part 4 of the “Eyes Up” series
“...where does my help come from? My help
comes from the Lord....
Psalm 121:1-2 NIV
Ahhhh..... patience. That’s it. That’s all I have for this post.
Does anyone suffer from a lack of patience? I know I do and that is why I find it hard to give advice on the topic. This is why I’m not giving advice. I’m going to let God do that.
I want to draw your attention to Exodus 14 for this week’s post. Moses has already been summoned by God to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites from Pharaoh. After much talking, plagues and stubbornness - Pharaoh lets the Israelites go. Moses leads them out of Egypt and they get as far as the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Pharaoh has changed his mind and is in hot pursuit of them. The people begin to grumble at Moses because of their situation. They said things like:
“They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” - Exodus 14:11-12 NIV
Moses then gets all of their attention and tell them:
“Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.’” - Exodus 14:13-14 NIV
Now think about their situation. This is probably what they thought. They are stuck at the banks of the Red Sea. They can’t go forward because of that. They can’t go back because Pharaoh and his army are coming to get them. They can’t fight because they didn’t have anything to fight with. They are sitting ducks just waiting for Pharaoh to get to them and either kill them or take them back to be slaves. But to top it all off they have this leader that was supposed to have rescued them and taken them to a better place and he’s just sitting there on a rock telling them to “be still”.
Moses then goes to God and complains because the people are complaining at him. God then tells Moses to raise his staff so that Israel could cross the Red Sea.
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided,” - Exodus 14:21 NIV
So now Israel sees Moses get up. They think that maybe something will happen now. They think that maybe he has an idea. They watch him walk over to the Red Sea and raise his hands out over the water. Then he sits back down.
After watching that, I bet Israel lost their minds. I bet they laid into Moses even more then they had in the past. They were probably saying things like: “Really! That’s it!” “What are we going to do?” “Are you just going to sit there?” “This is stupid! We are just going to die out here!” #ShouldastayedinEgypt
The people of Israel were being anything but still. They did not have their eyes up. They were being anything but patient. They were also missing one of the most awesome things to ever happen. As they were focused on the problems at hand (the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army) they were missing the Red Sea slowly part down the middle. Just as Exodus 14:21 said - it took all night for that to happen. But what an event to watch. But they were complaining and not even focused.
But Moses was doing what God said. He had his eyes up. He was being patient and waiting on God to work.
This is where it is hard though.
Patience lies between Pharaoh’s army and God’s deliverance.
Patience lies between our troubles and God’s deliverance. Just like Israel we worry and fight and wonder what is going to happen - when God has told us to “be still and let Him fight” (Exodus 14:14).
God called Israel to an Eyes Up focus that day at the Red Sea. He calls us to an Eyes Up focus as well.
Stop trying to fight the battles that God is already fighting and has already won! Just let God fight.
“But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness...” - Romans 8:25-26 NIV
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