The word
Can you imagine being the Israelites during the Exodus?
Even once the deliverance was ACTUALLY HAPPENING?
Feeling sheer terror when you find out the Egyptians are coming for you and there is no escape because you’ve come to the edge of a massive sea.
Then Moses raises His staff and…nothing. Seemingly nothing happens for a while…
But the wind starts to blow and you watch the wind miraculously blow the water consistently overnight until you can see a path straight through the bottom!
WHAT!!!!!
Then walking THROUGH the Red Sea with MASSIVE walls of water towering above you on each side.
Trying to hurry on the sand with your belongings on your back and desperately trying to grab your children to rush them along. With your heart and thoughts racing, “This is insane… How long is this water going to stay like this? What if it falls on us before we get through? Was that a shark or a whale?!…”
And then looking back and seeing the Egyptians with the finest chariots and mightiest horses of that day in hot pursuit of you, ready to tear you to pieces the moment they reach you… or worse, enslave you and your children again with even worse beatings and impossible labor every day for the rest of your lives.
“They are coming so fast! It looks like they are almost to us… what if they reach us before we get to the other side? They’re merciless… I’m sure they are going to slaughter us and our children… God help!!!”
Then… wait! The water is starting to pour over the Egyptians and drown all of them!!
“Oh God… Run!!! Is it going to drown us too?! Did we endure all we did so long in Egypt for no reason? God did you finally bring us all this way to kill us?!?”
This deliverance was no walk in the park.
Getting freed of all of the years of their oppression was no easy walk of faith.
This terrifying thing had never happened before and they did not have any idea how this story would end.
Much like the battles we face today in this world.
It can look like the evil in hot pursuit of you is overcoming you or going to overcome you at any second, like you have surely met your demise…
It’s ok to feel the fear, the anxiety and the worry in the midst of the story.
Not only is it ok, God understands.
So many people in the Bible struggled in their faith while facing extreme challenges.
But never did God forsake a single one of them.
Never did He abandon them.
Never did He end a story without working it all together for good.
Though you tremble, keep walking forward my friend.
Etch the words of David deep inside of your heart,
“YET I believe with all my heart that I will see again your goodness, Yahweh, in the land of the living! Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for he will never disappoint you!” Psalm 27 TPT
And trust HIM to get you to the other side.
Read the full text
At the beginning of the year, the Lord gave me a word that it would be a year of deliverance, and I saw him carrying us across through the Red Sea. And I've been studying the book of Exodus recently, and Moses struggled. It was not easy. He went to Pharaoh, and he told him what God told him to tell him, and then Pharaoh persecuted the Israelites and made life impossible, and they suffered.
And then Pharaoh's heart continued to be hard even through all the signs and wonders that God continued to do. And so it wasn't instantaneous. And then there's also the battle where Moses had to have his hands held up by Aaron and Hur for them to actually win. And then there's Lazarus who died, and it didn't make sense, and it wasn't instantaneous.
Jesus had to get there and then raise him from the dead. And so I just want to encourage you that deliverance is a process, and because God understands that, he has so much compassion and understanding for us even in our struggle. It's okay to struggle just as Moses struggled.