Camp By The Sea

Often I think about the many miracles that the Israelites witnessed God perform before their very eyes and how they seemed to forget every one of them when faced with a new trial.  I marvel at how forgetful we are as people.  Just recently I was thinking about how God delivered the newly freed slaves from Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea.  They had just seen the 10 plagues that God had sent on the land in order for them to be set free and they were given the deliverer that they had prayed to God to send them during the time of their captivity yet their faith failed them when they were between the army of Pharaoh and his chariots and the Red Sea. The story begins in Exodus 14:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon.  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 them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So the Israelites did this. 

God instructed Moses and the children of Israel to encamp by the sea.  He knew Pharaoh would pursue Israel.  Actually he CAUSED Pharaoh to pursue them!  I wonder if the Israelites complained among themselves, "what's He doing?"  Did they have faith?  Did they realize what was about to happen?  I'm guessing that this conversation took place only between Moses and God.  The people probably had no idea what was about to occur!  If they had, do you think they would have followed Moses?  They may have realized that they were about to be slaughtered by the Egyptian army because they would have no where to go!  The story continues:

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, “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 of Egypt? 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!” 

Have you ever felt this way?  Let me tell you, I have!  Many times in fact!  "Have you brought us to South Dakota only so we'll freeze to death?"  You can substitute 'freeze to death' with 'starve to death' or 'die of loneliness' or 'be hated by everyone...'  You get the point!  I've often questioned why we're here doing what we're doing when it seems we're camped at sea.  Which way do we go now, Lord?  We can't go back, the enemy is on our heels!  We can't go forward, the sea of the unknown will swallow us up!  At this very moment we stand at a great sea in front of us!  I cannot for the life of me see any way out and I'm asking God, "Did you bring us this far only to have us fail!?"  It's how I honestly feel.  But I know it isn't true.  Back to the Red Sea and Israel:

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.” 

What beautiful instructions!  One, do not be afraid!  Two, stand firm!  Three, the Lord will fight for you!  Four, BE STILL!  Teena, be still!  Why is that so hard to do?  We see next that God opens up the sea which allows the children of Israel to walk through the sea on dry ground!  He again hardens Pharaoh's heart so that the army pursues them but God shuts the sea up around them and the army drowns.  The Israelites go free!  So it ends:

But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. 

Why do we go through trials?  Why does God allow them?  Our enemy seeks to destroy us but God is our deliverer and He wants us to be still while He saves us from the enemy so that He alone can receive the glory.  Worry is the army approaching my camp by the sea.  The sea is the unknown, the not knowing how God will provide or protect or answer my prayers.  I can't stop the circumstances around me any more than the Israelites could fight the army of well over 600 hundred chariots and I can't make my way across the unknown any easier than the people of God could swim across the Red Sea.  I have to put aside my fear, stand firm, know that the Lord will fight for me and then be still.  

The question then is this; do we make our camp by the sea and wait for destruction?  Or do we put up our tents and wait calmly while the Lord makes a way that we hadn't seen before?  I used to sing a song years ago at a little church in Plainfield, IN that I still find myself humming today:

God will make a way

Where there seems to be no way

He works in ways we cannot see

He will make a way for me

He will be my guide

Hold me closely to His side

With love and strength

For each new day

He will make a way

He will make a way

By a roadway in the wilderness

He'll lead me

And rivers in the desert will I see

Heaven and earth will fade

But His Word will still remain

He will do something new today

Lyrics by Don Moen