Move along!
There is no incident in the life of Moses that I consider more momentous than this; the encounter with the Red Sea. Here was a man who was faced with a great dilemma. He was going from Egypt to Canaan. He had received instructions from God to undertake the journey and was following orders. He had been chosen to lead a group of oppressed and oppressed people to the Promised Land. The trip had been successful up to this point. Two great pillars had formed in the sky to guide them: a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. It was a journey through the desert.
It was a journey through the desert because God did not lead them down the path of the land of the Philistines, which geographically would have been closer to the Promised Land, but God led them through the desert of the Red Sea, the longest and most hard. . This seems to suggest that when God prepares to build the strength of a people, He uses His own strategy. He doesn’t do what we think He could have done or should have done, He does what is best. No man can tell God what to do or how to do. He led them through the desert road and the Red Sea and crossing it gave Israel a history as long as the ages. This incident marked eternity for God’s people.
Well, it has been said, and I believe, that the easy way out in life is never ultimately profitable, even though it may seem like it. The short and easy path only leads to a haven of fools; a place where we feel that we have arrived only to discover that we have missed the mark in life. We cannot understand or face life until we have walked the rough and rugged paths; when we have tasted the bitter cup of oppression and persecution. We cannot understand life until we have faced trials and tribulations, heartaches and despair. We can never understand what life is really about until we have walked through the desert and through the high waters of trouble. Great nations and great individuals have been burned by fighting and bloodshed.
God led his people through the desert, not to punish them, not to avenge them for their disobedience, but to equip them to handle the difficulties that lay ahead. God is like that. Sometimes He will guide us through the desert to prepare for some coming obstacle. It prepares us for victory over the most important events. And I kind of like the way God does business because every now and then in my personal story, important events come up for me and when these especially tough challenges come up, I want to be able to stand up.
God never guides an individual around opposition, but through it, directly. In both the Old and New Testaments, we find God leading His children through and not around opposition. When these Hebrew children looked east, they saw the Red Sea; When they looked west and south, they saw huge mountains, and to the north of them was Pharaoh’s army in pursuit. Remember the story. God told Moses to tell the Israelites to “move on” and provided a way for them through the Red Sea. God never takes us into a desert and leaves us. If he welcomes us, he will take us out if we trust him.
God never tells a person to give up. He has a command Move along. It is the only way to get ahead. Canaan is always in front of us. It is more than a place, it is God’s destiny for men.