Feb 3 (Daily reading: Exodus 13-15) “On this day you are going out…And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land … flowing with milk and honey” (13:4-5). The Exodus is a symbol of our salvation. On the day we are saved, we “go out” from the land of our bondage to sin, and the Lord “brings us into” a land of freedom and victory over the penalty of sin. When the people were between Egypt and the Red Sea, Moses said to them, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will perform for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again, ever. The LORD will fight for you, while you keep silent’” (14:13-14). This day was symbolic of the new life that God provided for His people. It brought assurance of victory over the past, over slavery to sin. Those who could not accept the freedom, who were still enslaved by the past, would perish in the wilderness. We must learn from their mistake. We have been brought out of our slavery and brought into a land where we celebrate what Jesus called “abundant living” (Jn. 10:10). We must not be dominated by sin, from which we have been liberated! Abundant life is the reality that the Lord will “fight for us” – every single moment of every single day of our lives!
And we can pass this truth on to our children. “And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery” (13:14). When I would do a service of dedicating a child to the Lord, I always made sure the parents understood that the dedication was for them. The child would become what the parents showed him or her by teaching and example.
-Al Gary
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