Painting Pictures of Egypt

FOCUS READING

Exodus 14:24-30 (NRSV)

At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.’

The Pursuers Drowned

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.’ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

DAILY BYTE

You heard yesterday that one of the questions that people are asked when they are old enough to speak for themselves when they are baptized is: “Do you repent of your sins and renounce all evil?”

This is the question with two parts. 1: Do you repent of your sins? And 2: Do you renounce all evil?

The first part looks back at the past. We continue to reflect on the story from Exodus today – so, this is the part that looks back at Egypt. This part of the question asks - are you ready for your old life to be drowned?

Are you ready to let go of all the fears and inhibitions and guilt and shame that have caged you before?

Because there is a new life – a new path stretching out in front of you, and that life is completely different from what has happened and what was expected of you before in Egypt.

In Egypt, the people of God were expected to do what they were told by their slavemasters. They were expected to follow the rules and to acquiesce to the powerful people that oppressed them. They were expected to accept their life in chains.

But in the new life of baptism is a completely new journey, and although it’s tempting to go back to Egypt and the old life (like the Israelites wanted to), if you don’t leave the old life behind, it’s impossible to walk freely into the new promises God has for us.

The new life is one where you’re asked: Do you renounce all evil? Do you agree to partner with God in triumphing over evil in this world and bringing about good? Do you agree moving forward to want what God wants? To this is good what God thinks is good? To stand up and speak out when injustice and oppression and every form of evil are racing in on their chariots?

Notice in the story from Exodus that te Egyptians only drowned after God told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea. As Moses obeyed God, the flood waters swooped in and it says, ”The Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.”

In our new life, God asks for our active role in working against evil so that evil won’t be able to chain the world with its power.

God says, even evil will be so awed by God’s power that it will have no choice but to say, “We must turn back – because the Lord is fighting for these people.” Those were the words of the Egyptians right before they drowned.

In our new life with Jesus, we agree to partner with God so that the powerful love of God is so evident in the world through our lives that nothing – no one – can ignore it.

Do you live this new life? Do you want this new life? Do you find yourself often turning back to Egypt?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Sara Groves sings a song, “Painting Pictures of Egypt,” about the struggle between leaving our old, chained lives behind to walk into the new life God has for us. May these words inspire your prayer today, as you seek to let go of the things that chain you and walk with God into a new life of powerful truth and justice:

I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I’ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned

The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
Caught between the promise
And the things I know