IF HE DID IT BEFORE, HE CAN DO IT AGAIN!

I think all of us are familiar with the story of Exodus, how God kept His promise to the Israelites and got them out of Egypt and out of slavery. The story details how God hardened Pharoah’s heart in order to show His glory, using the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. This story is inspiring, and a show of God’s dedication and love for us that stretches throughout the years. However, if you’ve read the entirety of Exodus, you’ve also seen the other side of it. 

Although God brings the Israelites out of Egypt through miraculous acts and through the Red Sea, the Israelites must travel through the wilderness. In the wilderness, their mistrust of God is revealed, where they constantly question God’s intentions, stray from His plans and commandments, and rebel against His authority through Moses. When I first began to read through the Old Testament, this baffled me. Their distrust started when the Israelites had barely left Egypt, and yet they were already doubting God. In Exodus 14:11, the people say, “was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” 

Putting myself in their shoes, I'm sure the Israelites must have been terrified. All of a sudden, they are thrust out of familiarity and put into the hands of Moses, who was essentially a stranger to them. Then once they have finally left, the Egyptians come to capture them and bring them back into captivity. It must have seemed like God was playing a cruel joke on them.  While I can empathize with this line of thought, I can’t fully wrap my head around it. God had just enacted ten historical plagues on Egypt, things that had never been seen before and were never seen again. God came back to claim them as His chosen people, and to deliver them to the Promised Land. In this scenario, God has no reason to leave the Israelites for dead, as He hasn’t even revealed the fullness of His promise to them yet. If God had done all of that just to get them out of Egypt, why would He leave them to die before they had reached what God had called them to? 

I think sometimes fear can cloud our lenses when it comes to God’s actions. Walking with God, often, forces us to trust in His goodness instead of what our surroundings look like. But if God opened doors for us, before, to leave the bondage of our situations, why can’t He do the same thing over and over again? It’s natural to be afraid of uncertainty, but we are God’s children and He truly wants the best for us. Like Paul says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” 

While it can be hard to look past our circumstances, we have to remember how God has moved on our behalf in the past. The Israelites let their fear blind them to how God had shown His power and love for them in the past, even though the events had literally just taken place. When we remember how God has moved in our past, we can be encouraged that God can and will move the same way again! There is no limit on God’s might, especially if He is moving us towards promise. His promises never fail; they are yes and amen! He comes through on every word He speaks to us. If He did it before, He will certainly do it again!

~Nia L. Roberts