Crossing The Red Sea

       I am not a water person in the sense of enjoying swimming, going into the the ocean, etc.  For me, large bodies of water are just too cold to be enjoyable.  (That said, the waters around Hawaii are warm and I suspect there are other places that are, too!  My husband teases me that I like water to be bath water—- and that includes pool water!  He’s probably right!)

But standing on the beach, just out of reach of the water, ocean waves are fascinating.  It’s impressive to watch the wave build well away from me, grow with increasing intensity as it moves toward the shore and finally crests. The power of these waves is incredible.

After witnessing these kinds of events, I’ve always been in awe when I try to picture the waters in the Red Seas parting.  It’s a river, not the ocean.  So that idea alone is mind boggling.  Rivers don’t have giant waves like that.  Yet it did.  And not only did the waters part, the water formed a giant wall on both sides!  Again, water doesn’t do that all by itself.  Yet it did!  Then all the newly, fleeing Israelites, walked across on dry ground to the other side.  That also doesn’t happen.  But it did!

After they crossed, the water came back together and took the lives of the oncoming army.  The Lord told them to just be still and he would fight for them.  And he did.    (Exodus 14:13-14)

As Believers, most of us can remember our lives before we accepted Christ, for our salvation.  We lived in darkness and slavery.  The Israelites in a very literal sense also lived in darkness.  Their world, under the rule of the Pharaoh, was a dismal way to live.  They were in slavery.

It took a choice of faith to apply the blood to their doorposts, as commanded by God to protect their families and loss of their first born.  That wasn’t supposed to happen.  But it did. The crossing of the Red Sea is nothing less than a great illustration of God’s saving power.  He said ‘be still; and I’ll take of it’.  

When we accept Christ as Savior, God is telling us to ‘be still and let me fight for you!’  We aren’t much different than the Israelites, however.  We celebrate because we know we have been saved —just like the Israelites did—and will one day live in eternity with him.  But we flounder because the world entices us with all kinds of deception.  We fall off the path before us and go our own way.  Isn’t that just what God’s rescued people did?

It’s so reassuring to know that God is with us regardless of our circumstances and even our choices.  We are accountable, however, for those choices.  We must choose to believe, trust, wait, and even be still and ‘let God be God’.  

While we recall the all the men and women who have given their all for our country all these years, this Memorial Day weekend--and week, through the many different wars and disputes; we should also focus on the One who gave His all so we can spend eternity in a place of love and light.  Like Pharaoh’s army who perished beneath the waves of the Red Sea, when we don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior, we will perish into a world of horror, pain and an eternity of despair.

Instead, let’s remember to watch the waves, and ‘be still' as God fights our battles for us.

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