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Don't Give Up Until You See God's Glory |
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Exodus 13:17 - 14:20 - (Paraphrased from King James Version) Pharaoh had already let the people of Israel leave from Egypt. Because of their lack of faith in him, God decided to lead them through the wilderness instead of the way through where the Philistines lived. (He knew that when they saw the Philistines they would be afraid and want to turn back.) The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. One or the other was always with them so they would know that God was always with them wherever they went. God told Moses in advance that he was going to harden Pharaoh's heart again so that they would come after the Israelites in the wilderness. He would put it in Pharaoh's heart that they could overpower the Israelites because they would be trapped with the sea in front of them and mountains on either side of them. Sure enough, when he found out for sure that the Israelites were gone, he realized what a devastating loss it would be to the country and decided he had better go get them back. It was God's plan to show the Israelites and also the Egyptians His Glory. When the Israelites looked out over the wilderness and saw the great cloud of smoke, they were terrified. They knew that the Egyptians were coming after them and they had nowhere to go. They thought that they would be killed out there in the wilderness. Instead of crying out to God to save them, they started complaining and murmuring about how they were better off in Egypt. But because God had already told Moses what his plan was, Moses was able to speak with boldness and tell the Israelites that God Himself would fight for them. He could tell them not to be afraid, because all this was God's plan to start with. The Angel of God Himself which had always been leading them now went behind them and separated them from the Egyptians. The angel was a cloud of light for the Israelites, but it was a cloud of utter darkness for the Egyptians, so that they couldn't see to come near the Israelites all night.
I know that most of us know the rest of the story, how Moses held up his rod and the waters parted and they crossed over; and when the Egyptians started through, they were drowned in the water. What I want to get across in this lesson is that God uses people to do his work for him. The Egyptians were very much involved in all kinds of idolatry. God was going to make them pay for their sin, but He also wanted to show them who the REAL ONE AND ONLY GOD was. It was God who put the idea into Pharaoh's head to go after them in the first place. God may use us in certain ways if we get out of His Will. We may have to suffer at the expense of answering the prayer of someone else who is in His Will. God can and will do that sometimes to try to bring us back into His Will. Sometimes the only way he can do that is for us to hit bottom. I guess God planned to 'kill two birds with one stone' so to speak. He wanted to show Egypt that there was only one true God, and he also wanted to show Israel what that one true God was capable of doing. He wanted to show the Israelites his glory so they would never want to go back to Egypt again. They had it terrible in Egypt, but it was what they knew and had gotten to feel comfortable with, even if their living conditions were terrible. God has so much great planned for us, but we often want to go back to Egypt, because it is what we know and what we can see, even if it is not very good. God can see the whole picture and He knows what is always the very best for us. All we know is what we are capable of seeing in the flesh realm. We need to always pray and ask God to help us look at who He is and not what we see. God always has miracle after miracle that he wants to do in our lives, but they only happen when we live in the Spirit Realm. We can only live in the Spirit Realm when we seek God with everything we have. If we ask Him to show us truth, He will always do it. Remember, God says believe it first and then you will see it come to pass. That's the only way it will happen. Ask God now for the faith to believe in whatever you think is impossible in your life. Text authored and written by Cathy Deaton and is her own work. |