worship Moses and Israel sing to the Lord as a warrior who's triumphed

Gloriously over his enemies and yet the chapter closes with a test in the wilderness reminding us that while the victory was

Instant learning how to live in the presence of God was gonna take this people a long time

Now as you read today, I want you to ask the following question Why does God promise the defeat of his enemies?

before he visibly destroys them and Exodus 13 through 15 teaches us that faith is formed in the space between God's Word and God's action and that's the central pattern of Exodus 13 through 15 is promised victory before visible judgment

Israel is declared free before Pharaoh is drowned. The enemy is defeated in God's decree

Before he is actually destroyed in God's action and this is not God Hesitating or God being weak in some way.

This is a kind of divine pedagogy And what I mean by that is that God uses this to teach his people how to trust him and this intersects with our life in so many dramatic ways because we often believe that when we see that God says in his word that he's

Gonna destroy all of his enemies. He's gonna reign until he's put all of his enemies under his feet We believe that and yet we see the enemies of God running amok and reigning all over the place and we become scared we believe that what

God has freed us from still is gonna reclaim us or or is still gonna be active and still gonna

Overtake us and Exodus denies that fear. God's redemption is not provisional.

Yes, the enemy may pursue Yes, they may threaten. Yes, they may roar and yes, they may kill some of us

But but God has already judged them and faith learns how to walk forward not by sight but by faith

Trusting that God's Word is more certain than our present circumstances and our dangers praise must rise quickly to the

Lord but trust often grows slowly as we walk with the Lord and redemption secures our freedom

Discipleship teaches us how to live as if that freedom is true and all of this points directly and powerfully to Jesus Christ the crossing of the

Red Sea foreshadows salvation through judgment where death becomes the pathway to life where scripture later describes this moment as a kind of Baptism a passage through the water and new identity and allegiance not to Moses but to Jesus Pharaoh's defeat anticipates

Christ's Decisive victory over sin and Satan and death and what the sea does to Egypt the cross does to the power of darkness

They are judged. They are exposed They are ultimately destroyed even though their final removal is still unfolding in space and time

Just as Israel walks free while Pharaoh still lurches and lurks and pursues

The church lives redeemed and free even while we await the final destruction of every enemy the song of Moses finds its ultimate fulfillment as well in the

Redeemed in Revelation where Christ's victory is celebrated forever where Christ's people walk in victory

Promised where they sing to God a new song both now and forever

So with that as you read Exodus 13 through 15 today I want you to listen carefully to the song that rises after the sea

Closes, I want you to see that salvation has been won The enemy has been condemned, but the journey has only just begun and tomorrow

We're gonna watch how this redeemed people are going to learn Unsuccessfully time and time again how to trust

God how to walk with God in the long space between victory declared and Victory realized and with that read your

Bible carefully Devotionally and joyfully and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow