Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
It’s Monday… I’m sure I didn’t need to remind you of that. Have you ever been traveling when suddenly you needed to turn around? Perhaps there was something blocking the road ahead, or you remembered you forgot something and needed to go back, or worse maybe you discovered you were heading in the wrong direction and needed to around? How did you feel as you turned back?
Yesterday I left you traveling with Moses and about 1 million people, most of them the Hebrew slaves and their families, who had just run out of Egypt in the middle of the night. This huge mass of people and animals were traveling both by day and night, following a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God was leading them and protecting them. Suddenly the people stopped, confused. The guiding cloud was not moving, it seemed stalled! Can you hear the rumblings of people wondering what was happening, what they should do? Now look, the cloud seems to actually be back tracking, heading back in the direction from which they came? Could it be the wind was moving the cloud rather than God’s hand? What should the people do now? It made no sense to go back?
The Exodus record explains it this way: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the Sea. Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue the Hebrews. But I will gain glory for Myself through Pharaoh and all His army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” (Ex. 14:1-4)
This is now about the 7th time God has said that His purpose is to be honored and glorified by Pharaoh and all who see what God is doing! I wonder how much of this Moses told the people? I’m guessing Moses told the people God had a plan. God was not confused. God had a specific plan and He wanted them to camp for a day or two, as God was working a bigger purpose. I suspect Moses reminded the people how much they could trust God, His power and His plans. So this huge moving mass of people and animals made a U-turn and headed back along the Red Sea, and made camp. Here’s a map to help us see their route:
What the fleeing Hebrew people didn’t know, and what you and I often forget, is that God is always busy working MANY plans simultaneously! While these people had run out of Egypt in the middle of the night, do you remember what the Egyptians were doing? Wailing! That’s right! All of Egypt was grieving the death of their firstborn sons as the angel of death had passed through Egypt. Now, in the days which followed that horrible night, Egyptians were burying their dead sons. Funerals, thousands of them, in every village, city and town. As these funerals came to an end the Pharaoh and his people looked around Egypt to see it had been devastated by the plagues, everywhere except the region of Goshen where the Hebrew slaves had lived. But that whole area was abandoned! The Hebrews had been told by Pharaoh to “GO” and they had, their families, their belongings, their animals and everything they could carry… gone out of Egypt on that Passover night! For Egyptians, their grief was giving way to anger, especially in the palace.
The God of the Hebrews had decimated Egypt through those powerful plagues and this God had also led out of Egypt the huge labor force, the Hebrew slaves. Suddenly Pharaoh faced a labor crisis...who would make the mud bricks for his building projects? Who would replant their fields and haul water to irrigate those fields? Who would clean up the mess from the plagues? The combination of the devastation and the deaths joined together to form a crisis. The record says: “Pharaoh and his officials said, ‘What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!’ So Pharaoh had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took 600 of the best chariots, along with the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites… The Egyptians pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth. As the Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD…” (Ex. 14:5-10)
You see it, don’t you my friends? The euphoria the fleeing Hebrew slaves had been feeling for two or three days was turning into terror. They were trapped. The Red Sea on one side and Pharaoh’s approaching chariot army on the other. Worse yet, GOD had led them into this trap. Remember? The cloud had backed up, leading them to this place. God had instructed Moses exactly where He wanted the Hebrews to camp. But standing in the camp, among 1 million frightened, nearly panicked Hebrew slaves, everything looked like a holocaust was about to happen. The people felt abandoned by the God who had rescued them. Nothing made any sense! Have you ever found yourself in such a situation, thinking you’d followed God as best you knew how, but everything was turning bad, very bad, disastrous in fact!
The people cried out, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out here? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians! It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Ex. 14:11,12) Moses had no explanation. Do you sometimes find yourself being questioned about God or maybe even criticized by people, as though you are responsible for God’s actions? Then Moses, empowered by the Spirit of God, made a profound statement that brings hope to people in desperate situations even today, almost 3500 years later: “Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Ex. 14:13,14)
All throughout this traveling city of 1 million people, everyone had an important decision to make! I wonder if some where already tearing any white cloth they could find and trying to tie it to a stick or pole so they could wave it in surrender, hoping the Egyptians would be merciful? Were others building barricades with their carts and belongings, hoping to hide as the chariots would rush by? But Moses had told them to do something remarkable… “Do not be afraid…” How do you NOT be afraid when you are staring death in the face, or anything terrible for that matter? Fear will well up within you, but here Moses, and through Bible history, many other times, leaders called the people to NOT allow fear to overwhelm them. The only way to do that is to counter fear with something stronger… FAITH in something or someone more powerful than that which is causing you fear!
The people had several recent experiences where God had brought a plague on Egypt but He had miraculously protected the Hebrews in Goshen. It happened with flies and with boils and with the death of livestock and with hail and with locusts and with darkness and finally with the angel of death and their firstborn sons! The TRUTH of the power of God was verified in their EXPERIENCE of His protection in the plagues. Therefore YES, they could stand defeating the fear within them, by REMEMBERING God’s powerful protection of them in their recent past!! Can you and I do that my friends? Can you look back and see the powerful work of God in your life, and using that can you stand firm in faith today, defeating the worry and fear that is rising up within you?
Moses also had told the Hebrews: “Stand firm and you will SEE the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The LORD will fight for you…” Sometimes the battle we fight is against powerful enemies that we SEE with our eyes, we HEAR their taunts with our ears, we FEEL their weapons or their fists… but other times our enemy is UNSEEN, as are his weapons! Ephesians 6 uses the same words of Moses in calling followers of Jesus to ‘“...take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against… the spiritual forces of evil… Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground…! (Eph. 6:10-18)
If you have fully trusted Jesus Christ to rescue you from your sin bondage, then God has given you very powerful spiritual armor with which you can fight the fear, worry and even the attacks of the dark kingdom!
* the belt of God’s TRUTH
* the breastplate of God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS (His holiness imputed to you)
* the gospel of God’s PEACE
* the shield of God’s FAITH (God giving you the ability to have great faith in HIM)
* the helmet of God’s SALVATION (forgiveness of your sin and deliverance from sin bondage)
* the sword of the Spirit, God’s WORD available for you to battle the dark kingdom
* the power of PRAYER! Your privilege to call upon God and receive His guidance anytime
Now friends, let’s stand firm… along with these Hebrew slaves, and God’s people down through the centuries, holding tightly by faith to all we know ABOUT God, and firmly gripping our RELATIONSHIP with God through Jesus, as we stand firm facing whatever the challenges are which face you today!
I found a song based on the powerful reality of what Moses said to those people as Pharaoh’s army approached them. . . Stand firm my friends!
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 14:1-14.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email
WhatsApp