(This post comes from 1517.org. It was written by Daniel Emery Price, director of Christ Hold Fast, and resident of Bentonville, Arkansas. You can find the original post here.)
āThe Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.ā (Exodus 15:3)
What is your Goliath?
What in your life seems so gigantic, you might never defeat it?
Where is your Jericho?
Where is the area in your life that you need to see the walls crumble?
Who is your Pharaoh?
Who is trying to chase you down and take away your freedom?
Perhaps youāve had a pastor or āBible teacherā ask you these questions. If not, consider yourself blessed. I hate these questions. And the reason I hate them is that they assume all of my spiritual problems have to do with someone not named āME.ā
Some may read the story of Pharaoh pursuing Moses and the children of Israel, with Pharaohās army drowning in the Red Sea, as an illustration for how there are things in life trying to take away our freedom. And if you just believe enough, muster enough faith, God will make a way through the raging sea that blocks your escape.
But I donāt read it that way at all.
First of allāyesāI read it as a historical narrative, retelling an actual event.
But all of these stories are pointing to something elseāSomeone else.
Jesus says that āsomething elseā is salvation and that āSomeone elseā is Him.
The crossing of the Red Sea is a story about God faithfully saving His people. Itās also a story about God saving you. And not just about God saving you any old way. Itās about Jesus saving you violently through water.
Weāve all heard the old saying, āIām my own worst enemy.ā Well, thatās trueāyou areāand so am I.
Iām my own Goliath of sin. I build my own Jericho walls desperately trying to keep God from getting too close to me. And my heart is its own Pharaoh, demanding I stay in bondage to sin and death. But God slays the giant of my sin. He reduces all my walls to rubble. He drowns me and my āarmy-of-selfā to ensure my freedom.
āThe Lord is a man of warāāand what a merciful war it is! He kills us to save us. We die to live. We lose our lives to find them in Him.
Paul says inĀ 1 Corinthians 10:1-2,Ā āI do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the seaā¦ā
The Red Sea speaks of Baptism in the same way the Flood does. God brings people through it. Deliverers them to Himself through it. But make no mistakeāitās violent. Evil is washed away. Itās a drowning. A death. And itās not the death of who we might think is our worst enemy. Itās the death of the worst people we knowāUS.
Baptism is how God kills and makes alive. Peter says, Baptism, like the Flood,Ā ānow saves youāĀ (1 Peter 3:21). Itās the death of the old and beginning of the new creation. Itās a gracious violence that destroys the enemy of sin and self and unites us with Jesus Christ.
Soā¦
What is my Goliath?Ā Itās in my own sin.
Where is my Jericho?Ā Itās in my self-sufficiency.
Who is my Pharaoh?Ā Heās in my wicked heart.
But praise God for being a man of war! He has conquered me. And I can now join Moses in singing:Ā āI will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.āĀ (Exodus 15:1)