First Reading Exodus 13:17-14:4
Second Reading 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10
17When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle. 19And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph who had required a solemn oath of the Israelites, saying, “God will surely take notice of you, and then you must carry my bones with you from here.” 20They set out from Succoth, and camped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21The LORD went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. 22Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
1Then the LORD said to Moses: 2Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall camp opposite it, by the sea. 3Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, “They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them.” 4I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
Salvation doesn’t always look the way we might expect. The Israelites do not get the direct way home. The challenge there may be too strong for them. Instead God guides them to the Red Sea, ripe for revenge from the Pharaoh who let them go reluctantly. Maybe it is not the way they would have chosen. So it is with us. We may not have chosen the way of the cross and the empty tomb. The disciples, certainly, were not expecting that. Their responses to the Easter stories have been fear, disbelief, amazement, and silence. Yet the work of God isn’t primarily about our needs as we understand them but the deeper truth about who we are. We are made, loved, and saved by a God who will not let us go. And so our lives may not return to the way they were before. Things that once seemed sure may become clouded with doubt. Values which were once non-negotiable all of a sudden meet the reality of a new world. Maybe, in the way that only God can lead us, we will find something better.
Your ways, Lord, are not ours; but we ask that they would meet—that our work, our worship, our prayers, our lives, might become all that you intend, in the way of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.
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