Catch Up

One of my hero's from childhood.......The Phantom. Cool outfit. Has a wolf for a pet. Rides a white horse (Of course) and live in the jungle.  If you followed the comic strip, at certain points during the story, the artist would insert the following........."For those who may have come in late..."

Then there would be recap to catch everyone up to speed on what was happening now.

God does this in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses is giving one final sermon/message to the people who are getting ready to enter the land that God had promised them. One final time of remembrance  for the people to not forget who had made this trip possible..God.

God came down into the middle of their messy, dark, lives of slavery and delivered them from the power and authority of the Egyptians. I mean God did a number on these guys. What's even better, God lured the Egyptians out into a trap. After Israel had departed on runway # 5 from Egypt, the Pharaoh suddenly came to his senses and said, "What have I done?" He called for his army to assemble and he went after the Israelites with a mad-on.

Meanwhile God had used Israel as bait for Pharaoh by the location He had them set up camp. The sea at their backs..and the oncoming Egyptian Army coming at them...no where to run, God had everything in place to work one more miracle. How did Israel respond? Not to good. Whining and crying and blaming Moses for everything. You know, if I'd been Moses, I would have been sorely tempted to just throw in the towel and head for home. I'm glad he didn't. God tells Moses,"Yo! Why are you still crying out to me? Get up and move forward." To which Moses probably thought to himself, "Forward? Excuse me there is one little problem and it's called 'AN OCEAN!!!!" You know what? Those little things don't stop God and with a blast from his nostrils, he sent an East wind that divided the ocean. Put that in your pipe Jacque Cousteau and smoke it! God rules! God is beyond comprehension! God is God!

Long story short.
Israel cut and ran into the divided waters.

Pharaoh saw this and took his army into high gear and made hot pursuit after the former slaves of Egypt.

Israel made it. Came out on the other side, high and dry without a scratch.
Egyptians?
Not so much.
As Larry Norman put it so aptly, "God closed up the waters and the Egyptians all took a bath.

Moses was instructed by God to tell the story once more for the people to hear.

I'm not Moses and I don't lead a group of former slaves, but God has had me remembering this week.
I have started transferring my messages and sermons from the early 90's to digital. Listening to my messages, I find myself remembering a lot of what God has done that I had forgotten. It is so cool to hear stories about things that have left my memory (That is a scary thought that the ol' noggin might have run out of storage room or, even worse, sprang a memory leak). I am grateful that I hung on to these messages and can go back remember from my past. It is an encouragement to hear stories about healing and salvation and times when God showed up in a meeting. It makes me have a greater appreciation of today and a realization that God isn't finished.

I guess I'm going through my own "Deuteronomy" moment.
God on you......

mb