The Highway of God:
(Exodus 14:10-14; Mark 4:13-20; Luke 6:46-49)
In the early 1990’s, an archaeological discovery was uncovered in Egypt: the world’s oldest paved highway (4,600 years old) of about 8 miles long. This would place that highway almost 500-1000 years old already at the time of the Exodus. Egyptians ruled in power and riches, that showed in splendor and might all around the Israelites. Captives they may be, but they were captives in the strongest and wealthiest nation that had been ruling for at least 1000 years. To veer off the Egyptian highway and roads would have been almost certain suicide.
God creates a path for Israel out of Egypt (“I am the way”) but when Israelites see Pharaoh and his armies approaching while they stand wedged against the Red Sea it causes them to doubt the plan and sureness of the path there are following. There was no highway, road, or even an animal path before them. Just a great sea, waters that would swallow up the rest of their children. God’s highway is FOR us, not against us. It is man’s instinct to try to protect himself, to find or create a route that might be best for him to survive. That base instinct goes against the spiritual gifts of faith and hope. And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm…The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” This journey through the wilderness is a way for his children to learn to lean on the Lord fully. He is teaching his children what faith and hope is by allowing the threat of an inescapable situation to be met head on with a mighty impossibility. And just like that, in moments, a highway like no one had ever witness opens before God’s children. And he continues to guide them amidst the swirling sands of Egypt and the wanderings in the Negev wilderness, through His creation and by His timetable, gathering and tending the children as a garden that he planted in the unfertile desert climate.
Jesus speaks of a parable of the sower “those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word” cautioning believers to cling the promise of the word of God and bear fruit. What is that promise? That Jesus, son of God, will fight for you, you have only to be silent – for we cannot earn salvation ourselves. It is interesting to point out that what God asks of us is to “stand firm” or “stay rooted” or “build on the rock”, actively asking us to “act” by staying still in his strength. Does a tree move and walk about? Does a rock? God created a highway for each of us but he wants to be the driver, not us. For us to be waiting in the car patiently, seat belted and ready to go.
מגן השביל 