Deliverance Through Blood and Water

Many years ago I was a camp counselor and one of the great things about it was helping kids grow in their faith and find ways that they can enjoy their faith especially in community with one another. And to be honest that was what I was most looking forward to doing. During our orientation we learned all kinds of things like the theme and how to teach it. We learned about safety and all the other things that you need to learn about camp. And one of the final things we learned was about how to deal with difficult situations and reporting anything that needed to be reported in case something came up during Bible Study, campouts or any other times when you were having deep conversations with the kids.

To be honest a lot of it seemed like things that were either practical or stuff they had to say because they were required to say it, but that there wasn’t a likelihood of any of those kinds of things happening. Well as you can probably guess, I’m telling you this story because one of the things they talked about that was unlikely to happen, happened.

As camp began I was assigned the oldest group of kids which were the 7th and 8th graders. I had a really good time with them and so it became that I was usually given the older kids. It also turns out that one of the female counselors was also good with this same older group and so Beth and I became the de-facto jr. high counselors. It also helped that she and I got along really well together and developed a really strong bond and friendship over the course of the summer.

It was that bond that brought me into the hardest situation I had to face as a counselor and one of the most difficult circumstances as a young adult. I remember vividly Beth asking me to sit with her outside on the steps by the main hall of the campground during our break to talk with me. She shared with me that one of her campers had told her that her father was abusive toward her. As soon as the camper said it she feared what she had said but continued to tell her about it. She tried to make Beth promise not to tell anyone, but one of the things we learned during training was that we were mandatory reporters. Beth knew what the right thing to do was but she also feared how the relationship she had built with this camper would possibly be ruined. Through our conversation and my physical presence with the director of the camp the right channels were notified to get the family the help it needed.

Thankfully it happened toward the end of the summer. I say thankfully because as difficult and painful as it was for everyone involved, there were many aspects to it that would have made it so much more difficult had it happened sooner. First, had Beth and I not been as close as we were at that point I doubt that she would have come to me to work through it with her. We had the whole summer to develop our friendship so that we had a level of trust and security with each other. Along those lines we had dealt with so many other situations because we had many other weeks of kids, that it made us more comfortable in our roles as leaders. Had that happened at the beginning of summer I don’t know I would have been as strong as I was toward the end of the summer. Finally, because of those other reasons I don’t know if Beth or I would have lasted the whole summer and that would probably have weighed even harder on us if she had even come to me in the first place at that time.

I tell you this story to share with you the two words that came to my attention when looking at today’s scripture and relating it to our Exodus Way theme. Deliverance and threat. This camper was seeking deliverance, but at the same time, immediately felt threatened at how the deliverance would play out. For Beth she felt a threat of how necessary, but hard, the situation was for her and the deliverance she experienced was being able to confide in me so that she could feel supported and strengthened to do what needed to be done.

These words of deliverance and threat are at the heart of the actual Exodus we heard read a little bit ago. All of Egypt is threatened by the final plague but the Israelites are offered deliverance by the ritual that God gave to them through Moses. They had the marking on the door along with the meal that they shared with family and friends. This is also in the midst of the grand promise of deliverance to a new land and from the threat of continued slavery in Egypt. If we continued to read the Exodus story itself we would see the perceived threat the Israelites felt as they wandered through the wilderness with hardly any food, and even when given food they then complained that it was bland and repetitive. It felt so bad that the idea of going back into Egypt, back to the very thing they wanted deliverance from seemed more appealing and literally more appetizing than going through the journey to something better.

What this shows is that even after deliverance there are times when we will feel threatened by the journey, the way that we must undergo. Finding a new job can present threats to the status quo of what life was like before. Ending a habit or addiction, seeking deliverance from it, that you know is what is best for your health, for your faith, for your family can be difficult and even threaten the perceived calm that we have in our lives. The camper knew the threat of seeking deliverance from a bad home life, sought it out and then almost immediately wanted to take it back. She knew the very comfort of everything she knew would change. That is the power that comfort and stability can have over people. That is the power that perceived and real threats can have over stopping people from doing what is right and doing what God is calling us to do.

One of the most important things that God does is that God gives the Israelites a sign and a ritual. If I had included one more verse from Exodus 12:14 we would see that God calls the people to continue this meal as a festival and a day of remembering. Why does God do that? Does God do it as a way to remind people of how powerful God was? Did God do it to make sure the people were afraid of God’s power? No. God did this so that they could remember each time they sat down for that Passover meal that God was the one who was with them right in the midst of the threats. God was the one who provided the deliverance through the meal and then God again provided deliverance as they passed through the sea. Our last verse in Exodus 14:31 tells us that the Israelites were in awe of the LORD and they believed in God and in God’s servant Moses.

This is a pivotal moment in which God is there for the people to show them that in the midst of the threats that they were facing God provided deliverance. God did it because God cares for God’s people, and God did it to show that the next time they needed deliverance from threat that they would remember that God would be there for them again. And not only do we have the Exodus event to remind us of that but we have countless scriptures to remind us, to help us remember that God delivers God’s people time and time again. So that we can call out and cry out to God in the time of threat and know that God is with us.

And God with us is exactly what God does through the sending of God’s son Jesus. And it was at the same Passover meal that Jesus creates a new festival and also calls for us to do this ritual in remembrance of him. We call that ritual of remembering, Communion. We come to this table every single week to remember the deliverance that Jesus offers us through his life, death and resurrection and that there is no threat that Jesus will not help to deliver us from. That doesn’t mean there won’t be threats, that doesn’t mean that we will be void of any hardship, but God promises to be with us and help deliver us from the threats that face us in this life. Deliverance could come in the form of the Spirit, it could be in the form of a camp counselor, or a new friend, but please know that God has shown through the Exodus and throughout scripture and beyond that God is a God of deliverance even, and maybe especially when, we are on our own Exodus Way. Amen.