Why Go Back? (Exodus 14)
Fear can easily move us away from God and back to the familiar. The Egyptians had made the lives of God’s people miserable in slavery and harsh conditions yet out of fear, the Israelites longed for their old familiar life of slavery and bondage.
Fear also causes us to criticize and blame. The Israelites immediately blamed Moses, their leader, and started hurling criticisms and accusations his way. They were going to pin the blame on him because it is human nature to blame someone! Fear always moves us to extremes and involves much drama. Did the people cry out to God? No! They cried out to Moses to fix it or take them back.
Why would we want to go back? Not only go back, but why do we choose to go back to bondage? Well, it is familiar. It is something we know. Many times we are deceived into thinking that bondage must be all we deserve.
Now as Moses, I would have wanted to say, “Hey, I am just obeying God here. You can come with me and God or you can go back to bondage…you choose.” However, Moses didn’t answer as I would have, he was very spiritual and said, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”
Moses didn’t take the credit, map out the program or list his merits of good leadership. He didn’t whip out his resume, recite his accomplishments, inflate his performance record or tell about the latest conference he had just attended. His answer was simple and to the point: Stand firm and God will handle things. And if you don’t get that how about Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.” If I want to see God, if you want to see God, we must choose to quit trying to….
1. Go back to our familiar bondage.
2. Handle things on our own.
3. Live in our fears rather than face them in Christ.
4. Live in a flurry of business, activity and stuff to avoid the truth.
So it is up to us. Do we want to fight God and run back to bondage or do we want to let God fight for us? We make it so complicated, but the key is being still and letting God fight for us. Then faith replaces fear, and we see God part the Red Sea!
Fear also causes us to criticize and blame. The Israelites immediately blamed Moses, their leader, and started hurling criticisms and accusations his way. They were going to pin the blame on him because it is human nature to blame someone! Fear always moves us to extremes and involves much drama. Did the people cry out to God? No! They cried out to Moses to fix it or take them back.
Why would we want to go back? Not only go back, but why do we choose to go back to bondage? Well, it is familiar. It is something we know. Many times we are deceived into thinking that bondage must be all we deserve.
Now as Moses, I would have wanted to say, “Hey, I am just obeying God here. You can come with me and God or you can go back to bondage…you choose.” However, Moses didn’t answer as I would have, he was very spiritual and said, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”
Moses didn’t take the credit, map out the program or list his merits of good leadership. He didn’t whip out his resume, recite his accomplishments, inflate his performance record or tell about the latest conference he had just attended. His answer was simple and to the point: Stand firm and God will handle things. And if you don’t get that how about Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.” If I want to see God, if you want to see God, we must choose to quit trying to….
1. Go back to our familiar bondage.
2. Handle things on our own.
3. Live in our fears rather than face them in Christ.
4. Live in a flurry of business, activity and stuff to avoid the truth.
So it is up to us. Do we want to fight God and run back to bondage or do we want to let God fight for us? We make it so complicated, but the key is being still and letting God fight for us. Then faith replaces fear, and we see God part the Red Sea!