40 Days of Faith
"By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land,
whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do, were drowned."
Hebrews 11:29
Have you ever looked at one of those drawings that shape an optical illusion before your eyes? My boys had a picture that they wanted to show me the other day, and they asked me what I saw. I said that I saw two people looking at each other. It seemed pretty obvious to me. They then told me to look again but this time look for a lampstand. When they said that, it seemed to leap off the page. How could I have missed it before?
People look at life and God much in the same way. Some see God in their life as a source of strength. They go to Him each day for guidance and help with the knowledge that He loves them and wants to be their Lord. Amazingly, some view God in a completely different way. They speak of Him as being a cruel judge with no compassion for a hurting world. Many of them believe that God is unloving or completely absent in their life. How can two different people come away with such a different perspective of God? It once again comes down to faith and what it is placed in.
Pharaoh has commanded Moses to take the children of Israel and get out of Egypt. They hurriedly packed up everything that they could, even the things that the Egyptians gave them in order to convince them to leave. This multitude of refugees is now headed out of the country. At some point, Pharaoh regretted his decision and commanded his armies to hunt the slaves down and bring them back. The refugees have now become desperate fugitives, and their desperation has just gotten worse. They are standing before a huge body of water with no way to cross. They cry out in fear, but Moses, obedient to the voice of God, lifts his rod over the waters and the sea miraculously opens. The multitude now walks through the sea with dry ground in front of them and God's protecting cloud between them and Pharaoh's army.
Here is where it is really interesting. Pharaoh's army saw the dry path through the sea and decided to take it, but we all know how it ended. Why could they not cross through the sea like the Israelites? The Israelites crossed by faith in God who opened a way for them. The Egyptians tried to cross in their own power without trusting the God of Heaven. With God there is hope. Without God it is all hopeless. Who you place your faith in really matters!
May you place faith in the God who divides the sea today!
People look at life and God much in the same way. Some see God in their life as a source of strength. They go to Him each day for guidance and help with the knowledge that He loves them and wants to be their Lord. Amazingly, some view God in a completely different way. They speak of Him as being a cruel judge with no compassion for a hurting world. Many of them believe that God is unloving or completely absent in their life. How can two different people come away with such a different perspective of God? It once again comes down to faith and what it is placed in.
Pharaoh has commanded Moses to take the children of Israel and get out of Egypt. They hurriedly packed up everything that they could, even the things that the Egyptians gave them in order to convince them to leave. This multitude of refugees is now headed out of the country. At some point, Pharaoh regretted his decision and commanded his armies to hunt the slaves down and bring them back. The refugees have now become desperate fugitives, and their desperation has just gotten worse. They are standing before a huge body of water with no way to cross. They cry out in fear, but Moses, obedient to the voice of God, lifts his rod over the waters and the sea miraculously opens. The multitude now walks through the sea with dry ground in front of them and God's protecting cloud between them and Pharaoh's army.
Here is where it is really interesting. Pharaoh's army saw the dry path through the sea and decided to take it, but we all know how it ended. Why could they not cross through the sea like the Israelites? The Israelites crossed by faith in God who opened a way for them. The Egyptians tried to cross in their own power without trusting the God of Heaven. With God there is hope. Without God it is all hopeless. Who you place your faith in really matters!
May you place faith in the God who divides the sea today!
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