Look Up To God

Crossing the Red sea. Courtesy Flickr by fdecomite

Reading: Exodus 14:13-30

“And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Standstill, 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. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” ... So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.” NKJV

This passage is part of God’s delivery of His people out of Egypt. It is the crossing of the Red Sea and the last disaster that befell Egypt before Israel finally left for the land of Canaan. The scope of God’s miracle in this episode is beyond human imagination. I read a book on this miracle and I wish to reproduce here some of the things I read.

“It is not the great achievement of the Red Sea crossing by Moses and the Israelites that is so stupendous and miraculous. The awesomeness of the wilderness journey is the fact that approximately three million people were sustained for forty years in a small, dry, fruitless desert. Have you thought of what it must have been like, to merely exist from day to day with every human means for survival out of reach? Let us look at at a few facts to see how impossible it would have been for Moses and his people to rely upon their own means of subsistence. To get through the Red sea in one night  they had to have a space of at least three miles (five kilometres) wide, so they could walk 5000 abreast. If they walked double file, it would have been 800 miles (1208 kilometres, the distance from Maiduguri to Onitsha by road) and it would have taken them 35 days and nights to get through. At the end of each day of the journey, they would have needed approximately 750 square miles for them to camp (about 1920 square kilometres of space; more than the area of Lagos mainland). The amount of food for consumption is absolutely astounding when you consider the fact that they were travelling in a country where there was no abundance of natural food to be found. Just the amount needed to keep them from starving would have added up to 1,550 tons a day. But to feed them the way we would eat would take at least 4000 tons. Just to haul it would take two freight trains each one a mile long. At today’s prices it would cost about US$4.5million a day.Then consider the amount of water required for the barest necessities of drinking and washing dishes each day. It has been estimated that they would have to have 11 million gallons of water every single day. Think of the gigantic task of hauling the water. It could have taken a freight train with tankers 1800 miles (2880 kilometres) long! Now Moses may or may not have had to do the figuring for managing the survival of his people, but God surely knew the cost! It may be more easily understood why Moses hesitated to be the great emancipator of God’s people enslaved in Egypt if he had any inkling as to what an immense chore there was before him. We do know for a surety that he knew the land, its seasons and size. But God was the provider, not Moses. The requirement for him and the multitude was to proceed day by day. God supplied for just one day at a time. To think that they did not even have to transport their food and water; God took care of them –and for 14, 600 days!   (Cowman- Streams in the desert)

God is able and He has never failed any who depended on Him. There are a few lessons that should come home to us from the wilderness experience of Israel. When God asked them to go forward, they did not hesitate to move, nor did they stop to argue and understand all the modalities for crossing a sea without a bridge. In other words, they did not spend time discussing the obvious obstacles before them. The sea was a real obstacle but they looked beyond the sea and looked at the God who commanded them to go forward. If God asked them to go forward, He would surely take care of the obstacles.

Read More: Keep On Keeping On

There is a  peculiar trend of prayer that has become prevalent today. Most people who have ten minutes to pray spend eight minutes casting-out and binding demons. The existence of demons and principalities is not in doubt. The authority to bind and cast out demons by Spirit-filled Christians is not in question. But what makes this trend of prayer repulsive is that we concentrate much of the time we would have used to praise and magnify the Lord in talking about the devil, and his activities. The devil is getting too much publicity these days without paying for it. Most Christians who are doing this are doing so inadvertently. We should rather talk more about God and what He is able to do.

Troubles and problems exist and some of them are really great, but God is greater than them all and is able to remove them. The Psalmist says: “The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; The LORD is clothed, He has girded Himself with strength. Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved. Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting.  The floods have lifted up, O LORD, The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.” (Psalm 93:1-4, NKJV)

Moreover, the Bible further says in Revelation 12:11: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

It is not the business of the Church to advertise the devil, it is our duty to resist him and lift our God high!

Read More: The Weapons for Spiritual Victory

Another thing we learn from the wilderness experience is the ability of God to provide. He is indeed the Great Provider. Many of us have joined the “rat race” and unfortunately only rats can win a rat race. We hustle and jitter every day “in order to make ends meet”  but they will never meet or they will no longer be ends. God has given a great invitation which we have neglected. “Come unto Me all you that labour and I will give you rest.” It is time for us to consider this invitation.

It was Jesus Christ Himself who taught the disciples to pray “Give us this day, our daily bread” . One day at a time does not and will never break any man down; it is when we begin to add the worries of many days that problems arise. I believe that this was why Jesus taught: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34)

I believe that the God we worship today is the same that the Israelites worshiped. He has not changed. If He was able to take care of the Israelites for forty years the way He did, He is able to care for us today. The problem is not on God’s side; the problem is on our side. We are not looking up to God enough. Look up to God and be saved.

God bless you all.