Crossing the Red sea. Courtesy Flickr by fdecomite

Reading: Exodus 14:13-30

“And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Standstill, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” ... So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.” NKJV

This passage is part of God’s delivery of His people out of Egypt. It is the crossing of the Red Sea and the last disaster that befell Egypt before Israel finally left for the land of Canaan. The scope of God’s miracle in this episode is beyond human imagination. I read a book on this miracle and I wish to reproduce here some of the things I read.

I looked up the word Jealous in Concise Oxford Dictionary and it said among other things “resentful towards another; on account of known or suspected rivalry; envious. (Biblical of God) – Intolerant of unfaithfulness. From this definition we get the meaning of jealousy and the reason for jealousy. In the Bible, God is described as jealous. Let us quickly scan through these passages to see His reason for jealousy. 

By Donald Macauley  [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Reading: Genesis 19:1-26; Luke 17:22-37.

“In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.  Remember Lot’s wife...” 

Our Topic today is a call to Remember.

Remembering implies what you ought to know that which perhaps you have forgotten or are prone to forget. It also implies that forgetting carries grave consequences. We shall in the talk focus our minds on two broad aspects of this topic.

First Corinthians 9:24-27; Hebrews 12:1-2

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.  Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” NKJV

Many of us, in fact, all of us, have watched one form of race or the other. We have watched athletics and we appreciate when the winner embraces the finishing line. We have even watched soccer and we all rise to cheer when a goal is scored. Paul must have keenly watched the Olympic games which started in Greece about 776 B.C. It was natural therefore for him to see, in these contests, certain analogies between such contests and the way in which the Christian conducts himself and leads the Christian life.