Looking Back, Moving Forward

“Though you see Egypt today, You will never see it again!”  Moses claimed to the heart-stricken Israelites who looked at him like he had rocks in his head.  They looked at the Sea of reeds in front of them, back to the army that was rapidly approaching, with the latest technology for efficient warfare, the chariots, then back at the children, the grandmothers, the pregnant moms, the sullen teenagers, and back again to Moses.  And all that water.

No wonder they complained to Moses.  They had no experience with wilderness living, and plenty of experience with city dwelling.  They had no experience with freedom, and precious little trust in either Moses or God.  Their previous life had been harsh and demanding, and they had become used to following orders.  It was tough and unfair, but it had its familiar pattern.  Following Moses out into the wilderness on a whim lost its appeal when the sparkle of metal swords glinting in the sun and the great noise of a mighty army was growing closer by the minute.

They knew what to expect back home.  Pharaoh’s soldiers might be bossy and bullying, but they also fed everyone, and there was a roof over their heads every night.  Not to mention beautiful sculptures and art, and full employment for all the able-bodied men on the Pharaoh’s pyramid.  No unions or holidays, but hey, it was stable and predictable.  What would happen next was also predictable, certain genocide.  By any logical standard, they were doomed and they knew it.

What wasn’t predictable was God.  What wasn’t predictable was Moses ordering them into the swamp.  What wasn’t predictable was a dry passage to safety.  What wasn’t predictable was a complete rout of the army.

It would be easy to dismiss this as myth or fairy tale without any sound archeological evidence to back it up, but the story is a profound reminder to trust that even when our senses tell us otherwise, even when we are feeling overwhelmed, even when the odds are against us, we are not to discount that God may be in action in ways we just can’t picture or understand. 

Stories we don’t’ understand like the one I read in Scientific American.  Michael Sherman wrote the story of his wedding day. His bride Jennifer was missing her grandfather who had been like a dad to her because he died when she was 16.  She moved to the United States and shipped boxes of possessions to her new home.  Some arrived broken, like her grandfather’s 1978 transistor radio, which refused to turn on.  Sherman did everything he could to fix that radio, but it refused to work.  The day of the wedding, after they said their vows, they heard music coming from his bedroom.  The grandfather’s radio turned on and played a romantic song.  It played all the rest of the day and stopped working that night.  It hasn’t worked since.  What makes this story odd is not what happened, I’ve heard similar stories in my job, it’s who tells the story.  Michael Sherman is the publisher of Skeptic Magazine, which is devoted to debunking and disproving such stories!

But the real point of today’s scripture is not whether or not the parting of the Red Sea or Reed Sea really happened, but that in the midst of the crisis the Israeli people faced, they did what humans still do today.  They mythologized the past.

They told themselves the lie that the ‘good old days’ were really good, and certainly better than their current moment.  They forgot the depression, the hopelessness, the lack of freedom, the oppression, the brutality and the slavery they had lived in. Their previous life was glamorized and exaggerated.

Maybe Moses hadn’t communicated the possibilities clearly enough.  Maybe he didn’t have a clear enough vision to excite the people.  Maybe he glossed over the challenges that would face them.  Maybe he hadn’t realized that Pharaoh would change his mind again. 

Nevertheless, God didn’t look back.  God knew that these people deserved a better future.  God knew that a contingency plan existed.  And like Jesus reminded his followers centuries later, God was willing again and again, 7 times 70 to forgive the people their lack of faith, and their lack of hope in God.

We are in a similar bind.  The past is now seen as the ‘normal’ we can’t wait to get back to.  Normal times when we have a vaccine, when the pandemic is over.  And yet those ‘good old days’ were ones where our economic system was based on the exploitation of immigrant women working multiple low-paid jobs, where people got shot by police for being non-white, where global warming was still not being seriously considered, where our waters and air were being polluted, and where seniors were being warehoused in conditions that were sometimes as bad as slave quarters in Egypt.  Maybe looking back to those ‘good old days’ are not what we should be doing, but looking to the unpredictable future God is bringing us into.  God may have to terrify us into moving into the swampy lands to get to a world we can’t imagine, where there is housing for all, a guaranteed income, lives that are not lived in a blur of non-stop activity, where global warming is addressed and sustainable energy is a reality.  A future where Hong Kong, Beijing and New Delhi citizens can see the stars every night.  A future where families do not have to live in fear of domestic violence. A future where water is cherished as a gift that everyone protects, and a future where we all work together to ensure that no one feels oppressed.  Maybe it’s time to ask God to help us in a situation that is just as scary as an army of chariots.  To stand back and catch the vision God has for us, so we can move forward in hope to a new and better world.  Our unpredictable God is with us in this time of change and transition!  Halleluiah!