Most of us know about the miraculous escape from Egypt by the Hebrews, under Moses‘ leadership. The “miracle” was the parting of the waters of the Red Sea by God, allowing the Hebrews to escape and the destruction of the pursuing Egyptian army by those same mighty waters.

We need to remember that the word “miracle” does not appear in most Bibles. While the RSV version does use it, the King James Bible translates it as “wonders,” as does the New RSV. The Goodspeed, Moffatt, Lamsa and New English bibles use the term “portent,” which is generally understood as “an omen of something momentous about to happen,” “a prodigy or a marvel.”

To most people today a “miracle” is something that can’t happen, but does anyway – in other words, a supernatural event that defies the laws of nature. In Biblical times there was no concept of miracle; anything could happen, because there was no understanding of the laws of nature that would prevent it.

Leslie Weatherhead says, “A miracle is a law-abiding event in which God accomplishes his purposes through the release of energies which belong to a plane of being higher than any with which we are normally familiar.” So, a miracle is any event or experience beyond our normal experience or understanding through which God is able to disclose Himself to us.

I have belabored this miracle issue because people often get bogged down in speculations and arguments about the Red Sea event, instead of getting to the much more important issue of what this meant to them and what it can mean to us. Regardless of how it happened, “the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea and the army of the Pharaoh was drowned – deliverance by God in a time of great crisis.

As was their custom, they composed stirring songs about this experience, two recorded in Exodus 50:1-21 – one by Moses, the other by his sister, Miriam. We have only the words, but even without melodies they are stirring, ecstatic expressions, just as we have stirring hymns and songs today.

The Red Sea experience not only rescued them from obliteration by the Egyptians, but also gave them hope to recall in future crises. Our need to be thankful is greater than God’s need for our thanksgiving. We are the beneficiaries of thankful hearts.

When we acknowledge the times when God has led us onto dry ground, we encourage the faith within for meeting the next crisis.

A place called ‘Mara’

We see this in Exodus 15:22-17:16, a series of trials, all of which rest on their prior experiences of God’s grace. And we can experience this as well: Prevailing in present and future trials can rest on our experience of “dry ground” in the past.

Early on, they came to the wilderness of Shur and found that the waters available there were “bitter.” So they called this place “Mara,” meaning “bitter” (when Naomi felt God had “dealt bitterly” with her, she called herself Mara – Ruth 1:20).

And when we fail to thank God for His help in our times of crisis, we are likely to be consumed by bitterness. If you enjoy bitterness, fine; but, if not, why dwell on it and entertain it in your mind?

In Exodus 15:27, we are told: “Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.”

Often, our bitterness causes us to linger in Mara and never get to Elim. We miss out on the promise given at Mara: “If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give heed to his commandments and … keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord, your healer” (15:26).

There is always dry ground to which God will lead us in the midst of any troubles or crises. We live always only by His mercy. Life is all grace, never just deserts. Thank God!

The life of discipleship is never proof, but trust that enables us to sing and live:

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord, 

Let us, like them, without a word

Rise up and follow Thee

-John Greenleaf Whittier, “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.