Missions Paul

There’s an incredible poster of Taylor Knox, a surfer, in front of a huge wave — over fifty feet high — at Todos Santos, Mexico. Underneath are the words: “What if your fears and dreams existed in the same place?”

“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” (Exodus 15:27)

After Marah’s bitterness, Elim looks like the perfect place to finally stop. And for a while, they do. Twelve springs, seventy palms, it tells us this really was a good place. But Elim was never the destination; it was provision for the next leg of the journey. We tend to camp at our Elim’s, to settle where God only meant us to be refreshed.

The enemy’s best plot against you is not bigger than God’s purpose for you. Whatever you may be going through today could be described as a desert, a trial, and it can even feel impossible. But the truth is the truth even when you have reached your very end.

Notice what happens at Elim: the supernatural provision of manna doesn’t come until after they leave. At Elim they were still living off what they’d carried out of Egypt. Only once they moved did the miracle come. Will you do it again, Lord? There is more when you move.

But moving is rarely the hard part logistically; it’s the hard part in us. Rob Parsons, in his book Let Me Tell You a Story, describes watching a camel owner offering rides to tourists in the Middle East. Among the crowd was a boy no older than five, watching wide-eyed as his older sister was lifted onto the camel’s back. He ran alongside, laughing, captivated, right up until the camel turned around and he realised it was his turn next. He bolted back behind his father, and no amount of coaxing from either his dad or the camel owner could get him near the animal. Eventually his father gave up, paid for his daughter’s ride, and led both children away. Ten metres down the street, the boy stopped, turned, and looked back at the camel one last time before walking on. That look said what he couldn’t: I desperately want to try… but I just can’t.

It’s a look Parsons says he’s seen in adults too, not just children, even his own reflection included. A look that glances at an opportunity, imagines what could be, but stays paralysed by fear.

Whatever Elim you’ve camped at, don’t mistake the resting place for the finish line. God isn’t finished with you yet.

The sea is barely dry behind them, and already Israel is walking into the Desert of Shur. An enclosure they cannot break through on their own. Three days, no water. You can almost hear their thoughts, “You won’t make it. You don’t have what it takes.”

“Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they travelled in the desert without finding water. ²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?” ²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink. There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. ²⁶ He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” ²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.” (Exodus 15 v 22-27)

After God makes a way where there was no way, He takes them into a similar experience. The Desert of Shur means a ‘fortress wall’. An enclosure that they were not going to get through.

They couldn’t find water. Sometimes we know the experience, which is like a voice saying, ‘You won’t make it’.

It was for 3 days. Again, we can easily hear, “You don’t have the strength.”

They had a bitter experience. We all know that experience: it’s disappointing; we expected far more than we got.

• V25 Testing is part of life with God.  Deuteronomy 8 v 2 “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” Are you committed to the Lord? Are you going to turn back? How do you know? The testing is the way.
• V25 God wants to show you things. Ultimately that you can turn bitterness into sweetness and a dead opportunity into one full of life.
• V26 God wants to reveal you to the world. To show others how He deals with you. The Lord tells Moses He does not want to deal with His people the way He dealt with the Egyptians.

Every Marah you walk through is on its way to an Elim you haven’t seen yet. But can you trust the Lord?

“When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemenwent into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. ²⁰ Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. ²¹ Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.” (Exodus 15 v 19-21)

Miriam didn’t wait to see how the wilderness would treat them. The sea had barely closed before she picked up her timbrel. “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted” — sung on the far shore, with the whole future still unknown.

That’s the pattern all through Scripture. David sang in the cave before Saul stopped hunting him. Habakkuk sang when the fig tree hadn’t budded, and the fields were empty. Paul and Silas sang in a Philippian jail with their feet still in stocks. None of them waited for the circumstances to justify the song. The song came first and made room for what God was about to do.

That’s because singing isn’t just an emotional overflow. It’s a decision. A weapon. A way of declaring what’s true. God doesn’t only do something around us; he does something in us first, and the song is often how it starts.

Moses is already singing of nations and battles even before the people of God has met those people. When you know God is master of everything then you know the victory is guaranteed.  

¹² “You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies. ¹³ In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. ¹⁴ The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia. ¹⁵ The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the peopleof Canaan will melt away; ¹⁶ terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone—until your people pass by, Lord, until the people you bought pass by. ¹⁷ You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance—the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established. ¹⁸ “The Lord reigns for ever and ever.” (Exodus 15 v 12-18)

The same hand that split the sea is now pictured reaching ahead, into Philistia, Edom, Moab, Canaan, nations Israel hasn’t even encountered yet! Moses sings about victories that haven’t happened as though they’re already won!

That in itself speaks so much to us today.

If God has dealt with Pharaoh, He can be trusted with everyone and anything that still stands between us and the promise. The battle is always His: we just learn to walk in His victory.

See how the song closes. “The Lord reigns for ever and ever.” Not Pharaoh or the nations ahead. The Lord reigns.

Maybe you need to sing over your future and what lies in front of you. God hasn’t finished yet, but He will.

Perhaps the enemy of your life is pressing in hard. It may look like there is no other outcome, and it isn’t what you hoped for. Exodus 15 isn’t just a victory song; it’s a lesson in what happens when human certainty meets divine holiness.

“In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger;  it consumed them like stubble. ⁸ By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood up like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea. ⁹ The enemy boasted, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.’ ¹⁰ But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. ¹¹ Who among the gods is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exodus 15 v 7-11)

See the chilling words of the enemy in v 9. “I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide. I will gorge. I will destroy.”

As this song is sung, that enemy is no more.

Moses wants the people to celebrate that their enemy is defeated.

But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them (v10).

So what is your enemy at the moment? A diagnosis, an accusation, a circumstance that boasts the way Pharaoh’s army boasted? This song reminds us not to allow anyone to be so certain of the outcome in your life.

Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

Do you see it? Holiness, not just power. God didn’t drown Egypt because He could. He delivered Israel because He is who He is: a God whose holiness moves toward His people rather than away from them.

That’s the shape the cross would later take too, the love of God breathing life into what looked finished.

There are big moments in all our lives when all we can do is sing. It’s not a report that is needed, some deep analysis of what has happened. It’s a testimony in worship. That’s exactly what happens next: a new song rises up from Moses, and the whole nation joins in.

 ^“But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day the Lord saved Israel …” 

And on that day a song was born. A new song coming from within their leader, Moses.

“Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:  “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. “The Lord is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned in the Red Sea.The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone. Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy.” (Exodus 15 v 1-6)

Some days it is imperative that you sing. It isn’t the right time for discussion and analysis. This is the time for worship, for God has done what only He can do.

Let’s look at what Moses and the people sang.

V 2. “He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has now become his God. He has experienced God for himself. This miraculous story has given him (and the nation) a personal story.

Every generation needs to experience Him and have their own miracles to testify to.

V3 “The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.”

Israel didn’t fight this battle; they stood still and watched God fight it for them. God will fight our battles.

Finally, “Your right hand, Lord.” Not Moses’ hand, nor Israel’s courage (they didn’t have much). The song keeps returning to whose hand did this.

What has God’s right hand done in your life that still deserves a song?

Some outcomes look settled long before they happen. Everyone points to the evidence, and apparently there is only one way it can go. But God can write a different story.

“He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving.” (Exodus 14 v 25)

Have you heard the phrase “to set the wheels in motion”? There are seasons in our life when a series of actions and developments indicates that there is only one course of action. The wheels are in motion. However, never underestimate God. He can remove the wheels! (v25). The inevitable is not always inevitable.

Pharaoh’s chariots were the best technology of the ancient world. Six hundred of them, hand-picked, bearing down on a nation of former slaves trapped between the sea and the sky. Every human calculation said the outcome was fixed. The wheels were in motion, and nothing stops a chariot at full speed.

Except God.

He didn’t need to destroy the chariots. He just jammed the wheels.

Think about what’s bearing down on you right now. The diagnosis that seems certain. The decision that seems already made. The relationship that seems beyond repair. The habit that seems too entrenched to break. It looks inevitable because every visible factor points one direction.

But God can still jam a wheel. It’s too early to panic.

They had a sea in front of them and an army behind them. No way forward and no way back. That is exactly where God wanted them.

 ^“But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. ³⁰ That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. ³¹ And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.” (Exodus 14 v 29-31)

Have you noticed what it says? They walked on ‘dry ground’.

Surely it would have been muddy ground? No, it was dry. A small detail, but it reveals God looks at the detail.

Either side of them was the wall of the sea. Chaos held back by the hand of God.

The crescendo of the whole story is the last verse. It was not just a miracle of all miracles. It is what happened to the Israelites. They feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

What is your wall of water? What is chasing you that looks unstoppable? The sea did not move because Israel was brave. It moved because God was faithful, and Moses lifted his staff, and the people kept walking.

Sometimes the only way through is straight through.

So in answer to those two questions, I say to you – walk on.

The Lord who fights for you doesn’t need your permission. He just needs your trust. He doesn’t need you to win the battle, only to keep walking through it.

Today may be another day of battle. Well, if you hold on, keep moving and trust, then it could well be the day of your victory.

“The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴ During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” ²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” ²⁷ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing towardit, and the Lord swept them into the sea. ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.” (Exodus 14 v 23-28)

The best chariots in the ancient world chasing the people of God. He that is in you, with you, around you, is greater than any enemy that comes at you, in this world.

The enemy knew who jammed the wheels; they knew it was the Lord. Even the enemy recognises the hand and the work of God, and the pursuers become the pursued.

It was at the darkest and most exhausting of hours. “During the last watch of the night”, Israel had walked all night through a wall of water on both sides; it was a long night of walking by faith. Then, at daybreak, God brings judgment.

Sometimes God lets the threat get really close because He wants the deliverance to be undeniable.

The chapter that starts with Israel trapped ends with total deliverance and total judgment. The Egyptians said it themselves before the water covered them: the Lord is fighting for them. That is still true today for you.

There’s a difference between the first time God asks you to obey and the tenth. That’s where Moses stood at the Red Sea. Maybe you’re not new to obeying God. The question is whether you’ll do it again, now that the sea in front of you is bigger than anything you’ve faced.

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” (Exodus 14 v 21-22)

Moses stretched out his hand. Pause for a moment. Remind yourself of these verses we read weeks ago.

“Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. (Exodus 4 v 2)

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’” (Exodus 8 v 5)

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” (Exodus 8 v 16)

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness spreads over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” (Exodus 10 v 21)

So when, in v16 of this chapter, the Lord told Moses to stretch out his hand, it was something Moses had come to understand.

This act of obedience while the biggest army in the region closed in behind him and a wall of water stood in front.

God didn’t part the sea before Moses moved, but as Moses moved.

They walked through a wall of water on the right, a wall of water on the left, and dry ground under their feet in between.

Egypt was still coming, and the sea was still there. Can you picture it?

The problem was still there, chasing them from behind, with no path in front. Moses stretched out his hand, and Israel walked straight through the middle of it.

The threat wasn’t removed, but a road was created right through it.

God can do it again for your situation. He can make a road where there is no road.