There is a school of thought that says when a powerful person says jump, the only appropriate question is to ask them how high. It may be true or not, but some folks live by that premise. If that’s the case, should we do the same with God? Consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Exodus 14:16 AFV
[16] And you—lift your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
Directive
God’s word to Moses didn’t stop with the directive to move, God also said how. Could it be that as the Most Powerful of all, God already knows that sometimes we need to hear how high we need to jump without us asking? Just think, in that Pharaoh and the deep reed sea moment, when the action needed to be quick, getting specific directions was perfectly in order.
Self-Check
Do we make the time to hear God’s directive in totality, or do we move off before the entire message is shared?
Application
It may be helpful to see what God’s ‘how high’ involved. Here, we see three simple actions that preceded the outcome. Let’s quickly explore them.
Lift up your rod
As a shepherd, it is likely that Moses went nowhere without his rod. The rod – a short, sturdy club – was the key tool used by the shepherd to protect the sheep from predators. It was both offensive and defensive, as the shepherd could shoo an animal away or attack it directly.
If we take this shepherding analogy in the context of pharaoh and the Children of Israel, we may view the Children of Israel as the sheep, and pharaoh as the marauding animal. David tells us that, on seeing the rod, the sheep are comforted (see Psalm 23:4). Lifting the rod meant that it was well, Moses was preparing for battle at God’s behest.
Can we see Y’shua, our Good Shepherd (see John 10), lifting His rod of comfort and protection in our situations?
Stretch out your hand over the sea
At that point in the text, we didn’t know how God would destroy the enemy, but we do know that God promised they would be no more. Nevertheless, retreat was not likely the best option. The Children of Israel feared a watery grave as much as they feared pharaoh, or even more so. It might have been that the average Hebrew wasn’t a swimmer (hence the pharaoh’s ‘death by drowning’ policy for infant boys, which suggested that the parents would swim to fish the children out of the Nile); but God planned their redemption by way of the river. The very thing that was a symbol of death, would now offer life.
As I typed, the concept of baptism and renewal crossed my mind. Could this be a type of what baptism would later symbolise? (A type means it offers a hint or a pattern of something the Messiah would do in later years)
We recognise that when we pass through the waters of baptism we are marked as Christ’s. And in that moment, regardless of the battle, it is all victory in Y’shua. While we once drowned in sin, we move through the waters into new life in Christ.
How might Y’shua’s hands be an opportunity for us to move past our fears, so that we find redemption in Him? Let’s also remember God’s assurance in Isaiah 43:2, which memorialises the experience – God is with us as we go through the waters.
Divide it (the waters of the sea)
This was the ultimate marvel. The Hebrews had seen drowning in the river, the river bleeding as though mourning the deaths of those murdered in its depths, they even used the river for irrigation. But none had seen a river part to create a dry patch! That my siblings, was pure God. It would not be replicated by magicians, God’s glory and awesome power would be on full display.
That is also what Y’shua offers each of us today and always. The opportunity to see the way out to salvation, for He is The Way.
Our directive today isn’t so much to lift our rod, stretch it forth and part the sea. Rather, as the sheep benefiting from the Shepherd’s actions, we will walk on dry ground to the Land of Promise.
Point to Ponder
Will we follow the Shepherd’s lead? And if called to lead others, will we await the specifics of God’s directive on how high?
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May all we seek be found in Christ
