We Have to Step In...to Move On!
Reading Numbers this morning made me better appreciate the Israelites in Moses' day. Numbers begins with a count required by the LORD of the Israelites, first the men who could make up the army and then the Levites who would attend to the tabernacle of the Testimony. Numbers 1:54 tells us that, "The Israelites did all this just as the LORD commanded Moses," and 2:34 recounts, "So the Israelites did everything the LORD commanded Moses." It was such a promising beginning for the Exodus of the Israelites. They did as the LORD commanded.
How many times have I had great intentions, at the beginning of an endeavor i.e. attaining a healthy diet, weight loss, or exercise routine and just didn't get to the finish line? The census the LORD had Israel take noted over 600,000 men, yet only two, Joshua and Caleb, were allowed to go into the Promised Land. That is a really low success rate-only 2 of 600,000 made it to the finish line and completed the journey.
The question might be something like the Israelites asked Moses, just after being freed from slavery in Egypt as the Egyptian army was marching after them, "What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?...It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" (Exodus 14:11-12). How many times have we blamed the circumstances for our lack of success...If it wasn't for the holidays I could stay on my healthy diet and lose weight...or If we had better weather I could exercise more regularly?
But truth be told, we are weak and unwilling to take a stand, right? (Or am I just speaking to myself?) In Exodus 14:13-14, Moses reminds the people of just that, "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." So that makes me wonder, what if when we waver we asked God for strength, rather than trying to rely on our own strength to make it to the finish line?
I love what the LORD said to Moses as he's wavering on the bank of the Red Sea, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on" (Exodus 14:15). Move on! Quit your whining and get going! God has done the hard part, He is holding back the sea, but...we have to step in to the waters and get our feet wet. As long as we linger on the dry banks, dreaming of what was, we will never get to the other side of our journey. (Actually, God even kept their feet dry as they walked through the divided walls of sea. That is Him just being God! Exodus 14:22; 14:29.)
Finally, after all the initial complaining to Moses about being left to rot in the wilderness, "the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, [and] the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant" (Exodus 14:31). Does the LORD have to wipe all our enemies from the face of the earth for us to see the Hand of God on our lives and move on? Or can we "stand firm and ...see the deliverance [of] the LORD" (Exodus 14:13)? Can we "be still" and stop our complaining and desires to return to our old ways or "Egypt" (Exodus 14:14)? If we chose to trust God and not ourselves, knowing what He has done for us in the past and move on...if we could leave the bondage of fear and failure and step out in faith...imagine what our promise land journey could be!
Psalm 46:10 He says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
Comments
Post a Comment