Exodus 14:19-31; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35

The scripture I will use this morning is the one from the Old Testament, and this scripture does not need any introduction. We know it by heart; songs and movies have come out of this miracle because out of all God’s miracles in the Old Testament, this is the one on top. This event has been meaningful not only for Israel but also for many other people. This scripture is significant, not only for the incredible display of power God shows but also because it is the first experience Israel had directly with the great I AM; before this, God dealt with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Pharaoh. Israel saw God’s mighty hand acting on their behalf in the plagues, especially the last plague, but they were not involved directly, now they are in the middle of this great miracle.

   In our story today, Israel is between a rock and a hard place. They have the desert and a body of water in front of them, the Egyptian army at their back. This event is a very decisive moment in Israel’s faith. Still, they are not facing it in a vacuum. They already saw God’s hand moving on their behalf; they already knew what God was willing to do to protect them and fulfill the promises made to Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac; they had good references of who God is.

All they had to do is to remember what God did in Egypt. All they had to do was encourage each other by saying something like:

If God saved our firstborns just a couple of days ago, He can save us today;

He showed us that He is greater than any Egyptian god; with His power, He can save us now.

However, they did not, instead, listen to what they said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”      

Israel’s first experience as people with the great I AM was a powerful, liberating act, and they could not see it. He wanted His people to be free; Israel’s response to this act of love and commitment was: “we rather serve the Egyptian.” Let us not forget that this is the same people crying out to the Lord; their cry was a cry of liberation. Listen to Exodus 3:7, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.”

God is giving them what they cried out for, what they prayed for; now, God is giving them freedom, and they want to go back to their slave drivers. Israel’s behavior reminds me of The Shawshank Redemption movie. The movie is about a group of inmates in the Shawshank Prison who learn that fear is the real jail in their lives.

         There is a character named Brooks; he has been a longtime resident at Shawshank. Once he serves his time, he leaves the prison and begins a new life on the outside. In a particularly heartbreaking scene in the movie, Brooks reads a letter he is writing to his friends back at Shawshank, telling them about how life on the outside is for him. “Dear fellas -wrote-, I can’t believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid, but now they are everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big hurry.

The parole board got me into this halfway house called ‘The Brewer’ and a job bagging grocery at the Foodway. It’s hard work, and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time. I do not think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work, I go to the park and feed the birds. I have trouble sleeping at night; I have bad dreams as if I am falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun, and rob the Foodway, so they would send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I am too old for that sort of nonsense anymore. I do not like it here. I’m tired of being afraid all the time. I’ve decided not to stay.” The scene ends with Brooks committing suicide.

 Fear of his freedom was too much for him; strangely enough, freedom was the very thing he longed for, and when it became real, he could not adjust his life to it. Now he longs for going back to jail what he calls now “home.”

What Brooks experienced seemed to be also true for the Hebrews. They cried out for help; they cried out to be released from their hard work; from their slavery. God got them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror and signs and wonders, Deut. 26:8 says. However, when they saw Pharaoh’s mighty army, they forgot the mighty wonders and signs God did on their behalf. Their fear was so big and intimidating that even after years of backbreaking work, misery, violence, slavery, and oppression, they suggested returning to Egypt.

 Because of the fear of what was at their back, they were prevented from seeing who was ahead of them; because of the fear for who was chasing them, they were prevented from seeing who was defending them.

          You know many of us are not different from the Hebrews and Brooks, the character from The Shawshank Redemption movie. God in Jesus had offered us freedom, new life, the possibility of a new beginning, the opportunity to be part of His kingdom, His people. However, we persistently refuse to understand and take advantage of His offer, and we continue in our personal Egypt dreaming one day with being free.  

As Jesus’ followers, we have to understand that Jesus came to make us free. Free from the wages of sin, which is eternal death, He came to give us eternal life. However, many of us voluntarily decide to continue living our old life, and as the Hebrews, we are standing before the path God is ready to open for us, paralyzed by the fear of change. Sadly, many Christians invest more time, strength, and resources dreaming of going back to the “good of days” instead of going forward to the new beginnings, the new blessings God has for us.

The message for us this Sunday is, God in Jesus wants to make us free, free from our bad habits, from our bad practices, from our prejudice, free from our old way of thinking. Accept Jesus and what He has for you; do not look at what you will leave behind; just look at what is ahead of you; do not look at who or what is threatening or holding you; look at who is defending you. Stretch out your hand in faith as Moses did, and the waters will be opened, and you will walk on dry land, and a completely new life will be waiting for you on the other side. Trust in God; surrender your life; you will not be disappointed.