Millions of lights
From our 5th-floor apartment here at Montereau, we enjoy both sunrises and moonrises. I especially love the pre-dawn mornings, when the city is still quiet and the lights below twinkle. It’s a beauty all its own. These early hours are usually when I listen/read my daily Bible Recap.
This morning, as the lights stretched as far as I could see, the Israelites were finally leaving Egypt in the Scripture reading. Talk about a God story. As familiar as these true events are to me, I was struck anew by the sheer number of people on the move—heading toward and across the Red Sea.
Looking out at the city lights, I decided to Google the metro population of Tulsa: 1,059,800. The estimated number of Israelites exiting Egypt? Around 2,000,000, give or take. Nearly twice the number of people living in Tulsa today—and that doesn’t even include all their livestock.
As I looked out our windows, I tried to picture it. That many people. That much movement. That many lives depending on the leading of God. Honestly, I couldn’t get my mind around it. The logistics alone are staggering. Only God could bring something like that about—and that was just one of the miracles He performed on their behalf.
What took my breath away even more was realizing that two million people were being led by God Himself. Yes, they were fickle—complainers, dissatisfied, often faithless. Yet they never actually ran back to Egypt, even when they longed for it. They were still the people of God, still being led by God.
It’s easy for us to sit here today looking at that motley bunch and ask, “What were they thinking?” But we are no different. I am no different.
Let’s face it—we Christians are a motley crew, full of flaws, failures and discontent. The world looks at us and wonders about this whole following-Christ thing. But the point—then and now—has never been about us. It has always been about HIM.
How patient He is with His people.
How He forgives us again and again.
How He is changing us—often more slowly than we’d like.
How He gifts us to serve Him by serving others.
How He enables us to worship Him, forsaking our idols.
How His Word trains us and guides us, penetrating our hearts.
We may be a motley crew, but we are a people called out of the darkness into His marvelous light.
We are His people, headed toward our own Promised Land—eternity. Our journey includes many of the same elements as theirs. Yet they got there, and so will we. How? By His mighty outstretched arm.
