Hi, friends in exile, got a minute?
The writer of Hebrews argues in chapter 11 that we must confront the obstacles in our lives “by faith.” When the people of Israel came out of slavery in Egypt, they faced the Red Sea with an army of angry Egyptians behind them. God parted the sea for them, but the Egyptians were not so lucky (see Exodus 12). Then, forty years later, as the people began to enter the Land of Promise, both as a judgment of God on the evil of the people there and as fulfilment of the promise made four hundred years earlier to Abraham, their first engagement was at the walled city of Jericho. God commanded them to march around the city, blow ram’s horns, and shout. They obeyed, and the wall fell flat (see Joshua 6). The point made is this: God’s people did these things “by faith.”
So, whether we are facing the sea or a walled city (or El Guapo, if you have watched The Three Amigos), the point is to look to God through Jesus Christ in faith, trust His good purposes, and move forward as He leads us.
Smiley Mudd
Musings of the Rev. Smiley Mudd 