The silence of victory

I heard an insight from one of my favorite preachers, the blessed Tim Keller, concerning the Exodus sea crossing and I felt you all would benefit from it as well.

Israel had been brutally enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The Israelites cried out and God heard them, and God raised up one named Moses out of the chaos. Moses would become the unlikely representative of God to man and man to God. Moses entered into Egypt, and God poured out plagues onto the land of Egypt. Eventually, Pharaoh released his grip on his slaves and allowed the Israelites to go free.

The Israelites made it to the sea. It was not crossable. A dead end. As they looked back on where they had traveled from, they saw the Egyptian army chasing them down. There was going to be no return.

Moses, and God, had brought them into their own death sentance. And they know as much, saying were there not enough graves in Egypt that you have brought us into this place to die?

God through Moses responds to their crying out by saying:

The Israelites, surrounded by sure death and chaos, are told to rest assured that the Lord will provide their yeshua, their salvation (yes, Exodus 14:13 uses the name of Jesus…).

How can I be silent with such circumstances? With chaos before me? And death chasing me from behind?

God opens the sea for the Israelites and they walk through on dry ground. Then, he closes the sea behind them, swallowing up the armies of death. Once freed from the sea of chaos and the army of death, they continue forward towards Sinai, where they will meet with God.

This moment was but a shadow of a greater conquering God will do through Jesus. Jesus would come seeing the human plight in which each of us is born into chaos and death, and Jesus himself would plunge into the sea. By his entering into death and emergence to the other side, he provides for us safe passage through death and into life. And in conquering death, providing eternal life, what other form of chaos could stand against us who have followed Christ through the sea? What other weapon formed against us could steal our rest, our peace, our comfort or confidence? There is no thing, because in Christ we have overcome the world.

Because Christ’s victory is so complete, we have only to be silent. The battle is already won.

We are not so good at staying silent.

Our hearts are often left churning by the chaos of the world, rather than finding rest in Christ. Anxious thoughts flood our minds. Stress fills our conversations. We are uneasy as we walk into the world. We are unsure as we participate in life with others.

We share every opinion, broadcasting our thoughts on every event as if it is our duty. And even when we don’t speak our opinion, our heart cries out within us on how we think things ought to be.

Rather than practicing the stillness of Mary before the feet of Jesus, many of us are Martha, doing and moving, all the while missing out on Christ because we are too busy doing good things.

Our lives prove to be anything but silent, anything but still.

And yet, because Christ is victorious, we can be still. We can be silent. We can trust the Lord and his salvation.

I encourage you to get away today. To find a place where you can be silent, even for a couple minutes, where you can look to your salvation. To be with Jesus.

There is no better place to be.

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It would help me a lot. Thanks for reading! 

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