concerned with my reputation that I would rather not step out and see what the King will do . I recognize the King may come through , but what if He does not ? It is often a gamble I am not willing to take .
Moses responded to 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 ” ( Exodus 14:13 – 14 ).
The message was simple : This is not about you or your power . This is about what your King will do for you .
Moses was clearly having his own doubts , because immediately after putting on a brave face for the people , he cried out to God . Moses saw the same thing the people did — they were going to be defeated . He had enough faith to put on a brave face , but not enough to believe in the deliverance that had been promised . God ’ s response to Moses is blunt and direct : “ Why are you crying out to me ? Tell the Israelites to move on .” My paraphrase is : “ I already told you what to do and that I would protect you . Now quit crying and just do it !”
You see , God wanted to create space in which He could work . He wanted to demonstrate His power in such a way that there would be no disputing Who had accomplished the victory . He wanted the Israelites to fail in their escape so that He could succeed in accomplishing it for them !
When I am not willing to step out in faith for things I am unable to accomplish on my own , I am closing the door on the best opportunities for the King to come through for me . If I am not deliberately creating space that I am insufficient to fill , I am limiting the amount of the King ’ s power that can be put on display . If I am only stepping into tasks and ideas that I can handle , the world will see me when those things are accomplished . But when I step into a task that is bigger than me , and when I do so while admitting that it will take the intervention of the King to succeed , the sky is the limit ! Or maybe I should say that the Red Sea is not the limit ! Because when Moses agreed to walk in God ’ s plan for the Israelites ’ seemingly futile predicament , the sea could not hold them . The mighty King took control and made a way through the water where there had been no way before .
Moses was afraid of failing . But
when God ’ s call to service extended into
a place beyond his human ability — and
into a place that risked failure — Moses answered the call . Moses chose service to the King even when he was convinced he would fail . ink of the victory that would have been forfeited had Moses chosen not to risk failure !
Before we move on , let us not miss the numerous miracles on display here . The parting of the Red Sea generally demands our attention , and understandably so . But Exodus 14 outlines several miracles working together to provide this escape :
• The angel of God and the pillar of cloud that had been leading the Israelites moved behind them and served as a physical separation from their enemies .
• The Israelites were given light all night long while the Egyptians were cast into darkness , ensuring the two armies would not come together .
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