Go Forward
By J.P. Thackway
Crisis Counsel for the New Year
By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. Hebrews 11:29
Exodus chapter 14 records Israel going through the miraculously opened waters of the Red Sea, which afterwards engulfed the Egyptians. The verse that heads this article is the relevance of the event to Christians. The writer cites it as an example of Moses and the people’s faith as they went forward at God’s command, and into His deliverance.
This reminds us that Old Testament history is more than a chronicle of events – it speaks to us today. We are heirs of these mighty works of God. As Paul wrote, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
The Red Sea followed the never-to-be-forgotten night of the Passover – when by blood and power, God redeemed His people from slavery in Egypt. That was a wonderful deliverance: “By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Exodus 13:14). The Lord’s people were free at last and could begin the journey to the Promised Land. But soon after, they found themselves facing the unexpected crisis at the Red Sea.
The Lord coming in for Moses and Israel here made their faith instructive to us. Let us consider this, as summarised by the above verse (Hebrews 11:29) This is a message to us as we enter the New Year of 2022. Perhaps we find ourselves in an equivalent situation to Moses and Israel. Maybe there is an unexpected crisis in our faith, our physical or mental health, personal circumstances, our family, employment, or church. What does the event of the Red Sea say to us? It is all about faith.
1. FAITH CHALLENGED: “The Red Sea.”
1] This happened after their deliverance from Egypt. Not long into their freedom we read, “the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid” (Exodus 14:10). Pharaoh, changing his mind about letting the people go, mustered an elite force of 600 chariots and more. Although the people were free of Egypt, they were not free from trouble.
A similar situation may confront a new believer, redeemed by Christ. Now he faces problems he did not have before: the assaults of the devil, inward corruptions, opposition from unbelievers, adverse circumstances. This can be dismaying to the point where he may wonder if he has been converted after all! However, this is not strange or unusual. Far from stumbling or hindering, these new problems can benefit us: the means of grace in the church, and godly fellowship, help us cope with them. These problems become opportunities to gain experience and grow as Christians (Romans 5:3,4). William Plumer wrote, “Experience is a great school for Christians. Without it they would be babes all their days.”
2] The situation seemed impossible. There was no escape from the Red Sea. The Israelites had nowhere to go: behind them the Egyptians were closing in; to either side mountains and wilderness – and in front of them the impassable waters of the Red Sea. They were in a cul-de-sac. Moreover, time was running out: the enemy would soon be upon them. The situation was urgent and desperate.
To make things worse, it was dark: “all the night” (Exodus 14:20). How much more frightening our troubles seem when we cannot sleep at night! The devil fills our minds with exaggerated fears and forebodings. Getting up is hard in the dark winter mornings: feeling so low, we would rather stay beneath the bed covers than face the day.
3] Ironically, the enemy did not have the same problem. For the Egyptians, the Red Sea was an advantage: it held the Israelites as their prey. Things were going their way. This was the reverse from what we might expect: the Lord seemed to favour the enemy more than His own people! This is the perennial problem of “the prosperity of the wicked.” David Psalm 37, Asaph 73, Job in chapter 21, and Jeremiah in chapter 12 all struggled with this enigma, and in each of these situations the Lord had an answer.
However, for us, our answer may not come at once. Moreover, what is even harder to bear is when things go better for professed Christians who resort to worldly policy, compared with those who honour the Lord. Doing evil that good may come seems to work! Sometimes, the only place we find peace is to “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass” Psalm 37:7.
4] This was the Lord’s intended way for His people. Exodus 14:1-4 shows that Moses and Israel had not chosen the route that brought them to the Red Sea: the Lord had. He led them this way, bringing them right into this impossible situation. The First Cause was not the devil, nor Pharaoh, nor the Egyptians – but God! The Lord gave them the crisis to challenge their faith: “God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea” (13:18).
If we apply this to our situation, we comfort ourselves because then we realise: “he performeth the thing that is appointed for me” (Job 23:14). Notice: “he performeth” – the Lord works in the “appointed” path He leads us in; He is actively working out His way for us, and is with us in it. He holds our hand and leads us along. And when it seems impossible to cope, He holds our hand more tightly until we say,
Let me no more my comfort draw
From my frail hold of Thee;
In this alone rejoice with awe –
Thy mighty grasp of me.
Dear reader, your crisis is not the Lord abandoning you in your situation. He is working for you where you are and how you are. This is your encouragement. All will come right and you will see that God meant it for good. As Matthew Henry said: “If God himself bring his people into straits, he will Himself discover a way to bring them out again.” And the “trial of your faith” will prove that it is real faith, which will grow stronger.
2. FAITH EXERCISED: “By faith they passed through the Red Sea.”
1] Their faith was not at first conspicuous. The people went from prayer to panic: “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?” Exodus 14:10,11.
In one breath, prayer to God; and in the next, complaint to Moses! Theirs was a good reaction, but a bad sequel. Faith broke down, and in desperation the people turn on Moses and blame him for their predicament. “Faith is the refusal to panic” (Dr D M Lloyd-Jones), but in their case panic took over. How often we have done the same! Sometimes, our unthinking reaction is a greater problem than the trial. But Moses makes no reply to this complaint; now is the time to say nothing, but believe.
2] They heard a strengthening word. The Lord must have given to Moses the bracing words that follow: “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (verses 13,14). Then the Lord told Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward” (verse 15).
God’s word quickens believing trust in God: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). When we listen to it, we hear God speaking to us – One who is greater than our plight. With this we can say to ourselves, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8) … and “our eyes are upon thee” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
3] Faith is then in exercise. Here, they must act upon the Lord’s command and “go forward” Exodus 14:15. They might have looked backward. If so, they would have seen the angel of God and the fiery/cloudy pillar behind them (verse 19). There will be a time to do this in the future: “thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee” (Deuteronomy 8:2). But not now. It is good to look back to encourage ourselves as we recall the Lord’s presence and faithfulness because,
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms His pleasure to help me quite through.
However, there is a time to “go forward” and that time for Israel was now. As they did so, the Lord opened the Red Sea: “and the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left” (Exodus 14:22). Faith did not provide this marvellous solution; the Lord did, on Whom they believed.
How does this apply in our case? We must exercise this forward-looking faith and keep going. “Keep Calm and Carry on” was a good motto during World War II. It is even better when faith keeps us calm and enables us to follow God into each new hour, into each new day, and into each new week. This is the only way for us. It might seem hard, but let us remember the psalmist’s words: “I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD” (Psalm 71:16) – I will go, but in His strength; as I go, He strengthens and enables me to go!
Let us, then, “go forward” trusting the Lord to go before us and open the way. Note that He will not “find” a way for us, but “make” a way. The Lord is leading us, and we are venturing by faith each step of the way. In the words of John Owen: “Faith will find a way through a sea of difficulties, under the call of God.”
4] Deliverance came: “the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left” Exodus 14:29. As they went forward the Lord made the way for them. They were not fleeing slaves frantically racing to safety. In Hebrews 11:29 “passed through” is the same verb as in Acts 16:9, where the man of Macedonia in a vision says to Paul, “Come over into Macedonia and help us” (my italics). “Come over” means a dignified passage over the Aegean Sea to Philippi. And so it was for the Israelites passing through the Red Sea. There is a poise and orderliness about faith in God; we calmly go forward, following Him, with no panic: “He that believeth shall not make haste” (Isaiah 28:16). If we are fretting and restless, it is because we are not calmly trusting and following the Lord as we should.
Moreover, when the Lord opens the way for us to “go forward,” we find we do “stand still, and see the salvation (deliverance) of the Lord.” We then witness His intervention and the solution He provides. The outcome is not in our hands but in His: we are more spectators than participants.
Moses and Israel then found that their obstacle became their protection: “and the waters were a wall unto them on their on their right hand, and on their left” (Exodus 14:22). Now the Egyptians could not cut in upon them from the side; they could only follow them – to their own destruction. The Lord can turn things right around for us like this, and show us His wisdom, love, and power.
5] There was also a fellowship enjoyed. “By faith they (i.e. Moses and Israel) passed through the Red Sea” (Hebrews 11:29). They did this together. This reminds us that shared troubles can draw the Lord’s people closer. There is fellowship in the faith that goes forward with God. And when shared deliverances come, the bond is even stronger. When the early church faced persecution for the first time, they “lifted up their voice to God with one accord” (Acts) and the Lord came down (verses 31,32). This fellowship in the trial of faith is precious between husband and wife and children, friend with friend, fellow servants in the Lord’s work, and church members. The unexpected blessing is that we appreciate one other more than ever.
3. FAITH VINDICATED: “Which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned” (Hebrews 11:29).
As God had earlier said through Moses, “the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel” (Exodus 11:7). The Lord knows His people; and He knows those who are their enemies: “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth” (Psalm 34:15,16).
1] The Egyptians try to do the same. However, the Lord is not with them but against them. And when they go between the walls of water to pursue the Israelites, what seemed their advantage turns into their destruction, “And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them” (Exodus 14:28).
2] We see here the difference faith makes. “The Egyptians … were drowned.” Egypt stands for the world, and Pharaoh for Satan. Now comes the glorious advantage of being on the Lord’s side. Although the Egyptians were not at first in trouble like the Israelites, when trouble comes to them, they did not have the Lord to help. With no faith, there is no going forward at God’s command: no promise, and no deliverance. They became another example of being “Without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).
3] The Egyptians’ victory was brief. God dealt with the enemy; “the triumphing of the wicked is short” (Job 20:5). Their arrogance was their undoing. They imagined they could overtake their prey, only to find themselves overtaken by God’s judgment. As one has said, “God infatuates those whom He intends to destroy.” This is a standing reminder that the Lord can turn things right around for His people who trust in Him.
Asaph gives a beautiful summary of this deliverance, where he likens the Lord to the Shepherd who guided His people in the wilderness; when they came to the Red Sea, “he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies” (Psalm 78:53).
Dear reader, follow the Lord this year, and trust Him to lead you through every Red Sea of unsurmountable obstacles and impassable difficulties. You are safe while you do this, you have nothing to fear, all is in His hands. Although He may lead you about (Exodus 13:18) He will always lead you “forth by the right way” (Psalm 107:7).
Faith will be challenged, but it must be exercised; and when it is, you will find that faith will be vindicated. As our Saviour has said, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22).