When It Seems You’ve Hit a Wall, Exodus 14:10-31, 9/17/23
Exodus 14:10-31
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins
September 17, 2023
As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. But you lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.”
The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the Lord, in the pillar of fire and cloud, looked down on the Egyptian army and threw the Egyptian army into a panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.
Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
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This day in history, September 17, 1862, saw the deadliest one-day battle in American military history, the Battle of Antietam, one of the many battles in the American Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee wanted to take the war north away from the Southern states, but he met fierce resistance from General George B. McClellan’s Union troops. With a combined 22,717 casualties, Union forces suffered greater losses, but kept the advancing Confederate troops at bay. Although it was a tactical draw, President Abraham Lincoln declared victory. It was the victory he needed to issue his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which he did just days later on September 22, 1862 declaring that:
All persons held as slaves. . . shall be . . . forever free.
You know the rest of the story from there. On April 9, 1865, General Lee would surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the war. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation would become the law of the land. Lincoln would go down in history, widely regarded as one of (if not the) greatest American presidents to ever live.
But Abraham Lincoln was not always great.
There’s a story Abraham Lincoln wrote about his time before he became President of the United States. At one time, Lincoln co-owned a little country store in New Salem, Illinois. The store did well for a while, but things took a turn for the worse. The community was no longer growing, and the business was all but gone. Lincoln describes a conversation he had with his business partner, William Berry. Berry asked, “How much longer can we keep this going?” Lincoln answered that the business was basically dead. Then he continued, “You know, I wouldn’t mind so much if I could just do what I want to do. I want to study law.” Lincoln confided in his friend, “I wouldn’t mind so much if we could sell everything we’ve got and pay all our bills and have just enough left over to buy one book—Blackstone's Commentary on English Law.” He added with more than a touch of resignation, “But I guess I can’t.”
Let me pause right there.
Abraham Lincoln wanted desperately to study law, but given his financial situation, he could see no pathway forward to accomplish his dream in that moment. Standing on the front porch of his dying country store, he articulated his dream, and in the same breath, believed . . . no, KNEW . . . it would never happen for him. The dream was, to Lincoln in that moment, insurmountable. He had hit a proverbial wall.
Hold that thought while we shift gears to our scripture lesson today.
The Hebrew people longed for freedom. They had been slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years, at least 200 years and possibly more than 400 years. For perspective, it was only 161 years ago that Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. So it was a long time—so long that slavery in Egypt is all the Hebrew people had ever known. Sure, they wanted their freedom, but that dream, to the Hebrews, seemed insurmountable. And as they stood on the shore of the Red Sea, a vicious army behind them, and an untraversable sea ahead of them, they knew they had hit a (not so) proverbial wall.
Why? What was going on in the minds of the Hebrews for them to imagine that freedom was beyond their grasp? What was going on in the mind of a young Abraham Lincoln to imagine that becoming a lawyer was beyond his grasp?
And what goes on in our minds when we imagine that our dreams are beyond our grasp?
I’ll tell you what! It’s called “Stinkin’ Thinkin’!” A therapist friend taught me that phrase years ago, and I love it!
“Stinkin’ Thinkin’” happens each time we focus on why we CAN’T accomplish something instead of why we CAN accomplish something.
Another way to look at this idea is to consider the focus of your mind’s attention when thinking about a dream or a goal or a plan or anything future-related. When you think about what’s out there in the future, are you: problem-oriented, or providence-oriented?
Let me explain.
You know what a problem is—I don’t have to explain that to you. But “providence” is a five-dollar word that begs some explanation.
“Providence,” simply put, is God’s care and provision. It’s more than sovereignty, which is all about God’s strength and power. The word “providence” takes God’s sovereignty (strength and power), and layers on top of that wisdom and purpose. God’s providence, therefore, is God’s “wise and purposeful sovereignty.”[1]
Maybe it will be helpful to look at the root of the word “providence.” It’s from the Latin “pro-” meaning “forward,” and “-vide” meaning “to see.” Put it together and it becomes “to see foward,” kind of like our English idiom, “see to that.” If you say, “I’ll see to that,” it means you’re going to take care of it, you’re going to make it happen.
God’s “providence” means that God is going to “see to that.” “God is going to take care of it. God is going to make it happen.
And what, exactly, is God going to see to? What, exactly, is God going to make happen?
Answer: God’s purposes! Isaiah 46:9b-10:
I am God, and there is no one like me,
declaring the outcome from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My purpose shall stand,
and I will fulfill my intention.”
God is always working to fulfil God’s purposes. And when we are in line with God’s purposes, when we are sympatico with the Savior, we don’t have to worry about the outcome. We can trust God and God’s word which tells us:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Now, please don’t think I’m being Pollyanna here. Please don’t interpret what I’m saying to mean that problems and hard, hard challenges won’t come our way if we’re walking with God and aligned with God’s purposes. That’s not at all what I’m saying.
What I am saying is this: in the grand tapestry of our existence, problems appear as mere threads woven into the beautiful fabric of God’s providence.
So there stand the Hebrews, desperate for their freedom, but they’ve hit a wall. Behind them a brutal army is advancing, ahead of them stands a wall of water called the Red Sea. But they’re totally OK with this because they’re focused on God’s providence, right? Wrong!
Listen again to how the scriptures describe their reaction when it seemed they’d hit a wall:
In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
Were they problem-oriented or providence-oriented in that moment? Problem-oriented. The Hebrews had a serious case of “stinkin’ thinkin’”!
Now think back to Abraham Lincoln, there on the porch of his country store, telling his partner that he’d like to be able to sell the store and have just enough money to buy a copy of Blackstone’s Commentary on English Law so that he could study and practice law, but that there was no way that could happen. Was Honest Abe problem-oriented or providence-oriented in that moment? Problem-oriented. Abe had a serious case of “stinkin’ thinkin’”!
But God, in God’s providence, had plans beyond what Abe could ask or even imagine.
Along about that time, a strange-looking wagon came up the road. The driver angled it up close to the store porch, then looked at the young Abraham Lincoln and said, “I’m trying to move my family out west, and I’m out of money. I’ve got a good barrel here that I could sell for fifty cents.” Abraham Lincoln’s eyes scanned the wagon and he saw the man’s wife looking at him pleadingly, her face thin and emaciated. Lincoln put his hand into his pocket and took out, according to him, the last fifty cents he had. He said to the man, “I reckon I could use a good barrel.” All day long the barrel sat on the porch of that store. Lincoln’s business partner kept chiding Lincoln about it. Late in the evening Lincoln walked out and looked down into the barrel. He saw something in the bottom of it, papers that he hadn't noticed before. His long arms went down into the barrel and, as he fumbled around, he hit something solid. He pulled out a book and stood petrified: it was Blackstone's Commentary on English Law. Lincoln held the book, look up toward the heavens, and suddenly felt a deep impression that God had something for him to do and he better prepare. Why this miracle otherwise?
Abraham Lincoln thought he was up against a wall, and it was up against that wall that he came face-to-face with the providence of God.
The Hebrew people, up against a wall of water, the Egyptian army so close they could almost feel the swords at their necks. Just about then, a strong wind from the east blew, and it blew, and it blew. All night long that wind blew. It blew so long and so hard that it created a pathway forward—dry ground with a wall of water on the left and a wall of water on the right. The Hebrews passed right through. But when the Egyptian army followed behind, the walls of water crashed in over them. The scriptures tell us “the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.”
The Hebrew people thought they were up against a wall, and it was up against that wall that they came face-to-face with the providence of God.
Here’s the thing: there will be problems. Life isn’t going to be a straight path. Hurdles, barriers, troubles of all kinds will present themselves to us. That’s a given. I bet you brought a problem or two with you to church this morning. I know I did.
What ISN’T a given is our attitude toward the problems we face. My question today is this: when it seems you’ve hit a wall, will your focus be on the problems, or the providence of God?
Remember this: in the grand tapestry of our existence, problems appear as mere threads woven into the beautiful fabric of God’s providence.
So if you’ve got problems, not to be callus, but welcome to the club. Problems are part of life. But problems, even that very difficult problem you have of your heart today, even that problem is no match for the providence of God.
God will make a way
When there seems to be no way.
He works in ways we cannot see,
God will make a way for me.
He will be my guide,
Hold me closely to His side.
With love and grace
For each new day,
God will make a way,
God will make a way.[2]
[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/are-gods-providence-and-gods-sovereignty-the-same
[2] Song by Don Moen.