“I’m so confused
I know I heard you loud and clear
So, I followed through
Somehow I ended up here.”
I love these lyrics from the song "Thy Will Be Done." They put words to the feeling of confusion we've all had when we've followed God in obedience and then ended up in a seemingly impossible situation. Here, Lord? This can't be right.
The Israelites felt the same way. They followed Moses, God's chosen man, out of slavery and into freedom. They were headed to the Promised Land, but their journey wasn't as smooth as they expected.
God took them a peculiar route that eventually left them trapped between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. When the Israelites saw they were trapped, they panicked, as we all tend to do when we're out of options and realize we have zero control over a situation. They asked Moses in bitter resentment, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness?" (Ex. 14:11). I've certainly questioned God in this way before, wondering why He would lead me out of one wilderness only to lead me into another.
Of course, we all know how the story of the Red Sea ends, and it didn't end with God abandoning the Israelites and leaving them to die in the desert. Instead, God miraculously parted the waters and the Israelites walked through to the other side on dry ground. Even though they couldn't see the path out of the wilderness and into freedom, the path was there the whole time, and God was waiting for just the right moment to reveal it.
I love how the psalmist put it: "Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there!" (77:19, NLT). A pathway no one knew was there. The path for you out of your wilderness may be hidden, and may need a miraculous act of God like the parting of a sea to be revealed, but the miraculous is God's specialty. He'll do what is necessary — when it's necessary — to reveal the path to you. In the meantime, rest, knowing that even though the path remains unseen to you, it's not unseen to its Maker.
A quote from the Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs is one that I have gone back to dozens of times. It gives us a little glimpse into why God often lets our circumstances reach the point that they seem unsolvable — namely, so He can solve them and get the glory. Save this quote and remember it when you're discouraged and can't see a way out of your situation.
“We never consider that God can open the eyes of the blind with clay and spittle, he can work above, beyond, and even contrary to means. He often makes the fairest flowers of man’s endeavors to wither and brings improbable things to pass, in order that the glory of the undertaking may be given to himself. Indeed, if his people stand in need of miracles to bring about their deliverance, miracles fall as easily from God’s hands as to give his people daily bread.”
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