Published by Many times we go through things in life that leave us feeling hopeless and afraid. Yes afraid…Afraid of the unknown…Afraid of what might happen. Fear, even though the scriptures state that God didn’t give us the spirit of fear…every once and a while we encounter fear. Heck, some of us live in fear everyday. But it’s actually what you do with the fear that will make or break you.
I’m going to write about two incidents because more than that would make for an awfully long message but I’m going to remind you of the parting of the Red Sea and Jehoshaphat’s problem with a vast army coming to attack them.
In both of these instances the first thing God told them was, “Do not be afraid”. Both issues were definitely instances where fear would be unavoidable. The problems seemed unsolvable. But God told them, don’t be afraid. The other instruction that was given in both of these instances was to stand still. This too would seem to be a difficult instruction to follow because as the pressure closes in the first impulse would be to run, hide or do something. The last thing you’re thinking to do would be to stand there and do nothing. This is true in life. Problems sometimes seem to be larger than life and we start to think of all the things that we could try to make the problem go away.
Also in both instances, they had to endure a night for their deliverance would happen “tomorrow”. That’s a long night. That’s a long time to consider, there’s a great army attacking us tomorrow or there’s a big army chasing us and there’s no where to run to. God gave the instructions immediately after He was called, but they had to wait until the next day for their delivery.
Sometimes you’ll get the answer to your problem immediately and will believe the answer, until the problem starts to close in and then we start to squirm. Maybe I didn’t hear Him right, or maybe I was supposed to do this in the meantime, or maybe I have to compromise on His word just a little bit to make due because I’m sure God wouldn’t want me to endure this hardship like this. And oh if you give into flesh that’s when big trouble starts. Oh you may not feel it right away, you may even feel a little relief but that act of disobedience is going to cost you even greater troubles than you were trying to avoid.
During the night when the Israelites were waiting by the Red Sea, the angel of the Lord that had been in front of them moved to the back. Also the pillar of cloud that was in front of them moved to the back. Now, what was leading them, changed position, but it was for a reason. The cloud caused the enemy to be in darkness while the Israelites were in light. It was this way so neither one would encounter the other.
In the meantime, contrary to popular belief Moses didn’t raise his staff and poof the Red Sea parted. It actually parted after Moses raised his staff and spread his hand over the sea when a great east wind blew all night. Now imagine that kind of fear. You’ve got the enemy behind you…you don’t know where and this huge wind blowing all night moving a vast body of water in front of you. Now that’s some kind of fear. Even though we don’t experience anything like that in our every day lives, problems can appear to be just as big and bring about a comparable fear to us as if we were in those instances.
Finally, daylight breaks and they still had more to fear. They had to do something. Early in the morning Jehoshaphat’s people had to march down against the enemy. So they had to make some sort of movement and then they had to stand still and let God do His work. They began to sing praises and as they sung praises the Lord set ambushes against their enemies. Moses and his people had to walk in a place that used to be water…Imagine how they must have been in awe walking a path with water on both sides of them. That must have been terrifying to walk that path and THEN still be chased by their enemy.
Fear…Sometimes you have to endure a scary night before you see your deliverance in the morning. God doesn’t want us in fearful situations, but unfortunately there’s an enemy that isn’t just going to lay down and let you have your way in this world. Because of that we have to stay strong and remember, He’s faithful and regardless of what it looks like, there IS deliverance in the morning.
