Exodus 14:15-18(NKJV)
15And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. 16But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained honor for Myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
Yesterday in looking at the process for victory outlined in Exodus 14 we pointed out that Moses had given Israel the first two directives but it was the Lord who told them to go forward. When it comes time to act on the promise of God we must do so based on faith in the Word of God. We cannot choose to act on our own word or to get God to move. We must act because we know by faith that God is moving.
We also pointed out that, although it was God who said go forward, the command came through Moses. They had to trust their leaders. Strife and complaining ultimately kept their generation from the promised land. A key I notices was the fact that every time they complained about Moses they attacked his motives. I
In over 30 years of ministry I have seen the same pattern many times. We all make mistakes. If we can choose to judge one another on our actions and not try to judge each other’s motives I believe we can avoid the disasters of the past and enter into the destiny God has for our generation.
Today I want to focus on something else I saw when reading this account. In verse 16 God tells Moses he is going to take care of his people, however inverse 17 and 18 he tells Moses the main reason why. He loves Israel. He wants to see them free, however that is not the most important thing that will happen in the next number of hours.
In verse 18 God tells Moses, “Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained honor for Myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” As I was reading this it struck me how little “honor for the Lord” usually enters into our thinking.
We want God to move because we have needs. We want God to move because we want to be fulfilled in life. We want God to move to build our church or grow our ministry. How much is God being glorified part of our desire? I had to say the, in my life, far too little.
As I thought of the first century church, I realized that if they preached the gospel we sometimes preached there would be no second century church. They got saved because they came to believe that their eternity depended on it, not because they wanted to improve their present. To that end, I think they had a greater understanding of the need for God to be glorified, and were willing to serve him through unimaginable suffering.
Don’t misunderstand me. I believe we can and should believe God for blessing in life. God is a Father and nothing pleases a father more than the blessing of his children. I believe we have a covenant full of promises that Jesus paid for with his blood. I believe healing, peace of mind and even prosperity are all part of the salvation package and we have every right to believe for them.
That said, if our motivation is focused on those things we are missing something. There is one thing a father does covet almost as much as his children’s well being. It is their concern and love for him. If we love our father, we are going to want his glory more than our wellbeing. I am not saying we should all become martyrs or give up earthly pleasure entirely. I am saying that there is a balance that has been lost along the line.
The truth is we need God to be glorified in this world. If we want to see the world change, they need to know that He truly is God. If all we care about is self we are in a week position but if we begin to look to the glory of God, God can meet our needs but our faith will also cause him to be able to affect the world.
Let’s look at what happened in this story. God did indeed deliver Israel. There were many ways God could have saved Israel that did not involve bringing them to the shores of the Red Sea with the Egyptian army at their backs. However none of them would have resulted in the kind of honor that came to his name as a result of what happened there.
Because of this incident the power of the enemy was completely destroyed. More important the world heard about it. The Ten of the twelve spies that were eventually sent into the promised land came back saying that Israel was small in the eyes of its inhabitants. However when they finally came to the point of taking Jericho we read that the people of the land had been waiting in fear for them to attack.
The glory that God gained opened the way for what would happen next. We live in a different day. We are not trying to physically conquer a land. However make no mistake, conquest is what we have been assigned. This time it is not with war or killing. We are to conquer with the love of God. For that to happen we still need the world to know that God is almighty. We need God to be glorified.
What if we are asked to sacrifice. What if we don’t get all that we want in life. What if we were even threatened with death. If our motivation is just to have a better life here on earth we will fail. However when we are motivated by the desire to see God honored and glorified nothing can stop us.
2011 is a year to win wars. If history teaches us anything it is that people must die to win wars. We also learn that they are willing to make that sacrifice because they believe in something greater than self.
I hope we don’t face physical death. If we are to win there is a death I know we must face. That is death to self. The only way that we will ever really face that is if we are more concerned about the glory and honor of God than about self. God will take care of us. We need to take care of His kingdom.
Matthew 6:31-34(NKJV)
31“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
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