A Devotional Thought From Joshua

For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.     Joshua 2:10

                One of the old criticisms of the literal interpretation of the Bible is the attack upon the miracle of Israel’s crossing of the Red sea on dry ground. Critical scholars with little imagination, and no more faith in inspired revelation than imagination, have intoned denial after denial. The Red Sea could not have been divided, with  a wall of water on one side and the other, with no evidence ecological havoc. They denied the possibility of such a thing. Such a thing would take a miracle.

                So in their minds they substitute a swamp or lake presumably called the Sea of Reeds. That must’ve been what they crossed said, and say, the star crossed lovers of denial. Such an indictment of the crossing story is at odds with many references to the Red Sea miracle throughout the Old Testament. Note what Rahab says in the text we referenced for today’s devotional thought: we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. Would the Canaanites had been so afraid of a God who dried up some mushy ground? Or was the act of dividing the sea of such power that they were terrified by the people who were powered by this God’s power? Would the crossing of a marsh strike fear into the hearts of the people of the land God declared he gave to Israel? Would rolling through lake reeds give the impression that they could roll through defensed cities? 

                Those outside God’s people who heard the story of the pathway through the sea were not doubtful, amused, or ambivalent, they were afraid. A God who can defeat oceans can defeat city walls, and armies. A people who could slog through the mire to get to solid ground were to be admired, but anybody could do that. A people who could walk from one side of the sea to the other on dry ground while the waters piled up on either side that is something else entirely. God must be helping them!