To the promised land

The Israelites set out on foot from Rameses for Sukkoth. There were about 600 000 men, not counting women and children. A large number of other people and many sheep, goats, and cattle also went with them. They baked unleavened bread from the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for they had been driven out of Egypt so suddenly that they did not have time to get their food ready or to prepare leavened dough.
(verses 37-39)

Read Exodus 12:29-39

The battle was won, and the victors went away with their booty. The previously stubborn Pharaoh now almost begged them to leave. The people of Egypt did beg them to leave—in a hurry. And leave they did, carrying much wealth and taking all their sheep and cattle with them.

They had been told to be ready to leave in a hurry, and they did. It was a mass migration as big as any the world of that time had ever seen. Over a million people on the move, heading for freedom.

We too are like the Israelites. We too are marching from slavery to freedom, to the promised land, the place Jesus has prepared for us. We march as pilgrims through this life, moving ‘like a mighty army’ towards eternal life.

In both cases, God had seen the suffering of his people and had come to rescue them. To the people of Israel he sent Moses and Aaron, flawed human beings as they were and continued to be. To us he sent Jesus, the sinless Son of God, who fulfilled the law and became the sacrifice which appeased the wrath of God.

Both Pharaoh and Satan were forced to heed God’s command: let my people go.

Father, lead me on my pilgrim journey through life, until I reach your promised land in heaven. Amen.

by Robert Turnbull, in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)

Visit the Daily Devotion archives page.