Friday, September 2, 2016

The line between a WORK OF FAITH and OBEDIENCE.

Exo 14:5-14
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, “What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?” So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him; he took six hundred picked chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and he pursued the Israelites, who were going out boldly. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his chariot drivers and his army; they overtook them camped by the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

I pause here to ask a pointed question. If we are familiar with this account, we recall that God parted the Red Sea and Israel escaped through the parted waters. What we just read above, in Exodus 14:14, is that God is going to do the saving and the Israelites didn't have to do anything. They didn't have to do squat!


Exodus 14:15-22
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.”
The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.

Again I ask, If this is an account of God's salvation, why did the Israelites have to walk through the sea? Isn't that a work? Everybody knows that salvation is not by works but by faith! Why did the Israelites have to walk through the sea? The reason is because walking through the sea is NOT a work of faith nor is it a work that merits salvation. It is simple obedience. It is appropriating a gift that was created apart from their own doing. Is it obvious that there would have been no salvation if the Israelites had declined to cross the sea? if they had refused to cross on the basis that crossing smacks too much of their notions of a work of salvation? Yes. It is obvious.

posted from Bloggeroid

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