NO FLOATY NEEDED
B.L.Glenn
I saw a cartoon a few years ago of Moses holding his staff and standing at the Red Sea. It was split and waiting for the people of Israel to walk through. The man beside him was dressed in swimming trunks, with a duck floaty around his waist.
Moses turned, annoyed, and said, “Take off the floaty, Aaron!”
What faith it must have taken to enter that water tunnel! Imagine walking through a narrow canyon, but instead of walls of rock soaring above your head, it is water. You look and see fish swimming and reeds swishing in the sea beside you; yet your feet crunch across dry land. All you know is that you were told to follow that pillar of cloud, and it is leading through this channel amid the water. So, you follow.
There are enemies behind you. They have benefited from keeping all of you as slaves and they do not want to give up free labor. They watch you march with your people into the sea. After a time, when the waters do not overflow you, they chase after you. Then they realize that they have made a mistake. What God had opened as a channel of deliverance for you becomes certain death for them. They assumed that this water will continue to be held back for them. Instead, it sweeps in and drowns every single one of them in the depths of the sea. On the other hand, all of your people have made it to the opposite side safely. Your sandals aren’t even wet. This is what is done for us if we follow the Lord Jesus Christ. There are times when He will call us to walk through very dangerous circumstances. The waters seem to rise on either side, and we face the possibility of destruction. Yet we hear His assurance come, tender and full of mercy, “As you walk through the waters I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you…” (Isaiah 43:2). So it is for us.
Have you been walking in a particularly dark season? Do you struggle to see how you will be delivered from fear or care? Do you find yourself at an impasse, where you are at your wit’s end? You are in good company. Israel felt the same way. May I recommend that you trust the Lord and stay upon your God? In Exodus 14, at the opening of the Red Sea, we read that Moses stood with his staff all night as the water split and the ground dried enough for Israel to pass through. During Israel’s wait for the ground to dry, their captors, from whom they had just fled, waited within yards of them to take them back. Scripture tells us that even as Israel waited in the darkness God’s representation of Himself to His people, the Pillar of Fire, placed Himself between them and their enemies. This made it impossible for Egypt to touch them all night. Their protector kept them safe as their way was being prepared. When it was time, God led them by a pillar of cloud through the waters.
Remember who has called you. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) This is God’s promise to us, and God cannot lie. Take courage and walk through the impossible without fear. No floaty needed.