Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground.”
Exodus 14:15
All right Moses, stop praying and go forward! There’s a time for praying and there’s a time for action. There’s a time to get off our knees and get going. That seems to be what God is saying to Moses in today’s text. “Enough with this crying out to me! Go forward!”
But that’s the one thing the Israelites can’t do, go forward! If they step into the Red Sea they will drown! They have no binoculars for viewing the Promised Land or even the opposite shore, yet God commands them to go forward. “Lift up your staff over the sea, Moses, and divide it!”
Some Bible commentators suggest that when Moses lifted his staff over the Red Sea the waters did not divide all at once but progressively as the Israelites moved forward. They had to trust God for each new step forward. Bible commentator C. H. Mackintosh observes: “God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take one step, and then I get light for the next. This keeps the heart abiding in dependence upon God” (Notes on the Pentateuch).
The New Testament commentary on today’s text says that, “By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land” (Hebrews 11:29). Faith always goes forward, “as if it were dry land”. Faith is ready to take the next step, no matter what the appearances. Are we?
REFLECTION
- Is there some area of your life where you sense that the Spirit of God is telling you to stop praying, and get going? If so, what is it?
- Take a few moments to ponder these words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon:
The Lord will make a way for you where no foot has been before. Thatwhich, like a sea, threatens to drown you, shall be a highway for yourescape.” (Devotional Classics of C. H. Spurgeon)
- Take a few moments to talk with God about the ‘Red Sea’ you might be facing.