A Simple Walk (Exodus 14:13-15)

The Israelites are found in this scripture complaining about their circumstance and desiring to be back in slavery. They would rather live as slaves than die as free people at the hands of Pharaoh and his army. After being freed from bondage, the sounds of Pharaoh's chariots in the distance strikes fear in the hearts of the Israelites and they quickly forget the burden of hundreds of years of slavery at his hands. Moses had such a tough job...He not only put everything on the line to deliver his people from Egypt's grasp, but now he has the all important job of motivating and leading a group who are still enslaved in their minds. Moses tells the people, "Stand by and see", He also says "the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." Not exactly Mel Gibson's BraveHeart material or Russell Crow's Gladiator speech, but it will do. In vs 15, God instructs Moses to walk, to lead, to have His children take a simple walk. A simple walk into the Red Sea.....God fought for the Israelites that day, but He required them to step out in faith and do what in all other cases seemed against reason. I can identify with the Israelites in this story. The very things God has freed me from, delivered me from are the same things I run to when the chariots of life come from the distance. I run back to the chains, to the cell and my actions prove I would rather be a slave than a man freed. I want to be the adventurer, the one walking with Christ, but the chains, the cell- they are more predictable and seem to be more natural. Why is it that a man freed from chains still can be enslaved in his mind? There is a part of me who wants to be the first one in the water, the first to step out in faith and cross a sea but there is another part of me that wants to chose the predictability of the chains....Lord forgive me for desiring slavery some days. Forgive me for sounding just like the Israelites who cried out to be taken back to Egypt. Lord, I got so used to Egypt, to being in bondage. I just got used to being a slave to sin, but never in a million years would I really desire it over being with You. I don't know why I spend some days wondering back to my chains, but I do... Show me glories of the walls of water. Show me the things that I will only see by stepping out into the sea. Help me remember my captor has been defeated and swallowed up by the crashing waves of your judgement.