Tue.’s Devo -Crossing Through the Red Sea

Read: Exodus 13:17-15:18; Matthew 21:23-46; Psalm 26:1-12; Provers 6:16-19 Jacob had made Joseph promise to bury his bones in the family plot and Joseph made the same request. He knew that one day God would take them back to their land and now 430 years later, God was doing it. It took the children of Israel days to get to the Red Sea. God had led them during the day with a pillar of cloud and at night the pillar became fire. God turned them back to camp by Pi-hahiroth. Pi-hahiroth means “mouth of the defiled”. It was across from Baal-Zehphon, the storm god of the north or the winter. He was the god who protected maritime trade so sanctuaries constructed to him were found around the Mediterranean sea. God dealt with this last god also as he took over the sea and let the wealth of Egypt pass through without a storm. He allowed that god to unleash his anger on the Egyptians instead of his people. When the Israelites were cornered with no escape in sight, God told them to stand back and see his salvation. He told Moses to pick up his staff and raise it over the Read Sea and divide it so the Israelites could pass through. I assume it was Michael who was leading them. He then went to the back and protected the very last one of them till they all passed over safely. When the Egyptians followed them into the sea, they realized God was fighting against them and for the Israelites. Not one of them made it out of the sea alive. When Moses raised his staff back over the waters, the sea completely covered them and they drowned. They saw God’s salvation on that day just like God said they would. Moses sang this triumphant song and taught it to the people. In Matthew, we get to see that the ones who were in authority on the earth were afraid of the people so it was really the people who had the power and didn’t realize it. The religious leaders questioned Jesus authority to do good. Jesus turned it back on them trying to force them into a corner. He asked them who’s authority John the Baptist came in. If they answered that it was from God then he would ask them why they didn’t believe him and if they answered that it wasn’t from God, the people would stone them. The same would happen if they said his authority wasn’t from God. Then Jesus told two parables. The first had to do with obedience which they had failed and the prostitutes and sinners had responded. The second was about the religious leaders who had been given a standard for worshipping God and leading the people. Israel was God’s vineyard that they had been given responsibility to protect and train in righteousness. Instead they had killed every prophet and now were about to kill the Messiah. He was the chief cornerstone that they were rejecting. Lord, you are the King of all the kings and the Lord of all the lords. You are the all-powerful, omnipotent God and we praise you. We accept you as our chief corner stone.