From Israel’s desperate moment at the Red Sea, this sermon highlights that salvation is entirely God’s work from start to finish: he takes the initiative, he fights the battle, and he brings his people through from death to life. The crossing is portrayed as a new-creation event—dark waters divided, dry land appearing—showing that just as God created the world without help, so he saves sinners by sheer grace. Israel contributed nothing but need; they were told to be still and see the Lord’s salvation. Yet grace does not eliminate response: salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. Faith is not vague sentiment but active trust—stepping into the path God opens, abandoning all self-made “rafts,” repenting daily, and living in light of Christ’s promises. Because God fights first and wins, believers can stop trying to earn rescue and instead follow Jesus confidently, even when obedience feels like death, trusting him for resurrection life on the other side.

Sometimes we think we can see the best path out ahead of us—the path that would get us to where we want to be quickly and directly. And then God throws us a curveball, and takes us on the path that seems more difficult. Why does God withhold certain things from us? Why does he lead us into trouble, suffering, and sorrow? Exodus 13:17–22 shows us that God has his reasons, and we have good reason to trust him.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread teaches God’s people that they are both sustained by him and defined by him. Israel ate unleavened bread first because they left Egypt in haste and then because God was training them to depend daily on his provision as they journeyed with him. That pattern finds its fulfillment in Christ, the true Bread from heaven, on whom we must feed by faith for eternal life. At the same time, the removal of leaven marked covenant identity: those who shared the bread belonged to the redeemed people of God. In the new covenant, this symbolism reaches its climax at the Lord’s Table, where believers do not make themselves pure, but receive Christ by faith as those who already are “unleavened” in him—assured of their identity, sustained for the journey, and strengthened to live out who they truly are.