“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation, He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”
~ Exodus 15:2
Hi James and Ellen,
What is the most relieved that you have ever felt? How does it feel to feel relieved about something? To feel relieved is to feel very thankful. When do you feel thankful the most? Do you feel relieved and thankful after having survived a life crisis moment? Do you feel relieved and thankful after having done really well on a test that you had not been well prepared to take? Do you feel relieved and thankful after you no longer have any symptoms of being sick after feeling really sick for a number of days? Do you feel relieved and thankful that your dad and/or ma have stopped you from getting hurt? What do you do when you feel relieved and thankful after you have survived a life crisis moment or after you did just fine on a test when on which you thought that you would do well on or after you are feeling well again after having been really sick for a number of days or after your dad and/or ma kept you from getting hurt? How do you think that God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group’s guys, gals and kids, felt when God opened up a wide, dry path through the Red Sea for them to walk through to the other side of the Red Sea and then to see God close the path that He had opened up through the Red Sea drowning the Egyptian Pharaoh and all his soldiers who were with him who were trying to catch up with them to take them back to Egypt? God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids had to have felt really relieved and thankful when they saw the wide, dry path through the Red Sea that God had opened up for them to walk through from one side of the Red Sea to the other side of the Red Sea be suddenly closed by God to drown the Egyptian Pharaoh and all his soldiers who were with him. Moses recorded in what is now Exodus 15 what God’s specially chosen guys and gals did after they saw God close the path that He had made through the Red Sea resulting in the Egyptian Pharaoh and all his soldiers who were with him being drowned. One of God’s specially chosen guys wrote a special song which God’s specially chosen guys and gals sang together as a praise song to God to thank God for having miraculously saved them from being forced to return to their homes in Goshen by the Egyptian Pharaoh and his soldiers who were with him. God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids got to see firsthand – again, God’s divine power in action.
Your grandpaa will never forget how really anxious that he felt the day in Guatemala when he was stopped by a micro bus driver who told your grandpaa that not more than ten minutes earlier, he had been stopped by a gang of highway bandits and that he and the guys and gals who were in his bus had been robbed. Your grandpaa was with two other guys on a long day’s drive from Guatemala City to Xalbal, Ixcán. Your grandpaa was on a winding, hilly stretch of road between Cobán and Xalbal when he was stopped by the micro bus driver who told your grandpaa what happened to him and his passengers. Because he did not want to be stopped, robbed and potentially . . . by a gang of highway bandits, your grandpaa told the guys who were with him that he wanted to turn around and go back to Guatemala City. The guys who were with your grandpaa wanted to keep going so . . . after hiding most of their quetzales in your grandpaa’s pickup, your grandpaa started out again heading for Xalbal. Your grandpaa expected at any moment the gang of highway bandits would stop his pickup and . . . your grandpaa and the two guys who were traveling with him arrived about thirty minutes later at a fairly large village where your grandpaa was stopped by a truck driver who asked your grandpaa if he had been stopped and robbed by a gang of highway bandits as he had been warned not long before your grandpaa arrived in the village by the driver of another vehicle who had stopped him to tell him that he had been stopped and robbed by a gang of highway bandits. How do you think that your grandpaa felt after driving for about a half an hour expecting that he would be stopped at any moment by a gang of highway bandits, robbed and maybe even . . . your grandpaa felt REALLY RELIEVED and very thankful that he was not stopped by the gang of highway bandits who seemed to be stopping all the other vehicles that were going through an isolated stretch of winding, hilly road that connects Cobán with the Ixcán.
God’s specially chosen guys and gals were so relieved and thankful from not having – because of God’s divine help, the Egyptian Pharaoh and his soldiers who were with him overtake them that they not only sang a praise song to God; they danced before God. While shaking a tambourine, Miriam – the prophetess sis of Moses and Aaron, led the gals among God’s specially chosen guys and gals in dancing before God. Have you ever – because you were so relieved and thankful about something, danced with joy? That was how God’s specially guys and gals felt after God saved them from being taken back to their homes in Goshen by the Egyptian Pharaoh and his soldiers who were with him. That was how your grandpaa felt after your grandpaa was not stopped by highway bandits on the stretch of road that goes from Cobán into the Ixcán. Just as God’s specially chosen guys and gals knew that God had been Who had saved them from bad guys, your grandpaa knew that God was Who had saved him from bad guys, too. Your grandpaa can really identify with what verse 2 says, “The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation, He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” Do you thank and praise God after He has helped you through a difficult moment or do you just as quickly forget God’s help – just as God’s specially chosen guys and gals did a few days later when the only water that they could find was bitter instead of sweet? Your grandpaa hopes that you will cultivate an attitude of gratefulness to God that you will always employ.
Exodus 15 (411)