Maybe you’re like me and you’ve lived through a season where life gets really, really, tough and there doesn’t appear to be any way to make it through.
The Christmas season of 2008 was that time for my family. My mother-in-law was dying of lung cancer. My wife was facing the loss of her job due to company-wide layoffs, and so was I for the same reason. We had two teenagers at home and the prospect of having to face grief and an uncertain future was overwhelming.
My wife’s mother died five days before Christmas. They announced the layoffs two days prior, and my wife was one of those affected. My job, for the time being, was spared but over the holidays I learned that my dad had been diagnosed with a terminal illness with a prognosis of one year of life. What next!?
It must have felt like that for the Israelites as they were fleeing Egypt. Having just experienced Passover and escaped their enslavement, they suddenly found themselves being chased by Pharoh’s chariots right up to the edge of the Red Sea, with no way out.
We wonder “What is God doing? I thought he loved us. Why has he abandoned us?” We forget that God’s provision is bigger than our limited view. Moses had been commanded to bring the Israelites to that very spot so that God could deliver them and protect them. God wanted to show his people they could trust him, and he wanted to show the Egyptians that he is God and defying him would come at a cost.
In those moments of panic and grief, we can forget that God has already rescued us from other catastrophes in the past, and he’s provided the way to new life in the future – an everlasting life if we trust and believe in him.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Trust, believe, and receive… the army of the enemy has been defeated and you are on the shores of the promised land.
Questions for reflection:
- Looking back on your life, where can you see God’s presence in carrying you across a particularly rough patch or challenge?
- How can trusting God, believing in Jesus, and receiving the promise of eternal life affect whatever you are facing today?