Scripture Daily

Context No. 1607 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 14:1-9: in context

1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn back and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal Zephon. You shall encamp opposite it by the sea. 3Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land. The wilderness has shut them in.’ 4I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will follow after them; and I will get honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” They did so. 5The king of Egypt was told that the people had fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6He prepared his chariot, and took his army with him; 7and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, with captains over all of them. 8The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; for the children of Israel went out with a high hand. 9The Egyptians pursued them. All the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baal Zephon.

God gives Israel a strange instruction: turn back and camp by the sea, in a place where they will appear trapped, hemmed in between the water and the wilderness. Pharaoh, God says, will think they are entangled and shut in, and will pursue them; but I will gain glory over Pharaoh and his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD. And so it happens: Pharaoh, his heart hardened, gathers six hundred chariots and all his army and pursues Israel, overtaking them as they camp by the sea, seemingly with nowhere to go.

The striking thing is that God deliberately led Israel into what looked like a trap. He told them to camp in a vulnerable, indefensible spot, precisely so that Pharaoh would think them cornered and pursue. From Israel's side, and from Pharaoh's, it looked like a dead end, the people hemmed in by the sea with an army bearing down. But it was not a mistake or a misfortune; it was God's plan, the chosen setting for a deliverance that would display his glory and make Pharaoh know he is the LORD. The apparent trap was the stage God set for his rescue. There is something worth holding here for the times we find ourselves in what feels like a dead end, hemmed in, out of options, sure we have taken a wrong turn. God sometimes leads his people into corners, into situations that look like traps, not to abandon them but because the corner is where he intends to show his power. The Red Sea was before Israel and Pharaoh behind, and there was no way out that they could see; and it was exactly there, in the impossible corner, that God worked a great deliverance. When we find ourselves hemmed in, with no way forward that we can see, it may be that God has led us there, and that the dead end is the very place he means to act. The trap that looks like the end of the road may be the setting God has chosen for a deliverance that will make his power known. Israel camped where they seemed shut in; and that was where the sea opened.

When I find myself in what feels like a dead end, hemmed in with no way out I can see, can I consider that God may have led me there, and that the apparent trap may be the very setting he has chosen to display his power and work a deliverance?

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