16th Week, Tuesday, July 20
Exodus 14:21 - 15:1 / Matthew 12:46-50
God saves his people; Moses stretched out his hand.
A Jewish legend says that when Moses stretched out his arm across the sea, the waters remained in place. They didn't roll back. They didn't form a path as the people expected. It wasn't until the first Israelite leaped into the sea that the expected miracle took place. The point of the legend is to underscore an important fact: Faith, not the outstretched arm of Moses, saved the Israelites from the Egyptians.
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How often are we guilty of sitting around and hoping for miracles to happen, rather than taking the faith-initiative to make them happen? Jesus said, "Everything is possible to one who has faith." Mark 9:23 "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed .
nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20 "Nothing will be impossible for God." Luke 1:37
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In epic style and with a superabundance of poetic detail, the authors of Exodus write down, centuries after the events themselves, the realization that God himself had saved his people. The waters of the Sea of Reeds engulfed slavery and marked the beginning of freedom in God; they set off the people of God from the people of idols; later, the waters of the Jordan allowed a free people to enter its new fatherland.
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This passing through saving waters is used in the New Testament to describe baptism; baptism is the beginning in the Christian of all true liberation, a passing with Christ from slavery to sin to life in God.
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Most animals have some form of intelligence, but by and large, they act from instinct. For example, cats and dogs would chase after anything that moves. It could be out of playfulness, but their instinct is to chase and hunt down the prey that is running from them. We human have a much higher form of intelligence, and with that higher intelligence, we should discern how we should act and not just act from instinct.
But in the 1st reading, we hear about how human beings can just succumb to their instinct and chase after their enemies without thinking or discerning just because they have the might and power to do so. Pharaoh's mighty Egyptian army of soldiers, horses and chariots and horsemen can just crush the unarmed Israelites in no time at all. They were so blinded by their instinct that they chased after the Israelites into the sea without thinking that the waters were separated by a supernatural power.
It was only when they got stuck in the middle of the sea that they realised that the Lord was fighting for the Israelites against them. But it was too late, that when Moses stretched his hand over the sea, the returning waters overwhelmed Pharaoh's army and not a single one of them was left. God has given us intelligence so that we can discern and think how to act and not just act from instinct. More importantly, we discern what God's will is for us so that as His children, we will be obedient to God and do all for God's glory.
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To belong to the family of Jesus depends not on a relationship of blood, but on having the family spirit. That family tradition is doing the will of God. He expects this of his disciples. This is clearer in the gospel of Matthew. He alone mentions that he stretched out his hand towards his disciples when he said, "These are my mothers and my brothers (V 49). The people he has called "an evil and unfaithful generation' (verse 39). Disciple is one who follows the call, lets himself be taught. He listens to what God wants from him and accepts the will of God. He does that in a complete change of mind He thinks differently. He accepts obedience and makes Jesus his guide and friend He shares in the joy that is given to those who belong to the family of God.
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Jesus assures us that what brings us close to God and makes us his relatives is doing the will of the Father. This is all that matters, more than ties of blood. This mission was the core and meaning of Jesus’ life and death. Let us pray that his faithfulness may also be ours.
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Prayer
