Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Psalm 114:7-8 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.
SAVED WITH A MIGHTY HAND
When Moses led the Children of Israel out of their captivity in Egypt and toward the Promised Land, the mighty hand of God was obvious. It was God who parted the Red Sea so the whole nation could walk through on dry ground. It was God who sent manna and quail, giving them food to eat. It was God who turned the hard rock into a spring of water from which they could drink. The LORD was among them, and His presence was with them to save them.
The Jewish Passover was a celebration of the miraculous escape from Egypt. With the Passover, they were to remember the night they were freed from the tyrant Pharaoh. When Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples on Maundy Thursday, this event from Israel's history would have been brought to mind.
But the mighty hand of God was not yet finished. For Jesus was on His way to the cross, where He would release not one nation, but an entire world from its captivity -- its captivity to sin, death, and the devil. And the miracles involved in this "exodus" would be no less astounding than those performed in the desert many years before.
The sinless Lamb bears in Himself the sin of the world. Is not that a wonder? Once again, the LORD is among His people to save them. "Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob."
