A Road Through the Middle of the Sea

God's people were free at last. Out of Egypt, out from under the whips and the long, aching years. And God himself went ahead of them, a tall cloud in the daytime and a warm fire in the dark, so that not once, not even in the night, would they have to wonder where he was. He was right there. He could not stop being close to them.

But then they came to the edge of the sea.

A wide, dark sea, with no end you could see.

And behind them came a sound: the thunder of hooves. The whole army of Egypt, chariots and spears, racing to drag them back. The king had changed his mind. He wanted his slaves again.

Now picture it. Deep water in front, galloping soldiers behind, and steep mountains shutting them in on either side. There was no way out in any direction.

Have you ever felt like that? Trapped, with no way out, your heart pounding so loud you could hardly think?

That is just how they felt. They were so afraid they cried out, "Did God bring us all this way only to let us die here?" Only a few nights before, he had carried them safely through the darkest night in Egypt, sheltered behind the blood of the lamb. But fear has a short memory.

Moses said, "Be still. Don't be afraid. Watch what God will do."

And then God did the thing nobody could have dreamed.

He told Moses to lift his staff over the water. All night a great wind came roaring and pushing, and the sea did the thing seas are never supposed to do. It opened, right down the middle. The waters stood up tall on the left and tall on the right, like two great trembling walls. And between them lay a road: a dry, safe road straight through the middle of the sea, where a moment before there had been no way at all.

So God's whole family walked through. Mothers carrying babies, old men leaning on their sticks, little ones who would tell this story for the rest of their lives. They walked across the bottom of the deep on dry ground, walls of water on either side and the morning light ahead. And when the very last one was safely over, the waters came rushing home, and the danger was swept away behind them.

On the far shore they sang. Oh, how they sang. They danced and clapped and shouted, because the God who loved them had made a road where there was none. That song was so full of joy it needs a page all its own.

And hidden inside this story, like a seed waiting in the ground, lay a greater one.

A day was coming when the trap would be deeper than any sea. Death itself, dark and cold with no road out, would hold God's children fast. And Someone would come who loved them more than Moses ever could. He would walk down, down into those waters, all the way under. And he would rise up on the other side, and behind him there would be a road, dry and safe, straight through death and out into the morning.

His name is Jesus. He is leading his whole family home through the deep even now. And he will not lose a single one along the way.