Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Monday, October 8, 2012 Read – Exodus 13 & 14 At the center of chapters 13 & 14 and chapter 15 which we will read tomorrow is the story of God’s miraculous deliverance of the people through the sea. This story is told almost as if it were an eleventh plague. Pharaoh eventually reacts to the tenth plague in much the same way as he had reacted to the others – he chooses to pursue the people and put them once again under bondage. The battle with the gods of Egypt does not end easily. But God is victorious. And in the process another great theme, related to the flood story and the saving of Moses in the “ark”, unfolds. God delivers his people through the water. As the people enter the Promised Land they will once again pass through the waters on dry land. Elijah and Elisha will part the same Jordan River. Christians will see these stories reflected in the sacrament of Baptism. Simply on the historical level this story is important as the final act of liberation God enacts for his people. On a theological level this story is rich with its allusions to God’s salvation of his people – not only from bondage in Egypt but from the bondage to sin and death. The whole salvation event can be described as “passing through the waters” – not so much in a literal sense but spiritually.