The Astounding Impossible

“The Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”  Exodus 14:22

The Israelites stood at the sea and stared.  Ahead they saw an overwhelming deep.  Behind—fast approaching doom.  The promise of deliverance was about to end in either drowning or defeat, and neither would be nice.  

Why?  Why had God gotten their hopes up to simply to dash them to death in such a tragic and terrible way?  They would have been better left alone in slavery than sent to doom at the water’s edge.  With the sound of waves on one side and the whir of chariot wheels on the other, the people were angry and afraid.  

But then God did something so amazingly, incredibly, stunningly astounding that their history and world history were changed forever—He made a way through the water.  The thing they didn’t dare dream became reality, and from that day forward, God’s people never lived in fear of the enemy again.

We know something ‘bout that!  Sunday was Easter—a day of deep and delightful celebration.  A time to remember that at the very hour when all hope was lost and lying in a borrowed tomb, when waves of grief were crashing on one side and terror of the future filled the other, God did something so amazingly, incredibly, stunningly astounding that our history and world history were changed forever.  He got up and walked out!  

Tuesday would be terrible without this reality.  Life would have no purpose, no pleasure, no prospect of anything good. Each day would be dreadful and dreaded—a mere, meaningless existence sure to end in permanent death—physically and spiritually. 

But such is not so and will never be, for since the tomb is empty, we need not fear the enemy!  Sin, death, and the devil will not be triumphant and have been trounced, and though for our few years on earth, we deal with their presence, their fate was sealed when Jesus broke the seal and one day they will be destroyed.

Never forget it!  Always remember it!  The good news that our Savior is risen should have us shouting and singing through all the moments of every day—not just during the Easter service!  No circumstances can change this truth.  No tragedy can alter it.  No doubt can splinter it.  No disbelief can collapse it. The powers on earth may ignore it and the powers of hell may attack it, but the reality of the resurrection is fixed, final, and forever.  

God has done what we could not do and dared not dream.  He has made a way for us to be with Him in life, in death, in all eternity. So don’t stare at the sea and be scared.  Live like the astounding impossible will happen—because it has!