Exodus 14

So the whole chapter is interesting. It is about how God leads the people of Israel out of Egypt. I want to look at a few verses (4 to be exact) and how they compare to our everyday lives. The first verse I wish to look at is verse 3. It reads, “The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion.” At this point in time in the story God has Moses tell the people to go back to a place to camp so that Pharaoh can seem them wandering around so that he can go after them to bring them back to Egypt. Wandering in a state of confusion . . . wow I did that yesterday and the day before and even the day before that. Being thousands of miles away from home in a country where English doesn’t come first it can be rather difficult to find your way around. I find myself walking in circles all the time, and often wondering where I am at. But that is only one side of it. That is the physical sense of wandering around. I want to look at the mental aspect. Think for me, when is the last time that you knew exactly the direction your life as heading? When is the last time you knew exactly how a day was going to turn out? When is the last time that you knew that you were going to wake up the next day? I can’t answer any one of those questions for myself. To me, that is like running around in a state of confusion. A lack of clarity as to what exactly is going to happen in your life, not knowing how a situation is going to turn out, not knowing, if you will wake up tomorrow, and yet we still have hope. Let me explain. Just as the Israelites were wandering around in the desert, “waiting to die” as they put it we do the same thing everyday. We fail to put our full faith and trust in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We fear death. We fear rejection. We fear failure. We fear _________ you fill in the blank. And yet we need not worry. Let me get a little deeper here by adding in the next verse.

Verse 13 says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today.” That was Moses talking to the people of Israel and yet it is God talking to each and every one of us also. Take everything that you fear, and think about how you can fix it on your own. You will think for hours and days on and end really not come up with a good reliable answer until you come to this one . . . Stand firm in your faith, and trust in the LORD! He is the way to make all these things better. He is the way to keep you from fearing what you fear. He is the ay to help you with that difficult situation that you don’t understand. He, simply put, is the answer. And yet just as the Israelites did, we do the same today and we still doubt Him and we have to see something to know that he is still helping us. Moses cried out to the Lord for help as the Egyptians were following the people, and what did God do, he helped. The Lord told Moses to hold his staff out over the sea, and over night, the sea parts, so that the people can get from one side to the other without problem. It doesn’t always happen overnight, but when you put your burdens on the shoulders of God, he will always show you an outcome. It may take a few minutes, days, weeks, or even years, but when you put those things on God’s shoulders, you can’t go wrong. Then, as the Egyptians entered the dry land in the sea, what did God do, but he (vs. 24) “threw them into confusion.” He got rid of the problem. That is what our loving God does. He takes the problems that we have and gets rid of them or fixes them. So is it worth it to worry about tomorrow? I think not, I think that Matthew 6:34 says it best, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” That is what we have to do. We have to realize that sure our life has these paths that take us every which direction and sure it can be hard and frustrating and we can have that feeling of wandering around in confusion, and yet, we have no reason to.

Exodus 14:31 reads, “The people feared the Lord and put their TRUST in him.” How great is that? If we trust in the Lord and look to him always we wont have that state of confusion. Sure we will think that we have it, but He has a plan for us and confusion is not a part of it. I found this picture and hope that the artist doesn’t mind my using it, but I think it really sums this whole situation up. It’s like this broad spectrum, things going every which direction, just this utter state of confusion, and yet, it you look past everything that is “confusing” you can still see the reason we are living. That reason is the cross. Take a look at the picture:

Lord, today I pray for guidance. We all have these paths in our life and yet known of us know where they are leading. I pray that you help us to get out of our busy and confusing nature and trust in you. You died for us all so that we won’t have these “confusions.” I ask that you help us to always look for you for help rather than trying to figure things out ourselves, and I ask that you help us to put our full faith, trust and love in you, because without that, we have nothing. Help us to look though everything and see the one thing that matters . . . YOU. Amen

Matthew 14:31

Unfortunately I doubt Jesus way to often. We all have these paths in our life, God has placed each and every one of us on our own path, and those paths have ups and downs, highs and lows, and goods and bads. So how come when we are on those highs and goods we praise God, and on the other end we doubt Him? How often does your mind wander as to if you would have done something differently? How often do you think about trying to change your life, or even better, trying to plan out every detail in your life? Do you doubt God that much? Do you doubt that He doesn’t have the best plan drawn out for you already, and as much as you try to change it yourself, it won’t work to your advantage?

Let me explain with an example of my own. I am a workaholic. I love to work; it doesn’t matter how many hours, how many days out of the week or even what job it is. I simply love to work. So when I got my first job I thought, you know what, I can just work my way to the top, I don’t need school I don’t need friends I don’t need anything else, as long as I have a job I will be happy. I’ve had that job five years now, and you would not believe how much my opinion has changed on that. I went from being greedy and wanting to work my way up within that business to wanting to own my own business. That’s when my life seemed to be turned upside down. I had had the idea of going to the Seminary in there as well. And that is when I began to notice that the path that I had chosen was so wrong. But realized it even more as I have gone through a rough situation, and dealing with my priority list. I have always told people that I want to be alone forever, that I don’t need a family, that I don’t need pictures to remember what I have done in my life, and that I don’t need anything but a job, because it will keep me busy. Man o man have I been hiding behind way to much stuff. All of this was because my trust and faith in God was not at its fullest potential.

Take Matthew 14:22-34 for example. This is the story of Jesus walking on water. In verse 31 He says, “You of little faith, why did YOU doubt?” Peter first began to lose trust when he asked “if it is you Lord, tell me to come to you on the water.” To me that is like when we decide to make our own decisions and we decide what we want to do with our lives, rather than letting our trust remain in Him. It’s like we have “pushed” God out of our life to the point where we don’t even recognize him, even when he is right in front of us. It continues though. Peter steps out on the water; he has increased his trust and faith in the Lord, until it turns around again. Peter begins to sink. “Lord, save me!” Peter says. When you begin to sink, it’s like that rollercoaster ride, on the ups and downs of life. We begin to sink as we fall further away from Jesus. Jesus had his hand stretched out for Peter though. He has His hand stretched out to catch us. Not only in times of trouble, distress, grief, confusion, but in everything, in times of prosperity and in thanksgiving. Do you trust God all the time, or are you trying to make your own path?
I’m sure most of you have heard the footprints poem. You know which one I’m talking about, how you and Jesus are walking along the beach and portions of your life are flashing in front of you and you look and see one set of footsteps at certain points and two at others. And you wonder to yourself, “Lord I thought that you were with me all the time.” Then finally you realize he is with you ALL the time, because in the times of trouble, you aren’t doing any of the walking, because HE is carrying you. He always has a hand stretched out for you. He always has an ear open to listen to you. He will always be there for you. All Peter had to do on the water was stretch his hand out to the Lord’s and that is all that we have to do here on earth because His hand is always outstretched.

So back to that first example that I had, I have realized so much now that I am not in control of my life. Do I still wish that I could own my own business, sure. But I realize that I am using all of this to hide behind. I hide behind work because right now for me it is unchanging, and yet it is the wrong hiding place. There is no hiding place from God, so take your fears, and concerns, and doubts to him. He can help. He has helped me to see that being alone forever would be boring, stressful, and well, not for me. He has helped me see that pictures aren’t bad, sure I may not like them, but they will help with my memory (since I already seem to be losing it). He has helped me to see that money isn’t everything, sure a great job would be nice, making lots of money, but that isn’t the important thing. He wants us to be happy, so let Him make you happy. He has showed me that the only thing important in life is faith and hope and love in Him. I am going to try real hard now, when things get difficult to go to God for help, rather than to just let myself keep sinking and fall away from a trust and faith that is so strong that it can never be broken.

So think about it. Do you go to God with your problems? Do you try to set your own paths? Do you have your life all planned out already? Sure you may think that you do, but God may have something different in mind, and my hope is, that when He shows you that path, that you are willing to take it.

-Lord, we all go through ups and downs in life, and too often than not we hide behind something. I pray today and always that you help each one of us to come to you with our problems, so that we can seek your guidance for direction, because you know what is best for us. Lord, help us to reach out to your hand that is always stretched out for us. Amen