I was often invited by friends to join them for the Seder meal, held on the first evening of Passover. In it, the exodus story was recounted... The Jewish people were once slaves in Egypt, but Moses led them out, traveling under God's presence, physically seen as a cloud of fire by night and a protective cloud providing shade by day. Among the amazing events was the parting of water - twice... (once at the Red Sea and again at the Jordan River). And then there was the daily miracle of enough food and water provided in that barren place to keep a million people alive in the desert for 40 years. I've been to the Sinai Desert. I know that keeping so many people there for so long was truly miraculous! But I (being young) wasn't amazed...
Re-reading the account, all these years later, I am amazed! Is there any story like it in all history?!
Moses, who lived through it, was also amazed. Here are his parting words in the book of Deuteronomy:
Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?
Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?
Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation,by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.
Four thousand years after Moses wrote this, I share his amazement. There is no story like it!
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