Daily Devotion

July 28, 2006

Psalms 106:9 He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.

When the children sat on the shore of Nuweibi beach on the Eastern arm of the red Sea, they were not going to the Promised Land. To go to Canaan from Goshen, they did not need to cross the sea. On their way to Sinai, in Arabia (Galatians 4:25), they were going to do what Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had to do before they could inherit the promises of God. The Children of Israel were coming out their familiar world and surroundings, to go to a place where they could hear God and God alone, in a position of total surrender and dependence. God does not take second place, nor even does He take His rank among the myriad of possibilities that surround us. When He wants to bless us, He eliminates all the other ‘competitors’; He wants to be the One and the only One. God led the Children of Israel on that path because he wanted them to cut their bridges behind them; to put the sea, the desert and the possibility of return between them and Egypt (Exodus 13:17-18). On their way to that Mountain in the land of Median, they were going to hear from God.

When we are on our way to hear from Him, God will hear the news from afar off that His child is coming to Him. He will anxiously wait on the top of the nearest hill expecting at any time to see the silhouette of His beloved child. God will send His armies to escort the returning prodigal. They will stand between His son and his pursuing enemy; they will be light to show him the way and blindness to his enemies (Exodus 14:19-20); they will make for him a pathway through the sea to show him the way; they will take off the wheels from the chariot of his pursuers and drown them into the sea (Exodus 14:25). God will also send His servants ahead in the wilderness to provide food and water for His beloved child (Exodus 16:15; 17:6).

There are times in our lives when God seems to let everything fail around us; times when we are back to square one, back to the drawing board of listening to Him and trying to find His will. Let us not fear these times. Let us not fear loosing control of our own destiny; let us not fear God getting into the ‘driver’s seat’ of our lives telling us to take a nap in the back of the car and let Him drive. Rather let us enjoy being carried on the wings of the wind of His will in utter dependence to Him. Patiently sit at the foot of the Mount, waiting for His Word (let us not, in our impatience carve the golden calf of our own will (Exodus 32:1-4)). If during these times we wait for Him, He will give us the Word that will change and redirect our lives in the way we should live to enjoy the Land of His Promises.

Heb 6:15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.