Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for this daily challenge. It’s Thursday, the day we try to apply and live out what we’ve learned this week from the Bible. This week we’ve been studying how God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, then from attack by the pursuing Egyptian army, by helping them pass through the Red Sea.
We saw yesterday this accomplished the same thing for two groups of people – it showed Pharaoh that Yahweh is God, and it showed the Israelites the same. It showed that God is all powerful, that he can be trusted to follow through on what he says, and that no one can stand in his way for long.
Good for us to learn, as well.
Defining moment for Israel as a nation – they have been saved from death bya miraculous act of God’s grace, even when they doubted and wanted to give up.
This is like the definition of a Christian – someone who has passed through the waters of baptism, where they should have died, but instead were saved and given new life. This experience brought them together as one nation, as God’s chosen people, and baptism is meant to bring Christians together as one nation, too, called the church.
Paul, a Christian author who wrote most of the New Testament said this about the people who passed through the Red Sea, “For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1–4)
The food part is referring to the manna, food that fell from heaven while they wandered in the desert shortly after this. This was a call for the church to be one people, without divisions or disparity. No matter who we were, where we came from, God rescued us and wants to make us his people.
Not something we earn by being perfect – it’s clear the Israelites were doubting, afraid and ready to give up. It’s something we receive as a gift of God’s grace. Then, it was for one particular people, but through Jesus, it’s for anyone willing to trust and follow Jesus through the waters of baptism, and into new life.
Need an outward sign of this trust. For Christians that is baptism – a sign that we’ll follow him anywhere, and trust him with anything. One time event that leads to a lifetime of other signs that show we’re still his people, still trusting, still believing.
Challenge: If you’ve never been baptized, contact Ryan today to learn how.