Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the Daily Challenges. Yesterday we read the story of the Exodus, when God led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

We can now see that God had all this planned. He knew that the people would be frightened. He knew that they would doubt him.

But he still chose to save them.

He helped the Israelites pass through an impossible barrier to their freedom.  He did it in an unmistakeably miraculous manner – with wind dividing the waters, drying the bottom so they could cross.

It didn’t last – the moment the Israelites were safe, the Egyptians pursued and drowned.

They were in a completely hopeless situation, so hopeless some wanted to give up and surrender.  But he intervened and rescued them from slavery.  Long ago, he’d promised that he’d bless the entire world through descendants of Abraham and Sarah.  He said they’d be a great nation numbering like the stars.

But all that probably seemed improbable while they were slaves.

I recently visited Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a museum in SW Ontario that, for many, represented the end of the underground railway.  The man known as Uncle Tom, who founded the community, had been a slave in the US and knew the hopelessness of slavery.  He made a deal with his owner, to buy his own freedom, only to find that the owner had tricked him.  Unable to read, he couldn’t tell that the owner had jacked up the price on the final contract.  The faintest glimmer of hope was not near enough.  He resolved to escape instead, preaching his way through the underground railway.

When he finally crossed into Canada, he reportedly kissed the ground with joy.  He’d been saved, he was free, and he devoted his life to helping free others.  It was the defining moment of his life.

The Exodus was the defining moment for Israel.  They look back on it every year in their most important festival called Passover, remembering how God showed them favour.  This was the festival underway when Jesus came to Jerusalem to die, which was no coincidence.

Question: In what ways was the Exodus a defining moment in the relationship between Israel and God?  How did the Exodus foreshadow what Jesus does for us?