Exodus 13:14

New King James Version

So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

For Meditation

With the power of His mighty hand! That was how God brought the Israelites out of Egypt. The plague of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the ultimate—the plague of the firstborns. When God told Moses that Pharaoh would not let His people go unless a mighty hand compelled him, he meant it, and He displayed it indeed (Exod. 3:19).

At the Red Sea, God showed the same mighty hand. He walked Israel through the parted Sea but drowned Pharaoh with his best charioteers (14:5-29). If there were a reporter then to interview Pharaoh for posterity, he would have asked only one question: What manner of God is He whose hand is so mighty?

However, for the salvation of man from slavery to sin, God’s hand didn’t look so mighty when Christ hung on the cross. He died in weakness—from Gethsemane through his trials before the chief priests and Pilate, when he carried His cross and stumbled through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha, and when they finally nailed Him to the cross and hoisted him above a sneering crowd. Where was the mighty hand of God when Jesus cried to Him in agony, thirsting for water to drink? When they mocked Him and divided His clothes, where was the mighty hand of God?

But, O, the morning of the third day!

God’s mighty hand displayed His glory amazingly and baffled the establishment. The sealed tomb gave way, and out, the Creator walked from the throes of death—the heart of the earth.

When heaven said Amen to the ultimate sacrifice on Calvary, the critical inquiry through all ages received an answer. The death of Jesus propitiated God for the sin of the world. The atonement was complete, and God rescued His elect from the dominion of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of the Son He loves (Rm. 3:23-26; 9:22; Col. 1:13-14). This truth is the mystery God hid from the heavenly hosts, which the Spirit of God has now revealed – the mystery of the gospel (Eph. 3:3-11). Who could imagine that Gentiles would one day become heirs together with Israel? (6). The revelation of this mystery in Christ blew the heavenly hosts away and still baffles many today.

Still, the gospel is foolishness to the carnal mind, but to the saved, it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). The foolishness of God, as men think, is wiser than the wisdom of the world (25).

By the Cross, God displayed the power of His mighty hand to deliver the sinner, a card no one can trump in all eternity.

The question is: Do you see it? Have you embraced the Christ of the cross and the life He gives in total surrender to Him?