One Year Bible Reading Guide:

Exodus 13:17-15:18
Matthew 21:23-46
Psalm 26:1-12
Proverbs 6:16-19 

Verse of the day:

Then the Lord gave these instructions to Moses: “Order the Israelites to turn back and camp by … the sea” (Exodus 14:1-2)

Nine year old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School that day. “Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind the enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.” “Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?” his mother asked. “Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!”

God’s plans for our lives are not always logical. In this account, God ordered an illogical change of direction. To many of the Israelites this must have at best seemed strange and at worst, risky and dangerous. The children of Israel were asked to backtrack, to go back in the same direction that they had just traveled. Their course was to go in a direction which in a short time would place them with the Red Sea to the east and a barrier of mountains to the north and south. They were boxed in and there was no escape! It would be like running for your life from a gang bent on taking it and realizing that you have just turned down a dead-end street. They can’t go back and they can’t go forward. The future looks impassible and the present seems impossible. But you need to understand that they have been led to the place they now stand, not by Moses, not by coincidental wandering, but by God Himself. 

F.B. Meyer in “The Life of Moses: The Servant of God” wrote,

“Often God seems to place His children in positions of profound difficulty, leading them into a wedge from which there is no escape, designing a situation that no human judgment would have permitted had it been previously consulted. The very cloud directs them there. You… may be involved in a situation like this at this very hour. It does seem perplexing and mysterious to the last degree, but it is perfectly right. The issue will more than justify Him who has brought you there. It is a platform for the display of His almighty grace and power. Not only will He deliver you, but in doing so He will give you a lesson that you will never forget …..”

Whatever you are facing today, whatever surprises may come your way, whatever the impossible or impassable might seem to be, instead of looking for the logic, stand in faith. Choose to trust in God. Chose to obey His Word. God is at work and His work does not always seem logical to us. Remember, He is in control and He loves you.