The Sea

This morning, at our 8 am service, we had two readings. They weren't picked because they belonged together. We had Exodus 14 because we've resting the whole Bible as a church and this is where we've got to in the Old Testament. We had Matthew 8 because this is the BCP gospel reading for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany.

Yet they shed some very interesting light on each other.

Exodus 14 is about God's complete power to save, not just delivering his people from slavery, but totally destroying their enemy. He did so by blowing on the Reed Sea to part its waters, letting his people cross on dry (ish) land, then drowning the Egyptian army in the sea.

In Matthew 8, Jesus calls a storm so that his disciples ask who this is. "Even the wind and the sea over him". But we know who the wind and sea obey. It's God, the deliverer of his people. So Jesus I'd showing himself to be this God whose loving power we can trust.

He then delivers two men from the uncountable evil spirits who have tormented them. Those spirits are never seen again. But where do they go? Into the pigs yes, but where do the pigs go? Why, they drown in the sea. It's the same lesson from Jesus about his power and how we can and should trust him.

Oh, and by the way: later on this morning I then read Psalm 18. Have a read, and see if any of David's metaphors for God's deliverance are familiar.