A Call to Prayer: The Red Sea Road
I want to share with you today about the Red Sea Road. Some of us may face what can be considered insurmountable obstacles needing miraculous deliverance from the Lord, just as Israel is facing many existential threats today as it did long ago at the shores of the Red Sea.
In Exodus 14 and 15, we see the account of the children of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt at the Red Sea. When they were trapped at the shores of the sea with the Egyptian warriors in pursuit, they cried out to Moses in fear, thinking they would die. “Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring to you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still’” (Exodus 14:10-11, 13-14).
Our battle starts with being still and trusting God’s will. Charles Spurgeon said, “I dare say you will think it a very easy thing to stand still, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Stillness is one of the most difficult to learn under the Captain of our salvation. The Apostle seems to hint at this difficulty when he says, ‘Stand fast, and having done all, still stand.’”
Author Ann Voscamp speaks in her book Waymaker of signposts on the Red Sea Road, the first being the need to be still. “Where there is no agitation of the soul, there can be a revelation of God.” In other words, we need stillness to know God.
The Lord then asks Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” (Exodus 14:15-16). God gives directions as attentiveness is given to hear Him. Obedience on the part of Moses caused a surrender to God to walk in the midst of the sea; attentiveness to hear God; obedience to surrender to God.
The angel of the Lord moved, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. The Lord caused the wind to blow, the waters divided, and the children of Israel went forward on dry ground. “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:30-31) Israel saw what God did that day, a revelation to see God.
What comes after the crossing is a song of thanksgiving and deliverance. “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke saying, ‘I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! The Lord is my strength and my song, and 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 man of war; The Lord is His name….’” (Exodus 15:1-3). Praise and thanksgiving are a posture of power, causing the multiplication of the miraculous:
Stillness to know God
Attentiveness to hear God
Obedience to surrender to God
Revelation to see God
Doxology (Praise) to thank God
Ann Voscamp states, “Finding a way through the Red Sea Road was really about finding a way of life, a rule of life.”
May we find today in obstacles we face the same mighty deliverance of the Lord as we learn stillness, attentiveness, obedience, revelation, and doxology.
Patricia Bootsma
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