The Red Sea Crossing
Do you remember the times that you read something in the scriptures
that made you laugh out loud? I laughed out loud the other day as I read Exodus 14:15. It reads, “And the LORD
said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of
Israel, that they go forward.” In modern lingo it would be: What you crying
to me for?
In these
very familiar events in The Bible, God sends Moses to tell Pharaoh to
let his people Israel go. God equips Moses with everything that he needs for
this task. Moses had a rod to do signs (Ex. 4:2), which was used to demonstrate
the power of God. God tells Moses that He will be with his mouth (Ex. 4:12,15),
which means that the Spirit of God would be with him. God gave Moses the same
instructions for delivering each of the ten plagues. Moses was to announce the
plague (Ex. 7:17) and use his rod to execute the miracle (Ex. 7:19).
Moses successfully delivered each of the ten plagues. Moses should
know how to deal with anything that comes next, right? After the tenth plague,
the Egyptians told the children of Israel to get out of Egypt, but shortly
thereafter the Egyptians had a change of heart and decided to chase after them
into the wilderness. The scripture says that when the children of Israel saw
the Egyptians chasing them “. . . they were sore afraid: and the children of
Israel cried out unto the LORD” (Ex. 14:10).
God responded
to Moses in Exodus 14:15: “Wherefore criest thou unto me?” Moses could have
felt the need to remind God that the whole, “Let my people go” thing was his
idea. If Moses had responded in this way, things may not have turned out well
for the children of Israel. Thank God for Moses. After looking at the situation
from a different perspective, I can understand God’s seemingly frustrated
response in Exodus 14:15. I laughed because God's response to Moses reminds me of when someone gets a bit annoyed at having to repeat themselves.
As a tutor,
I understand the frustration of providing instructions on a topic one week, then
having to cover the same topic the next week because the student was not paying
attention. Repeatedly covering the same material prevents us from advancing to
the next level of the subject in a timely manner. When this happens, the student
is not at the level of proficiency where they should be when the course ends. I wonder how many of us Christians are not at the levels of spiritual maturity where we should be because we are not paying attention to the lessons that Christ is teaching us.
Moses had
just delivered ten great plagues on the Egyptians using the Word of God and the
power of his rod. Moses and the children of Israel were barely out of Egypt and
it seems they had already forgotten the miraculous demonstrations of Gods power
that God had equipped them to perform. That is why in the next passage of
scripture, God says to Moses, “. . . lift up thy rod . . .” (Ex. 14:16).
In other words, God was saying, use what I gave you.
We know from
the scriptures that this event turned out in favor of the children of Israel.
The children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, and when Pharaoh and
his army went into the sea after them, they were all drowned (Exodus 14:28).
Like Moses,
God has equipped his saints with everything that we need to be victorious. Just
as God equipped Moses with his word and his power, God has equipped his saints with
his word and the power of his Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ (Acts 10:38). Are
we crying out to God in situations that we can handle ourselves? When trouble
comes in our lives, we should apply the word of God, knowing that God is with
us to empower us.
If you desire
to have the presence of God in your life, you must be born again according to
Act 2:38 where it is reads, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Please share your questions or comments in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.
Diane Margo Penny is an author, content creator, social media specialist, and Web designer.
The Holy Bible (KJV). 1990.
Image Attribution:
ai-generated-8097234_1920. Asa Childress. Pixabay.com. Web 9 Sept. 2023.
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