Getting Through the Impossible Obstacle

They were up against it now. Nowhere to go, nowhere to turn. An impossible obstacle in front of them and trouble behind them. And everything started out so well. They were happy, even rejoicing. They had everything they needed and life looked great. Now it was if they had the wind knocked out of them. It was as if their feet had been swept out from underneath them. What were they going to do? Our lives often feel that way, right? Things are going great. The day starts out so good and then, suddenly, it all goes wrong and we don’t know what we’re going to do. Those people up against the impossible obstacle were the Hebrews. The obstacle was the Red Sea.

They had no way around it and could see no other option but to go back to Egypt. Behind them was the entire Egyptian army bearing down on them. In Exodus 14, the people tell Moses they should go back to Egypt and be slaves again because at least they would be alive. The people tell Moses, “Did we not say to you in Egypt, ’Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (vs. 12).

Moses addresses the people and encourages them to have faith in God. God’s response to Moses is interesting. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ’Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on’” (v. 15). God, basically, tells them to go forward through the impossible obstacle. God causes a wind to blow all night and create a pathway on dry ground through the Red Sea for the people to go through the impossible obstacle and reach safety. How often are we faced with impossible obstacles and want to turn back to our old lives and our old ways? How often do we not listen to God when He tells us to go forward, forgetting, He said, He would provide a way through? How often are we ready to turn back just when God is about to do something powerful in our lives? There is nothing behind me worth going back to – not family, not friends, not habits. The only way to get through the impossible obstacle is to go forward, trusting in God to make a path.  ~~via  Creekside church of Christ, Franklin, Indiana