Exodus 14:13-15(NKJV)
13And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. 14The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” 15And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.
We have been looking at the parallel between the situation the children of Israel found themselves in and our situation today. They were in an impossible place. The Egyptian army was behind them intent upon either taking them back to Egypt or destroying them. This was not the result of the devil’s activity, but God’s. He brought them to this place so that they would have to depend on him and him alone. The Lord was not going to allow them to be destroyed or taken into bondage. He was going to defeat their enemy once and for all. What looked like a trap for Israel was really a trap set for Pharaoh and his army.
We find ourselves in a similar situation. It is so in our country and the world. More important to me it is so in the church and maybe in your personal life. We need God to move. There is really no other help for the things we face. There maybe some temporary solutions in the natural, but in many ways, if God does not move nothing is going to change. If God does not move all the difficult and dangerous situations in the world, they will not be solved. Our personal challenges will not be overcome. In our church at least, if God does not do it we will not see growth and increase. There is no plan B for me.
Moses gave the children of Israel two commands that I believe we need to implement if we are going to see the kind of victory they had. First he told them to “fear not!”. If we want to see victory we cannot give in to the temptation to fear. We cannot run away for the challenge. For one thing we will face it again. The devil will not give up on something that works. Secondarily faith cannot function where fear is dominating.
Then Moses told them to “Stand still!”. The implication is to stand in the face of the challenge, but stand on what? The only thing we can stand on is the promise in the word of God. We need to know what the Word says and meditate on it until we are fully persuaded that God will do what he said. We need to use the word as the specific focus for what we are believing so that when we begin to waver we having something to turn to.
Today I want to look at the last element from this scripture. After Moses addresses the Israelites, God tells Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the Children of Israel to go forward.” To me this is interesting. God seems to indicate that the course of action is obvious. God has given them promises concerning their destination. He has done great things to get them to this point. What else would God want them to do. They must go forward. Period.
It is my intention to look at all three of these statements to Israel in detail over the next few weeks, but let me say this. God never directs us to go backward. There are times when we have to wait on God’s timing. There are times when God redirects us and it may look like a backward step, but it is just another way forward. There are times when we may have gotten out ahead of God and we will have to go back to where we left him. However, when God gives us direction it is always forward.
When he gave Israel that direction God had already determined what he would do. The Lord tells Moses what to do and what the result will be. As Moses obeyed it was up to the children of Israel to step into gods provision. They had to go forward into the parted waters of the Red Sea. If they had not, none of the rest would have happened. We also must go forward at the Lords command if we are going to see the provision of God in our lives.
Is there something you need to “go forward” into"? Is there something you know God wants you to do that you have yet to obey? Is there some action of faith that you can take in an area in which you have been believing God? Has the devil been pushing you to step back from God, the body of Christ or the Word? God will never tell you to go backward. Go forward today. If you don’t know how or where to go forward, begin to seek God in the matter. “What steps can I take? Where is my parted Red Sea?” God will show you. Be bold and step into the parted waters. God will not let you down and the steps you take will bring about a major defeat of the enemy in your life. That’s what God did for Israel.
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