Exodus 14:21-31 - Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and
God, with a terrific east wind all night long, made the sea go back. He made
the sea dry ground. The seawaters split.
The Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground with the waters a wall to
the right and to the left. The Egyptians came after them in full pursuit, every
horse and chariot and driver of Pharaoh racing into the middle of the sea. It
was now the morning watch. God looked down from the Pillar of Fire and Cloud on
the Egyptian army and threw them into a panic. He clogged the wheels of their
chariots; they were stuck in the mud.
The Egyptians said, “Run from Israel! God is fighting on their side and against
Egypt!”
God said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea and the waters will come
back over the Egyptians, over their chariots, over their horsemen.”
Moses stretched his hand out over the sea: As the day broke and the Egyptians
were running, the sea returned to its place as before. God dumped the Egyptians
in the middle of the sea. The waters returned, drowning the chariots and riders
of Pharaoh’s army that had chased after Israel into the sea. Not one of them
survived.
But the Israelites walked right through the middle of the sea on dry
ground, the waters forming a wall to the right and to the left. God delivered
Israel that day from the oppression of the Egyptians. And Israel looked at the
Egyptian dead, washed up on the shore of the sea, and realized the tremendous
power that God brought against the Egyptians. The people were in reverent awe
before God and trusted in God and his servant Moses.
It took a lot to convince Moses to do
what God had asked. But once he was in, he was all in. He boldly
went to Pharaoh many times to demand that the Israelites be let go. And
after 10 nasty plagues, including the last plague which took the life of
Pharaoh’s son, Pharaoh relented and allowed the Israelites to leave. Then
after they had left Pharaoh changed his mind and began to pursue them with his
army of chariots. The Israelites were trapped between the Red Sea and the
Egyptian army. And the rest is the stuff of legends and Hollywood
movies. God delivered them through the sea and destroyed Pharaoh’s
army.
God delivered an entire nation and he
used the all-in Moses to do it. God did it, but the trust and obedience
of God’s people was a necessary part of it. Why? Why couldn’t God
just simply deliver them whether they trusted or not? The truth is God
could have. But what God is interested in is a relationship with the Israelites,
not just to take care of them.
God is not a helicopter parent.
God doesn’t swoop in every time there is adversity and take care of everything
so God's children don’t ever experience stress. God didn’t do that for the
Israelites and God doesn’t do that for you or me. However, it is through
trust and obedience to God’s guidance that we find our way through the “Red
Seas” of life. There are times when it looks like that trust and
obedience is foolish and it’s not going to work out. If the message of
the entire Old Testament could be boiled down to one sentence, I believe it
would be “trust and obey God anyway.”
I need to hear this right now when the
news about the pandemic, economic stresses, and war just keeps coming.
Trust and obey God anyway. When people seem to get more impatient and
turn on each other instead of helping, trust and obey God anyway. When
leaders create more chaos than solutions, trust and obey God anyway. When
hate seems to be winning and love seems nowhere to be found, trust and obey God
anyway. Fill in the first part of the sentence with anything you want but
the second part of the sentence is always “trust and obey God anyway.”
Prayer: God, many of us are feeling like we’re in between treacherous
waters and an overwhelmingly powerful murderous army. Help us to trust
and obey you anyway.
Prayer focus: Pray for peace for the tens of thousands of people waiting
to the results of medical tests right now.
Song: Pharaoh, Pharaoh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PkMC7O1lq0
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