“Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!”.
Talk about being delivered in a way you never saw coming! Whoever heard of a sea dividing then standing at attention; allowing folks to walk smack through its middle all night long?
What do you do when your deliverance comes wrapped in risk?
When God asks you to take a leap of faith that looks more like cliff diving at Possum Kingdom Lake than puddle jumping in the summer rain? When it’s tied-off with ribbons of uncertainty and challenge? When you come face-to-face with your deepest truths—your fears. When everything you think you believe about God, have known of Him, your faith in Him, the depth of your relationship with Him—is unexpectedly challenged? Shifts beneath you somehow. When the familiar of it all is suddenly slipping through your fingers like so much sand? How do you survive that walk through the unfamiliar? Through the soul-crushing valley-of-the-shadow-of death and then back, yet again, into the bright newness of your next season?
What did it look like when God moved in your life? When He delivered you from an enemy intent on your destruction? When He said “enough” to your bondage, “no more” to your being held captive. Did your freedom come wrapped the way you hoped it might? Or, did it arrive ragged and banged up? Looking like some barely recognizable version of what you’d imagined it would?
The Israelite’s faced what undoubtedly appeared to be certain death.
Pharaohs army closing in on their left—and on their right an outwardly impassable sea. What do you do then when you’re faced with an impossible situation? How does going from a seemingly bad situation to one that’s worse affect your faith? Does it send you chasing after God? Doing all that you’re able to stay tucked-up tight under His Providential care? Or, does the impossible before you remain just that, the impossible that’s before you?
Faith or flesh? How do you respond? Moses and the Israelite’s had to decide. So will you and I…
As we’ll see, the Israelite’s opted for the flesh. Moses, in contrast—held tight to his faith. On one side you had thousands of people grumbling and faith-less; carping about how they would have been better off to have died in Egypt—remained in bondage—rather than to die in an unknown wilderness. All they saw was the impossible, the unmovable, the outwardly insurmountable that was hemming them in. These same descendants of Father Abraham, hand-picked by God to be saved—had lost that faith. These same souls who had witnessed God bring water from a rock, deliver fresh food to the desert floor each morning, these whose clothes and sandals never got old though they wore them for some 40 years; responded to Gods delivering them from Pharaoh’s savage grip with grumbling and fear. Resentful of His method—they were angry with Moses for the loss of the familiar chains that had bound them. Truth be told—don’t we each have a bit of this same tendency within us? This leaning towards fleshly “living in the moment.” This grumbling and high-mindedness? An initial knee-jerk resentment towards God for pulling us out of the familiar muck that we’d become accustomed to? Our pride-filled thinking that often says, “if I were the one able to deliver someone, I would do it so much differently—painlessly and swift.
On the other hand, if you’ve been walking with God for any length of time surely, you’ve witnessed His mercy and grace? I can only assume that He has delivered you from one or more, if not perilous situations, then perhaps that near-miss situation. That, how am I going to make it this week—this month—today situation? That, “how did I walk away from that in one-piece” moment? Maybe He’s kept you from losing it when your spouse walked out—or worse, died suddenly. When a parent took ill—or your child. When you went through that season when God went silent and His silence shook you to your core! Or, maybe, God has asked you to take your hands off of something—someone or someplace? And, although what you experienced while immersed in it was painful, it was nonetheless familiar—had become dangerously safe. That’s what it may have felt like to be an Israelite wondering around in the desert. Suddenly set free from years of bondage. Their faith being stretched and tested to its breaking point; they cursed Moses and questioned God rather than seeking after Him.
Though their miracle stood literally before them, expectation blinded them for seeing it. And yet, despite their lack of faith and their grumbling, contrary to their blindness and hard-heartedness, God never left them. To the contrary, He was always one step in front of them, leading them ever closer to Himself. Oh, how He longed for them to just trust Him…
And then there’s Moses. A man whose faith allowed him to look out over this same seemingly impossible situation, with great faith. A man familiar with the unconventional. An Israelite raised by Pharaoh’s daughter in Pharaoh’s palace. A man accustomed to the wilderness. Familiar with Gods placing him in the midst of impossible situations. A bush ablaze that is never consumed. Facing a half-brother who resented him as pitilessly. Moses, a murderer returning to the very scene of his crime. This man with a stammer was told by God that he’d become His mouthpiece; a vessel used to help free His people. A man who, in spite of his own fears determined he’d be faithful to God; regardless of what stood before him. Moses was a leader forged over 40 years of being crushed and reshaped during his Midian exile. He was a shepherd. A man who knew first-hand that God never fails.
As both sides stared down that same seemingly impossible situation; Moses believed not only could God deliver them all—more, He surely would. The Israelites on the other hand wavered. Their faith devoured by their fickle feelings. And yet each of these, be they faith-filled or fickle, had a purpose in Gods redemptive plan. Each is our example. As believers, we must choose however whose example we will follow when faced with our own impossible wilderness. Will we hold tight to our faith? Or will we follow after our feelings?
Because here’s the thing—when you belong to God as the Israelites do and He decides some-thing, some situation, relationship, or habit when even the topography of your life must be changed; it’s going to change. It is simply impossible for Gods will to be thwarted. As surely as His Body was broken for you, He will split a sea wide open to make a way for you. Not only is God Sovereign, He loves you too much to leave you trapped in bondage. Somehow, if you are His, He is certain to bring your deliverance to pass. The unknown of it—to you and me at least, is His timing.
Moses’ hands are lifted beloved. Your sea is about to open before you…
Be expectant my brothers and sisters. God has heard your cry—deliverance is at hand. Allow me to encourage you to remain pliant, stay wide open to whatever—however, God has chosen for you. Trust Him. Period. Be ready to move wherever God may be leading you in this season of your deliverance. When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you. For I am the Lord your God the holy God of Israel, who saves you. I will give up Egypt to set you free. I will give up Ethiopia[a] and Seba. I will give up whole nations to save your life, because you are precious to me and because I love you and give you honor” –Isaiah 43:2-4.
And friend, if you’ve found yourself here for the first time, or, if you’re a returning friend know this: There is no such thing as a coincidence. God has led you here today because He wants to deliver you—lead you, into all that He has waiting for you. Won’t you follow Him today? Please ask Him into your heart as Lord and Savior this day. No man is promised tomorrow. If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” –Romans 10:9
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