“The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14
Our sermon at church on Sunday, was about the Israelites escaping from the Egyptians through the Red Sea. Most of us are familiar with this Old Testament story. I particularly love stories in the Bible that demonstrate God’s use of His incredible power when His people are being pursued by those who wish them harm.
I haven’t read the story in a while, so I checked it out when I got home. The account is found in Exodus, Chapters 13 and 14, if you want to check it out for yourself. The first thing that jumped out at me is that God took the Israelites the long way around to the Promised Land. He had a plan. How often do we question why it takes so long to get where we are trying to go? It could be anything from personal finances to relationships. God’s timing is usually different from ours and there’s always a reason. The Israelites had to have wondered why they were headed directly towards the Red Sea. They didn’t have boats.
How often do we wonder the same? Is God listening to us? Does He know what He’s doing? Doesn’t He see that giant obstacle in our paths? We could learn a lot from the Israelites.
Then there’s the awesome parting of the Red Sea. As the Egyptians get closer, the Israelites panic. At this point, they are regretting even leaving Egypt. How quickly they forget all of those plagues that God kept them safe from. At this point Moses tells them one of my favorite Bible verses. “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14.
How often do we need to hear those words? How often do we listen to them and really take them to heart?
Moses lifts his staff and leads them directly into the Red Sea, which has parted and created a wall of water on either side and they walk through on dry land, not muddy muck, but dry land. But here’s the thing, the Egyptians continue to pursue them. God at any point, could have just struck them down or put an angel in their path, but He allowed them to pursue the Israelites. Why? Why would God do that? Why not just stop them?
God had a plan. He always has a plan. He wanted to teach the Egyptians a lesson they would never forget. He wanted to show them what happened to the enemies of God’s people. He let the Israelites get safely across and then the Egyptians who had happily been enjoying God’s gift of dry land, were swept away when Moses raised his hand again. The text says that not one of Pharaoh’s army survived.
The inner journalist in me, would love to know what was going through the Israelites’ minds at this point. What was their conversation like? What does this story hold for us?
I think that there are times in life when we wonder if God really has our backs. Is He listening to our prayers? Why won’t He remove the negative people or circumstances that at times seem to pursue us, our Egyptians? Then there are the obstacles, the Red Sea in our own lives that appear impossible to get around. Why doesn’t He just remove them?
While I don’t have the answers to any of these specific questions, my faith and the Bible tells me that God has a plan. We don’t need to panic. We can stand still and know that God will fight for us and if we know deep in our hearts that truth, then we should be able to rest easy. There is no enemy or obstacle that is too big for God. If you have any doubt in that, check out the Exodus story. It’s pretty powerful stuff.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂