E is for EXODUS

The situation that lay before us seemed impossible and completely unknown to us. There’s no controlling something like this. While it’s not over, I can assure you that over the past two years, every day has been shrouded in fog.

(Life can really feel like that. We stumbled on this sign one day when taking a hike. The sign summed up where we felt we were.)

In the thick of it, the story of the Israelites at the Red Sea has really resonated with Nate & I.

If you’re not familiar with the story, here’s a quick recap:

• After hundreds of years enslaved in Egypt, God sets His people free.

• God led the Israelites out of Egypt. He used a pillar of cloud for them to follow by day and a pillar of fire at night. He showed them the way they should go - where to camp, where to go left and where to turn right.

• After the Israelites left, Pharaoh realized he just let all his free labour go. How could he continue to build his great cities without his resources? Pharaoh & his massive armies set out in hot pursuit of the Israelites.

• The Israelites are trapped. On all sides. Pharaoh & his army are behind them, mountains beside them & the Red Sea before them. Time was running short and there was no visible way of escape. Panic was setting in. The people started grumbling, saying they would have been better off left as slaves.

• God instructs Moses (the Israelites’ leader) to move on. How? It sounded like a crazy plan: God said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.” (Exodus 14:15-16)

• “But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” (Exodus 14:29)

• Not a single person from Pharaoh’s army made it out.

Like the Israelites, when my situation gets daunting, I cry. I cry out to God. I cry out in panic. I cry at the injustice. I cry at the hurt and pain. Unfortunately, I get caught up in me. It clouds my vision - all I see is the impossible. Fear sets in and holds me hostage. I think this is why I’m so fascinated by what God instructed Moses to do, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on” (Exodus 14:15).

Over the past two years, God has asked Nate and I to move forward in certain areas and take some big risks despite our situation. It’s terrifying. No doubt, my family, friends, co-workers and strangers in the grocery store have seen me talking to myself. What they don’t know is I’m really having it out with God. Fighting back burning tears, I often ask, “But how, God? How can I possibly move forward when I’m weighed down by this? How can I move forward when I lack the resources, energy & feel like I’m constantly being rerouted? How can we move forward from here when you have us stuck in this spot?!”.

There are days when I feel like I’m at the edge of the Red Sea. When life hits you hard, there is no pause button to give you you the luxury of sorting out your next steps or to test a way forward. I feel like I can really relate to the Israelites in that spot. I love how C.H. Mackintosh sums up the impossible circumstances the Israelites found themselves in: “The sea was before them, Pharaoh’s hosts behind them, and the mountains around them. And all this, be it observed, permitted and ordered of God.”

Mackintosh revolutionized how I look at my circumstance – permitted by God. Sure, this does not take away the pain that my trial has caused, or its heaviness, but it’s not sooo daunting anymore. This new truth frames my circumstances differently: my situation is not outside the will or power of God. My circumstance has not caught God off guard. He’s not pacing heaven’s floor wondering how He will pull me through.

When God calls us to move on, He calls us to push past our fear. He asks us to move forward in faith, trusting that He is making a way.

As I step out of that place of fear and into faith, I need to remind myself that my God has not changed. The God I choose to follow is the same God that led the Israelites out of Egypt and parted waters. While He may never perform such an impressive miracle in my own life, He still has that same power, and I’m His child. I trust that God will still deliver me. How? I’m not sure. It likely won’t look like anything I’ve plotted, dreamed or hoped. It might not come as a miracle. But I trust Him. I trust His ways. And I am choosing to trust His timing.

While it’s not over (yet), we have seen God’s fingerprints throughout our situation. This gives me hope – knowing He’s still at work. And I’m choosing to believe that God has permitted this circumstance to demonstrate His power.

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14:14)

Robert Morgan sums it up this way, “the same God who led you in will lead you out.”

I’m choosing to believe.

---

Song choice: Called Me Higher by All Sons & Daughters

Listen here: