Escape Through the Red Sea
Open Your Bible
Exodus 14:1-31, Exodus 15:1-21, Romans 6:1-4, Hebrews 11:29
BY Yana Conner
How do you respond to difficulty? Are you an optimist who always finds the good or a problem-solver who creates a handful of contingency plans?
Me? I’m like Israel. My response to difficulty is usually anxiety, discouragement, and doubt. I look at the “Red Seas” of my life and cry out. For example, I recently became a homeowner. Yay! Right? Yes. But also, the journey to the closing was rough. I’m talking about five different closing dates, a two-week stay at a friend’s becoming a three-month stint, and a week where it looked like it would all fall through and I would lose all my money. After one gut-wrenching phone call with my realtor, I remember sitting in my friend’s kitchen, with my head in my hands, wondering if I had made it all up.
I imagine Israel felt the same way, but ten thousand times over with the Egyptians behind them and a literal dead end in front of them. Even if they could swim, there was no way they could swim the length of the Red Sea. Though God had shown Himself to be all-powerful, this difficulty caused them to doubt God’s ability and character, asking, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:11).
Growing up, I often heard the saints of my childhood church sing of a God who would never forsake His people. They would belt out in three-part harmony with conviction, “I don’t believe He brought me this far to leave me.” Today’s reading proves this lyric to be true. After miraculously executing the ten plagues, God didn’t lead Israel to the Red Sea to leave them. Instead, the Red Sea was purposed to be their deliverance and Egypt’s defeat. He asked them to abandon their fear and quietly watch Him fight for them.
As I sat in my friend’s kitchen, God asked the same of me. I wish I could say I responded with a resounding yes, but I honestly had no choice. My chips were in. All I could do was trust Him. I’m happy to report He did, but I’m even more delighted to say God fought for my heart to find deeper levels of trust in Him.
43 thoughts on "Escape Through the Red Sea"
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We’re searching for a house. We were so excited to have 4x and much money this time around, so much more than when we bought our first home
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Well said Kathy! Thank you!
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Heidi I am reading it now!
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In the margin of my Bible, next to Exodus 14, I have this note written. “I don’t have to convince God to save me. Long before I existed, before anyone existed, He’d decided to rescue us with THE mighty act of redemption that makes journeying across the Redd Sea seem like a leap across a puddle.” Then there is a reference to 1 Peter 1:20. “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.” Next to that verse is this note: “It’s difficult to grasp the reality of ‘before the foundation of the world’ but there was indeed a time before the Earth existed. And it’s even wilder to realize that before ‘In the beginning, God created…’ ever happened, ‘Surely I am coming soon,’ had already been set in motion. ‘In the beginning, was the word.’ This word was Jesus – He was God and He was with God in the beginning. Jesus was never Plan B. He was always Plan A. He is the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together.”
God rescuing the Israelites was all part of His plan to rescue us all. As Tina said:
He has.
He will.
He ALWAYS will.Thank you all for your prayers. My colonoscopy went well. I’m good for another 10 years!
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Today’s reading was a great reminder to me of just how far I have come with dealing with difficulty. Before God a difficult situation filled me with worry, anxiety and a lot of projection. As my relationship with God has grown and deepened, my worry, anxiety and projection is much less. For a long time I used to pray for God to deepen my trust in him. I actually haven’t prayed that prayer in quite a while. I feel like I have grown and I love the peace I feel, even in difficult situations. Progress not perfection☺️
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Congrats Mari! I often wonder if I made the right career choice as my field is hard to move up in (Radiation Therapist) but it’s all such a rewarding career! I hope it If I meant to change career paths God will show me the way! God always shows up.
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Sarah D., as a retired teacher in California, I so understand your struggle and will pray for God’s guidance for you. Something new struck me from this verse today:
11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” – Exodus 14:11-12
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Sarah D., as a retired teacher in California, I so understand your struggle and will pray for God’s guidance for you. Something new struck me from this verse today:
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