Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. Moses…great heroes of our faith and representations of biblical typology. Through them, we see the foreshadowing of Christ personified. These men of faith provide a glimpse of who Jesus is, allowing us to see the pages of Scripture come alive. The Bible is simple for us to read, yet complex so that it never grows dull or old.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.Lamentations 3:22-23
Free At Last
In Exodus 12, the Israelites finally were released from the enslaved hand of the Pharoah only to be overwhelmed by the vast, Red Sea in Exodus 14. Imagine the horror of it. You watch plague after plague and the death of the Egyptian’s firstborn. You see the mighty hand of God upfront and personal. Your hope begins to blossom as you think about what it will be like to be free. Free. And finally. The day arrives.
Puzzling, I would assume. Why would God work in such a way? But then again, God’s ways are never like our own.
God was up to something even grander than any imagination could fathom or believe. God says, “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so” (Ex. 14:4).
God’s Glorious Glory
The Israelites did not understand that it is in our weakness that He is made strong (see 2 Cor. 12:9-11). With the Egyptian army in hot pursuit behind them and a formidable body of water before them, they began to drown in their misery. “They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness” (Ex. 14:11-12).
God often puts us in difficult places so that we reach the end of ourselves and see He is our only option. The exodus is a great illustration of our salvation in Jesus Christ…behind us the army of destruction of our sinfulness, before us the sea of wrath of God. Without Jesus making the way, we would be destroyed. Moses quickly learned that, once again, he needs to live in total surrender to God’s plan.
But there’s more here…I see how God masterfully crafts our own stories so that we see our need for Him. He designs our weak moments, teaching us to rely solely on Him. We often act like the Israelites when we feel overwhelmed. We get cranky. Grouchy. Discouraged. Panicked. Anxious. Angry. Disheartened. Frustrated. Disillusioned. Fearful. Self-dependent. Oh, how we forget to look to Him!
It is in the weak, raw spots that God is working to be revealed. He wants us to not only see His glory but also desires for us to know Him!
Are you willing to allow God to be glorified in your weakness? What does that look like to you?
Thanks