Guest Blogger ... Julie Dearyan

It's easy to shrug away the Israelite's fear at the Red Sea. We know the end of the story. They really didn't have to be worried at all. Who cared if Pharaoh's army marched behind them? Who cared they had nowhere to go? So what if they weren't used to sleeping out under the stars? They should have had faith, we all think. We know it turns out okay because we've already read their story.

They would march straight through the sea. Pharaoh and his army, their biggest enemies, who had worked them to almost death for all their lives and who wanted them dead would die in the sea. This was the happy ending to their trial of faith.

Did they perhaps feel as we would have, had we faced the same situation? Did they feel like I would have felt?

What if God wouldn't have delivered them? Would He still have been a good God? Would they still praise Him even as they took their last breath? It's a question I ask myself of my own frail faith. I can't ask it enough. Do I believe in God simply because He delivers me? What if He stopped doing things for me, would I still believe?

The Israelites didn't know the end of the story because it wasn't written yet but they did have the past miracles. Their cows hadn't died, their water hadn't been polluted, their crops hadn't been destroyed by grasshoppers, their heads hadn't itched with lice. And the biggest reason that they should trust lay right to them as they rested for the night. Their sons were alive. The Egyptians first-borns weren't. Pretty big proof God was in this for the long haul especially when they'd heard the cries and screams of their neighbors as they left. They had proof trough their sons who breathed and smiled and asked every morning if they could run alongside the caravan with their friends.

While I'm sure they thought these miracles were nice, that they really appreciated the fact their sons were alive, they still thought they were going to die. The thought of imminent death in the Red Sea wasn't pleasant. I'm sure it was hard to concentrate on past miracles when there was a sea in front of them and an army in back of them. We are so a people of “What have you done for me lately”

If I were in a plane that was about to crash, I doubt I'd thank God for not letting me drown when I was eight years old. While I'm glad my Dad saw me floundering and jumped into the pool to save me, I doubt I'd reflect on that as I looked out my window and saw an engine fall off.

What was it like for the Israelites to see the sun rise the next morning before the army had come? To still think you are going to die. And to wonder what in the world Moses was doing as he walked to the edge of the water. Was he going to commit suicide or make a speech about how you have all done a great job, now just have faith as Pharoah's army comes to kill you?

Just have faith.

Humans are used to depending on themselves for solutions. Summoning faith can feel almost impossible. Letting go is not tangible. In ourselves, we determine we can perform better. We can change our circumstances. If we stop thinking we can do it by ourselves, we feel like all control will disappear like the last drop of water down the drain.

Which is the whole point I think. We don’t have control. We never did.

The waters parted. The people walked through. Pharaoh's army starts across the water after them. If I'd been standing in the group on the other side, I might have been tempted to think. "Okay, God, so you got us to this point, so you got us to across the Red Sea. I admit that was pretty big. That was pretty miraculous. But what are you going to do now since it seems like the very path you created for us is also creating a path for our enemies to come crush us on this side instead of the other."

This doubting feels crude. Surely I would have looked on the past miracles. Surely I would have stood full of faith and said, "I know we'll be delivered. We have always been delivered in the past. Look what just happened. God will not fail us now."

I doubt it. Looking back at my track record of faith, I'm not sure I'd of had any more than they did. They did a lot better than I would have done. I don't have Pharaoh's army trying to kill me or my children.

When the waters flooded the army again, think of the cheering, crying and screaming. Imagine how happy you felt on the happiest day of your life, your wedding, when you birthed your child, when you made an A on a Math test, and multiply it by a thousand or a million and then you might get a tiny taste of how they felt on that day. Except it wasn't just a union or a child they celebrated but it was their very lives. They'd looked death in the eye and God had come through.

God was faithful to Israel in the past and in the present. Faith is not something that is based on what we do but rather on God’s character, on the very Person that He is. I can look back on these stories and know one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt, He will continue to be faithful because that is Who He is. He is faithful that promised.

Why don’t you take a moment right now in the busyness of everything and thank God for His faithfulness?

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posted by Margaret McSweeney @ 12:32 AM