Critics of the Bible attempt to debunk it by denying any miracle story it contains. They have given special attention to trivializing the amazing story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
In fact, a funny story illustrates their failure to do so. In it, a pastor was speaking about the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, when a skeptic felt the need to tell him that the water in the Red Sea was really only six inches deep; therefore, the parting of the waters was not a miracle at all.
At that news, the pastor grew even more excited and proclaimed, “Oh, what a miracle! The Egyptian army drowned in six inches of water!”
While these critics point out the lack of evidence affirming this miraculous deliverance, I find proof in the fact the Israelites began celebrating the miracle of the Exodus as soon as they left Egypt. They knew what had happened, and their remembrance of the event became an annual weeklong feast they have been celebrating for 3,500 years now.
The God Who Sets Us Free
The exodus event is engraved in the DNA of the Jewish people. It was the watershed moment in their history when they were delivered from the bondage of slavery and set free to serve their God (Ex. 8:1). It is as if God had taken them from death into life and gave them a hope and a future as a nation.
After the Israelites entered Sinai, this God began to reveal Himself to His people and associated Himself with that redemptive event when He said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Ex. 20:2). This is the God of Israel—the God of the Bible—He frees His people from bondage and slavery so that they can serve Him.
This is your God too. Whatever your need is—the problem that has overcome your life and made you a slave to it—you serve the God who set His people free, and He can do it for you too. Jesus already paid the price for your redemption with His own blood. He became your Passover Lamb, and all you must do is apply His blood to your life and walk into freedom with Him.
A Greater Miracle
The Exodus event was so pivotal for the people of Israel that God commanded them to remember and celebrate it forever—throughout all their generations. It must have been quite a shock when the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah said that one day, something even greater than the exodus miracle was going to happen:
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jer. 23:7–8, NKJV)
Jeremiah was prophesying that one day, God would miraculously bring the Jewish people back to the Land He had given them, from every country in which they had been in exile. This event would be so miraculous it would actually overshadow the exodus story. This second watershed moment is happening in our day. After 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people are returning to their ancient homeland and reestablishing a national home: the State of Israel.
Jeremiah specifically mentions their return from the north. I remember in the 1980s when the Jews of the north—the former Soviet Union—were not allowed to leave. They were forbidden to practice their religion or to even learn about Israel. Those who wanted to immigrate to Israel were instead imprisoned and called “refuseniks.”
We prayed for them and held rallies around the world, calling for their release. We knew God would deliver them, but we did not know if it would be in peace or if they would have to flee for their lives. Many Christians in Europe even prepared safe houses for Jews escaping the Soviets.
Thank God they were able to leave in peace; in 1989 the Iron Curtain fell, the doors swung open, and Jews were allowed to leave. Since then, over 1 million Jews have emigrated from the former Soviet Union and moved to Israel. Jeremiah had seen this day 2,500 years before it happened.
You, too, serve a mighty God who is sovereign over the universe He created. No miracles are too big for Him. He is the God who sets His people free, and He can do it for you too.
Whatever your need, bring it to the God of Israel, the God of the Bible who sets His people free. As Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27, NIV).
Dr. Susan Michael is USA Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and host of the Out of Zion podcast. Text “zion” to 72572 to receive an alert each Friday with her Shabbat Shalom devotional and end your week with a little inspiration and peace.
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