What Are You Whining About?

Exodus 14:1-15
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, February 27, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Gregory Broderick

The first fifteen chapters of the book of Exodus give a remarkable account of how God delivered the Israelites from their Egyptian bondage by his mighty arm.  First, God sent Moses to Pharaoh and commanded, “Let my people go.”  Pharaoh, the all-powerful head of the sole world superpower, famously declined.  In Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?”  And God said, “Let’s find out together.”

Upon Pharaoh’s refusal, God sent escalating plagues to demonstrate His mighty power.  The supposedly mighty Pharaoh would wilt before these plagues and have transient fits of repentance, only to return to his obnoxious and stubborn refusal when the pressure was off.  God finally struck the delivering blow in Exodus 12, killing the firstborn of all Egypt, including Pharaoh’s own son while passing over the Israelites and preserving them.  The Israelites marched out as conquerors, even plundering the mighty Egyptians just as God had decreed to them in advance (Exod. 12:36).  They plundered Egypt.  You might call it back pay with interest for four and a half centuries of slave labor.

So far, so good, in this story.  And yet in Exodus 14, we hit a snag.  God does not lead the people to the Promised Land by the short path, the apparently easy path through the Philistine road, as they expected Him to do.  Instead, He leads the people on a circuitous path by the Red Sea, and they become stuck between the water and the desert.  Sensing the opportunity to recapture his slave labor force, Pharaoh sends the whole mighty army after the Israelites, catching them at Pi Hahiroth.

This looked like a big problem.  They stood no chance fighting against Pharaoh’s mighty army.  Exodus 13:18 says that the Israelites went up armed for battle, but they did not have horses and chariots, as Pharaoh’s army did.  They did not have modern fighting equipment, as Pharaoh’s army did.  They were not even a real army themselves.  They were slaves and brickmakers, not trained soldiers.  They were traveling with old people and young people, with women and with children, and with their flocks and their herds.  They were more a pack of refugees than an army.  They had no apparent military training, nor would you expect anyone to train his slaves in military tactics.  So this was not a fair fight in the slightest.  Fighting was a bad option.

And if fighting was a bad option, then running was worse.  They were hemmed in by the sea on one side, meaning if they went in there, they would drown.  They could not flee to the desert.  If they went there, they could die of thirst and hunger.  They were not fast enough to run away.  Remember, Pharaoh had horses and chariots, and they had flocks and herds.  So there did not seem to be any good options.  Surrender and return to their slavery seemed like a good outcome for them at this time.

So they panic.  The Israelites panic.  This is a somewhat natural response.  Exodus 14:10 says they were terrified.  In Exodus 14:11, they blame Moses.  “You brought us out here to this desert to die!” In Exodus 14:12 they say, “We told you so.  We told you, Moses, to leave us alone.  We should have stayed as slaves.”  What purpose this served is unclear, but perhaps they thought they might die feeling morally superior.  And in Exodus 14:11 they cry out to the Lord.

Again, to us, this all seems like a natural reaction.  And at least we can say for these people that they cried out to God.  But look at God’s response in this.  God’s response is somewhat surprising.  He says, “Why are you crying out to Me?  Tell the Israelites to move on.”  In other words, “Stop whining and get moving.”  Because we all have the tendency to respond just as the Israelites did, in fear and frustration and panic and hopelessness, let us examine God’s response today and apply it to ourselves, and let us be built up in the faith.

The Reason for God’s Response

God’s response, “Stop whining and get moving,” is not the response of an aloof, uncaring, harsh, or annoyed master.  God loves us and greatly values us.  He chose the Israelites as His special people.  In Deuteronomy 7:6 we read, “The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people.”  God chose them even though they were zeroes, even though God had nothing to gain, and they had nothing to offer.  Whether Abram, the pilgrim from Ur, or a slave nation in Egypt groaning in oppression, or a shepherd boy from the flock—God always chooses the zeroes.  And He tells us in our time, “Not many wise, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.”

God chose them, and He chose each of us who are in Christ—chosen in love, in eternity past; chosen because of His great love and His rich mercy, as we are told in Ephesians 2:4; chosen solely on the basis of God’s love and not based on anything good in us or anything good we have done.

God chose us.  But more than that, He calls us his treasured possession (Deut. 7:6).  So it is not simply that God chose us and tolerates us, although even that would be an incredible act of mercy, given that we have nothing to offer.  No, God chose us and He loves us.  He treasures us, corporately as a people together, and individually.  God hears us.  God provides for us.  God watches over us.  God so loves us that He sent his only Son to suffer His wrath which we justly deserve.  Jesus Christ, very God, became a man and lived a life of perfect obedience in our place, suffered all the wrath of God in our place, and died in our place.  God the Father planned this salvation; God the Son accomplished it in time; and God the Holy Spirit applies it to us even today.  God loves us indeed.  So His response, “Stop whining and get moving,” is not uncaring or exasperated.  It is a response in love.

1. God Is Sovereign

Why, then, did He say, “Stop whining and get moving”?  First, there was nothing to worry about.  There was nothing to worry about because God is sovereign.  God is mighty to save (Zeph. 3:17).  He governs all His creatures and all their actions to achieve His perfect ends—His good, pleasing, and perfect will.  Nothing is outside of His control—not the smallest thing, not the biggest thing, not the insect and not Pharaoh’s army.  In Matthew 10, Jesus tells us that not even the worthless sparrows fall to the ground apart from God’s will.  They may seem worthless to us, but they are not worthless to Him.  He has a perfect plan for all his creatures, and He controls it all.  If that is true of the worthless sparrows, how much more of us, His segullah, His treasured possession!

Our God does not slumber, our God does not sleep.  He does not drop the ball.  He does not try His best but fail.  As He declares in Isaiah 55:11, “So is my word that goes out from my mouth.  It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  In other words, what He says, He does.  There are no mistakes with God.  There are no errors or omissions.  Are you caught between the deadly desert and the impassable sea, with Pharaoh and the bloodthirsty Egyptian army bearing down on you?  Don’t worry; it is no problem.  It is all part of the plan.

In this case, God had announced that plan and the outcome to Moses in advance.  In Exodus 14:1–4 we read, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp near Pi Hahiroth . . . [and] Pharaoh will think, “The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion.” . . . [Then God said] ‘I will gain glory for Myself through Pharoah and all his army.’”  So God told Moses in advance what would happen.  Maybe Moses did not broadcast this information, or perhaps the people simply forgot about it in their panic.  Advanced notice is not the issue.  Whether God tells us specifically ahead of time how He is going to work it out, how He is going to use it for his good, whether He does that or not, He has repeatedly instructed us that He is always in control, always aware, always reliable.  God is omniscient.  That means He knows everything.  He is omnipresent.  That means He is everywhere.  He is omnipotent.  That means He is all-powerful.

So in the moment of panic, or in the moment of distress, we must remember that God is at the helm.  It is all part of His plan, and He will achieve His objectives.  God has proved it innumerable times in biblical history.  He has proved it many times in church history.  He has proved it in our personal histories.  He will come through again this time.  That is what we must tell ourselves.

Fear is going to come.  Doubt is going to come.  Panic may even come.  We will cry out.  But we must take those thoughts and those feelings captive.  We must govern those emotions with God’s word.  We must go to godly counselors and godly friends who will remind us.  We must remember Psalm 118:6:  “The Lord is [on my side]; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?”  So the first reason for God’s response is that He is sovereign and so He is in control.  There is no problem.

2. God Is Good

The second reason for God’s response that there is nothing to worry about because God is good.  Sovereignty is fantastic, but it would be of limited benefit if God were not good.  But, of course, He is.  Indeed, He is the measure of good.  And more than that, He is not just abstractly good; He is good to us personally.  He feeds and cares for us as His own body (Eph. 5:29).  He hears and answers prayer (1 John 5:14; John 15:17).  He gave us eternal life in Christ when we were dead in our transgressions and sins.  More than that, when we were still His enemies (Eph. 2:1–5).  He puts His Spirit in us and He moves us to obey His word.

God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).  So what about that apparent problem?  That apparent problem is for our good.  Apparently, wandering around in the desert, being pursued by the most powerful army on earth, with the impassable sea on one side and the scorching and desolate desert on the other are all part of the plan, are all for our good.  That health problem that the doctors cannot diagnose or sort out—all part of the plan, all for our good.  Your marriage difficulties that look so hopeless—they are custom-made for the greatest good if you are true child of God and will only trust in Him.  Financial difficulties, work troubles, persecution, miscarriages, your dying son, the surprising and seemingly tragic loss of your beloved husband or your best friend—it is all for our good.  It is all for your good, your best, and for God’s glory.

Just consider this:  The world, the false brothers, the devil, killed the God-man, the Messiah, the Christ.  He was publicly, shamefully, and unjustly executed like a common criminal.  They won and we lost, or so it seemed.  The disciples despaired.  They hid in houses.  They were afraid.  It was all part of the plan.  He triumphed over the forces of evil by His suffering and His death on the cross, and He saved us by that act.  You see, they thought they had won.  They thought they had killed Him and put Him away.  Yet not only did they not win, but through that action of killing Him, through that action of putting Him on the cross, we are saved.  He made a public spectacle of them by the cross.  He achieved God’s greatest and most merciful salvation.  He achieved maximum glory for God by that action.

Look here in Exodus 14.  Trapped and with danger on every side and no way out, with re-enslavement looking like a best-case scenario, it was not even close.  Indeed, by morning, all the Israelites would be accounted for on the other side, and every Egyptian would lie dead on the seashore (Exod. 14:28).  The people were safe, and God was greatly glorified, just as He said would happen in verse 4:  “I will gain glory for Myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”  As Rev. Buddingh’ so aptly counseled a young woman in dating despair many years ago, “If God is sovereign and God is good, then what do you have to worry about?”  As I recall, it worked out pretty well for her, and it still is.

It is true for all of us who are in Christ.  It may look bleak at any given moment, but God is using it for our good.  Just hang on and keep moving, and God will deliver.  Elevate your sights and look away from the passing things of this world and look to the glory to come.  It is for our good, and we will get there.  God will deliver us.  We can do it; God will help us.   There is nothing to whine about.  There is no cause for worry.  So stop crying and keep moving.

3. God Is with Us

The third reason for God’s response is that He is with us.  He is not uninvolved.  He is not uninterested.  He is not even far off.  He is right there in the problem.  Look in Exodus 14.  Verse 19 says that the angel of the Lord had been traveling in front of the Lord’s army.  Some say this is the preincarnate Christ.  But either way, it was God’s representative presence.  The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exod. 13:21).  That pillar, God’s presence, never left its place in front of the people (Exod. 13:22).  They were never wandering aimlessly, even though they appeared to be.  They were never lost, even though they appeared to be.  They were never in the wrong place.  God Himself was leading them.  When God is leading you and you are following, you can never be in the wrong place.

While this cloud was an extraordinary and supernatural manifestation of God’s physical presence, we have the same thing available to us.  God directs our steps (Prov. 16:9).  He says to us, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isa. 30:21).  God determines the exact times and places men should live (Acts 17:26).  We are told “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).   God Himself dwells in our hearts with us—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—as our resident Boss, directing our steps.  He speaks to us by His word, by His Spirit, in prayer, and by His delegated authorities.  He is a wall of fire around us and the glory within (Zech.  2:5).  As He was with them, as He led them, so He does with us.  He leads us, and even more so.

And the greatest “with-us” so far, Jesus Christ, God became man and dwelt among us.  He is Immanuel, “God with us.”  What is that we were worried about again?  Pharaoh?  Some water?  The desert?  It is no problem.  The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?

If that is not enough for you, a greater “with-us” is still to come.  He will call us to be with Him in glory.  He will protect us and persevere us until we go to Him in glory forever.  Perhaps through the vale of death, we will be ushered into Abraham’s bosom by legions of his holy angels.  Or perhaps it will be in a rapture, when we are caught in the air to be with Christ, changed in the twinkling of an eye, translated into eternal glorious heaven to be with God in joyous worship forever.  Whatever the mechanism, this is where we are headed.  Through whatever path of joys and trials in this life, this is where we are headed.  And we will get there.  We are going there.  God will deliver us.  “Some through the water, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood”—the precious blood of Jesus.  Jesus paid it all.  The precious blood of Jesus, who redeemed us.  We are God’s blood-bought people, and we will take hold of eternal life by faith in Christ if God has bought us, and we will go to eternal glory with Him.

Notice, it is not just that He is with us, but He also stays with us.  Exodus 13:22:  “Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”  Wandering in the desert, He led his dear children along.  And when mighty Pharaoh and the Egyptian army caught up with them, He was right there.  He did not flee.  He did not forget.  He did not get too busy.  He did not abandon them.  In Exodus 14:19–20 we read, “Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them . . .  coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.  Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.”

God delivered Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground and He led them by His light.  God stood between them and the rabid and powerful Egyptian army as an impenetrable rear guard.  And when God saw Pharaoh’s army march into the breach to harm His segullah, to lay a hand on His treasured possession, He threw them into confusion (Exod. 14:24) and released the waters over them to destroy them.  God is with us to shine the light of the way we should go and to defeat all His and our enemies.

So that was them; what about us?  We have the same promises:  “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).  “Behold, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).  This is guaranteed by the word of God and written in the blood of Christ.  He is with us when we are with Him, obeying Him, living for Him, walking in the path that He commands (2 Chron. 15:2).  Even when we sin, He is with us.  Oh, He is grieved by our sin (Eph. 4:30).  He will discipline us for our sins until we repent (Prov. 3:11–12).  He will bring that discipline for our good (Heb. 12:10).  He may make us weak or sick.  He may hand us over to Satan to destroy our flesh.  He may even kill us (1 Cor. 11:30; 5:5).  We may suffer greatly under God’s discipline.  But He is with us to discipline us to bring us back to Himself if we are His people.

God is faithful to His elect people, and faithful to His word.  Those He chose He will call.  Those He calls will come to Him—irresistible grace.  They will confess Him, and He will sanctify them and persevere them.  He will sanctify them and discipline them, when necessary, all to deliver them to glory.  The Lord is with us always.  Let us never fear.  Let us fear nothing, even the devil.  Even in the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us, and He will lead us through to the other side.

So that is God.  What about the people?

The People’s Problem

In view of all this, we ask:  What was the people’s problem?  Why were they crying out?  What were they whining about?

First, we have to recognize their problem was real.  They were very much in a bad tactical spot—outmanned, outgunned, and unable to run.  Trusting in God does not mean that we will face no problems.  It is not whistling past the graveyard.  No, as Christians, we suffer most every problem that everyone else does—those problems “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13).  We are tempted to sin.  We get cancer too.  (GTB)  Our parents die too.  We lose our jobs too.  We worry about the future too.  We are hurt by our spouses or by our friends.  We get old and we die too.

On top of that, we get to suffer extra problems:  persecution and scorn for the name of Christ (1 Pet. 4:14) and painful trials (1 Pet. 4:12).  Indeed, we are the special targets of the devil who hates God and who tries to strike at God by striking at us, His treasured possession.  Think about Job or think about the devil who had the desire to sift Peter.  Jesus did not say, “I stopped him from sifting you.”  Jesus said, “I have prayed for you.”  On top of that, we receive God’s painful corrective discipline.  Corrie ten Boom said that it always hurts when God has to pry something from our hand.

So these are real problems.  They really hurt.  Sometimes they go on for a really long time.  Sometimes we, being used to peace and prosperity, become complacent, and we are unprepared and shocked by trouble that comes.

1. Forgetting God

The problem for the Israelites here is that they panicked and they forgot about God in the moment—God, who had heard their groans in Egypt.  God, who had freed them from Pharaoh’s grasp by his supernatural plagues.  God, who said He would lead them out while plundering Egypt, and who did just that.  God, who went before them in the pillar.  God, who told them to wander in the desert and camp near Pi Hahiroth and directly opposite Baal Zephon (Exod. 14:2).  That is exactly where they were when Egypt caught up with them in verse 9.

God had even told them in advance, “Do all this so that Pharaoh will think you are confused and I will gain glory through his army.”  They had been delivered out of Egypt.  They had been down the road a ways with all their plunder and all their stuff.  Probably they thought, “We made it and our trouble is over.”  Yet the trouble came upon them, and they were surprised.

If you are where God has called you to be and you are doing what God has called you to do, don’t panic when trouble unexpectedly presents itself.  Instead, exercise your divine reason.  Control the fear and say to yourself, “This must be part of the plan.  I am going to keep moving where God told me to go.”

Perhaps you got married and now you are experiencing marital troubles.  Do not panic and run into the Red Sea of adultery and drown, or flee into the desert of divorce.  While there may be temporary respite in these things, it will be followed by an agonizing starvation, or an agonizing thirst in the desert, or an agonizing drowning in the water.  Instead, move on to what God wants you to do.  Men, love your wives as Christ loved the church, sacrificially and with authority, leading her as the head (1 Cor. 11:3).  Perhaps you are entangled in deep, deep sin.  Perhaps you are feeling trapped.  Sin has a hold on you.  Well, stop crying out, stop sinning, and move on.  Confess and renounce your sins and find mercy (Prov. 28:13).  Live a holy life by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We could go on and on, but literally this applies to every trouble, to every situation.

The reality is, most of us have experienced this at some point or another—this trouble, this despair, this hopelessness.  Even the greats of the faith have done so.  Elijah fled to the cave (1 Kings 19) and said, “I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”  What was God’s response to him?  It is similar to His response to the Israelites here.  “What are you doing here?  Go back the way that you came and anoint Jehu as king and Elisha to succeed you.”  In other words, the application to Elijah was, “Stop whining and get moving.”

The apostle Paul suffered great hardships and terrible despair.  We are told he even despaired of life (2 Cor. 1:8).  That is a lot of despair.  The great Luther, a singular man, is said to have suffered severe bouts of despondency.  We can imagine the troubles he went through as a marked man, standing against the whole world.  I have experienced it myself.  I have some days when I wonder what in the world am I doing here, and will it all fall apart?

But these are all attacks of the devil, and when he comes, we must say, “No.  God called me to do this.  I am going to get moving.  God called me to be a minister or a husband or a wife or to this job or whatever it is.  He has a purpose, and it is good.  This is all part of the plan.  I will not despair, and I will not give up.  Get thee behind me, Satan! I must move on.”

Get hold of that panic, of that despair, of that hopelessness.  Take those thoughts captive to Christ.  Stop crying out and get moving.

2. Losing Sight of God

So their first problem was that they forgot about God.  Their second problem is that they lost sight of God.  They were focused on Pharaoh’s army and not on God who was with them.  I have to believe that with six hundred chariots and all the men probably marching in formation—we can only imagine this kind of thing from the movies—that it looked pretty scary when they saw Pharaoh’s army.  But I also have to imagine that it looks pretty puny next to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire that was in front of them.  If only they had looked to it!

So we must stop looking at our problems, which loom large, and we must start looking to God, who looms infinitely larger.  God is bigger than my marriage problem.  God is bigger than my health problem.  God is bigger than my job problem.  God is bigger than my sin problem, bigger than my spiritual problem, bigger than my depression.  However big that problem is—homosexuality, adultery, murder—God is bigger than that problem.

We want that easy looking Philistine road.  That is the way we want to go.  We look up and say, “There is a short path.  It looks easy.  It looks straight.”  In reality, it was not easy.  Remember, God said He did not lead them by that way because they would have faced war and crumbled and turned back.  We want the easy path.  But instead we should want the best path.

That was the solution for the Israelites here.  “Look away from Pharaoh, look away from the problem, and look to God.”  It was the solution for Elijah in 1 Kings 19.  Remember, the Lord passed by and spoke to him.  Elijah stopped looking at the Ahab problem and the Jezebel problem and all his problems, and started looking to God Almighty.  It was the solution for them, and it is the solution for us too.  We must stop focusing on our troubles, stop focusing on our hopelessness, and fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  We must gain a larger perspective, a perspective that not only has God in view, but also has eternity in view.  We must look beyond our problems in this earthly life and look to eternity.

3. Listening to the Wrong People

Their third problem was that they listened to the wrong people.  As the trouble came and the fear rose up, they listened to the devil’s lies, sowing doubt in them.  And they repeated those lies to Moses:  “You led us out of Egypt to die!” (Exod. 14:11).  “We told you to leave us alone!” (Exod. 14:12).  “We would have been better off as slaves.”  This is all crazy talk.  It is all demonic talk.  It is all devil talk.

Perhaps the devil planted these thoughts in them.  He can do that.  Perhaps he merely took advantage of their fear.  Perhaps men spread a bad report, as did ten of the twelve spies in the book of Numbers.  Whatever the source, don’t listen to the devil’s lies.  Listen to God’s man instead and see how Moses responded here.  In Exodus 14:13 he said, “Do not be afraid.  Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”  God had promised that.  “The Lord Himself will fight for you.”

We should do the same.  Resist the devil, reject his word, and listen to God’s word.  Listen to God’s men that He has placed over you.  The devil will try to isolate us and separate us from the word of God coming to us.  The devil will try to drive us into despair and other sins.  Then the devil will try to drive us into further despair by guilt over those sins.  He will say, “Stay away from the men of God until you have sorted it out for yourself.  Then you can go to them and explain it all.”  And once you stay away for a while, then he will say, “It’s too late.  You are not good enough.  You must give up.  You must quit.”  These are all lies of the devil to destroy you.

Instead, go to God.  Go to his word.  Go to the Moses that God has placed over you.  That may be your husband.  That may be your parents.  That may be your pastors.  Go to the man of God who will speak to you the word of God, and he will say, “Do not be afraid.”  He will say, “Stand firm.”  He will say, “The Lord Himself will fight for you.”  He will say, “See the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today.  All those problems you see—you will not see them again.”

4. Thinking God Has Abandoned Us

The fourth and final problem of these people is that they thought God had abandoned them.  It is the only way one could fear Pharaoh or any other problem.   Perhaps it had been a few days or weeks since God gave the instruction to turn back and camp at Pi Hahiroth.  We do not know exactly what the timing was, but we can imagine.  First, they had to go and march around in a circle for a while.  Then this word had to get back to Pharaoh.  Then Pharaoh had to muster his entire army and his equipment—the six hundred chariots and so on.  Then Pharaoh had to march out and catch up with them.  So this probably did not all happen in the course in an hour.  It probably took some time.

The people were marching around in a circle, and they camped where God had told them to camp.  Then they did not hear anything else, at least not as far as we are told.  Sometimes when we have not heard from God in a while, we mistakenly draw the conclusion that God has abandoned us.  No, no, no!  He never leaves and He never forsakes (Matt. 28:20).  He did not leave them, as we read in Exodus 13:22.  He did not leave His place at the head of the army.

In times of trouble, we sometimes pray and pray and pray, and yet we hear nothing new.  Think of Job.  In his treatment of Psalm 22 in Daily Delight, Pastor Mathew refers to this as “the dark tunnel of divine silence.”[1]  That can go on for hours, for days, for weeks, and perhaps even for months or years.  But God always answers our prayers:  “Yes,” “No,” or “Wait.”  So if we are not hearing an immediate answer to prayer, what is the conclusion?  God is saying, “Wait.”

God’s ”Wait” and God’s silence is not “Do nothing.”  It is “Follow the last instruction.  Stand your post until you are relieved.”  So, men, are you crying out to God?  Are you not sure what to do?  Well, God has told you what to do:  Lead in your homes.  Govern your wives and train your children.  It will get better.  God is there.  Wives, submit to your husbands.  Children, obey your parents in the Lord.  Single people, keep dating and keep praying.  People desiring to have children, keep praying to God.  He is there.  Keep praying and follow God’s last instruction.

God is not gone.  He has not abandoned you.  He is there, and He is working for your good.  He was with Joseph in the well, He was with Joseph in Potiphar’s house, He was with Joseph in prison, and He was with Joseph in the prime minister’s office.  He is with you too, even in your trouble.  He was with those Israelite exiles as well.  He never left.  Exodus 13:22 says that the pillar did not leave its place in front of the people.  Exodus 14:15 says that when they cried out to God, He did not have to come from somewhere else.  He was right there, with them.  Exodus 14:19 says, “Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, went between.”  He had been.  God was there the whole time.  He was traveling in front of them the whole time, and He stayed in between their army and Egypt’s army all night long as a rear guard.

In Exodus 14:24 we are told that at the right time God moved.  He looked down from the cloud in the last hour of the night, the last watch of the night, and threw the Egyptians into confusion.  He delivered His people on dry ground and wiped out their enemies, wiped out their problem.  He never left.  He never left these people, and He will never leave you.  He will never forsake you either.  It is a blood-sealed promise, unbreakable.  When you do not hear from God, don’t draw the conclusion that God has abandoned you.  Don’t despair.  Don’t even cry out.  Stand your post until relieved and follow the last instruction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to emphasize that God is always with you if you are a child of God, if you have confessed Christ and are living for Him.  He will never leave you.  He will never forsake you.  He cannot violate His word.  God is powerful to do a lot of things, but not that.  He can never violate His word.  It is His nature.  He will deliver you just as He delivered them.

Maybe, like them, it will be today.  Or maybe, like them, it will be in five years.  They wandered through the desert for forty years, but they were eventually delivered.  Maybe we will be delivered from that problem in this life, or maybe we will be delivered into the next.  But He will deliver.

Fellow believers in Christ, we are super-conquerors because God is with us.  We have nothing to fear, for we are destined for glory.  So let us stop crying out and let us get moving, for we are on our way to glory with God.  Amen.

 

 

[1] P. G. Mathew, Daily Delight (Davis, CA: Grace and Glory Ministries, 2015), 50.