Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.”
“…the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel…”
The children of Israel, about two million of them, were hemmed in on every side. They felt the ‘squeeze’ of God. The army of Egypt in pursuit behind, monstrous walls of water on either side, and an unknown future in the wilderness ahead.
Some decisions are irreversible. The Israelites could not un-ring this bell. They made their choice and were now committed. Hemmed in between giant walls of tenuous circumstances threatening collapse whenever the winds of fate changed their direction. They could never return to Egypt. There was only one, singular option now… go forward!
Before the momentous decision, on the shore of the Red Sea, God commanded Moses…
“Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.”
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3 comments:
True enough. There is no going back. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we have "burned the bridge" behind us.
My journal entry for Thursday:
"At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharoah, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharoah and all his officials, and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead."
-----Exodus, ch 12, vs 29-30.
Although our behavior does not save us or condemn us eternally, it can still have some pretty dramatic consequences. Ultimately we reap what we sew, and what we do unto others is frequently done unto us. It sounds like Pharoah did not or could not understand this.
"Then Pharoah gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."
---Exodus, ch 1, vs 22.
Pharoah reaped what he had sown and the result was the death of his firstborn son. (I'm assuming son) Certainly something for us to think about as we go about our daily affairs.
----CMM
The reaping and sowing principle is a good one and certainly as true today as in the time of Moses. It is just as much a New Tesatment as it is an Old Testament principle. See Galatians 6.7.
Good journal entry, CMM.
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."
And what was Pharoah doing? Mocking God over and over. (9 times in all not counting him throwing thousands of Hebrew babies in the river) Many "modernists" will ask how a loving God could do some of the things he did in the old testament. But the fact is, it took God ten consecutive offenses, denials and squandered opportunities by Pharoah before God delivered his justice. I call that patience.
And regarding Pharoah's hard heart. Did God harden his heart, or did Pharoah do it to himself? In other words, what came first, the chicken or the egg?
In Exodus 7, ch 13, we read:
"Yet Pharoah's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said."
Interesting that this happened before any of the 10 plagues.
Good meeting this morning, Dave.
Thanks.
-----CMM
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