#519 Red Sea Advice Part 3 The Red Sea Reaction
It’s easy to be attached to certain outcomes that we label as what we want to happen, or to invent our own solution to a challenge on our own. The truth is we do not know what His deliverance will look like. Oftentimes we cannot even imagine the process He will use or what the best eternal outcome will look like in the specific challenge we face.
The Red Sea Response of faith is outlined in Exodus 14:13-14. The LORD will fight for you. You need only to be still: (#2701: to scratch, engrave, plough, fabricate;) Stop toiling so hard in your thoughts and listen and watch the LORD. In contrast we see a Red Sea Reaction of fear on the part of Judah’s King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16. He did not know what to do about the aggression of Israel’s King Baasha and so he made a treaty with Ben-hadad. That treaty was foolish, as foolish as it would have been for the nation of Israel to attempt an alliance with Egypt once they faced their Red Sea challenge. (And out of their fear they expressed that it would have been better for them continue under Egyptian bondage rather than face the Red Sea challenge! Exodus 14:12 Fear can lead us to unreasonable and foolish conclusions!)
And yet the idea that King Asa fabricated on his own made sense to the natural mind. This was his plan: I will send Ben-hadad some silver and golf with the agreement that he breaks his treaty with Israel’s King Baasha. When Ben-hadad attacks the cities of Israel, that will stop Baasha from exercising his control over me and the people of Judah.
But this self-fabricated plan of King Asa was not the true source of deliverance for Judah. It was the source of incomplete victory and continued wars. “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the arm of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand…You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:7,9b
When we are tempted to react to Red Sea challenge by fabricating fear and our own solutions, we must remember His faithfulness in past deliverances. “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim (2 Chronicles 14:9) an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.” 2 Chronicles 16:8 We must remember the awareness of the LORD to see and to reward the wholehearted faith of His people. “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His….” 2 Chronicles 16:9a
Our challenge is to claim His willingness to respond to our needs, and to prayerfully consider WITH HIM what the next steps need to be, and to go forward WITH HIM through the conflict. Your ways are higher and better than the path we would choose, Lord. Isaiah 55:8-9 And so we can let go of our attachment to ‘how it should be’ and trust whatever process and end result You permit and overrule. You are able to do way beyond what we can think or imagine! Ephesians 3:20
It’s easy to be attached to certain outcomes that we label as what we want to happen, or to invent our own solution to a challenge on our own. The truth is we do not know what His deliverance will look like. Oftentimes we cannot even imagine the process He will use or what the best eternal outcome will look like in the specific challenge we face.
The Red Sea Response of faith is outlined in Exodus 14:13-14. The LORD will fight for you. You need only to be still: (#2701: to scratch, engrave, plough, fabricate;) Stop toiling so hard in your thoughts and listen and watch the LORD. In contrast we see a Red Sea Reaction of fear on the part of Judah’s King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16. He did not know what to do about the aggression of Israel’s King Baasha and so he made a treaty with Ben-hadad. That treaty was foolish, as foolish as it would have been for the nation of Israel to attempt an alliance with Egypt once they faced their Red Sea challenge. (And out of their fear they expressed that it would have been better for them continue under Egyptian bondage rather than face the Red Sea challenge! Exodus 14:12 Fear can lead us to unreasonable and foolish conclusions!)
And yet the idea that King Asa fabricated on his own made sense to the natural mind. This was his plan: I will send Ben-hadad some silver and golf with the agreement that he breaks his treaty with Israel’s King Baasha. When Ben-hadad attacks the cities of Israel, that will stop Baasha from exercising his control over me and the people of Judah.
But this self-fabricated plan of King Asa was not the true source of deliverance for Judah. It was the source of incomplete victory and continued wars. “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the arm of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand…You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:7,9b
When we are tempted to react to Red Sea challenge by fabricating fear and our own solutions, we must remember His faithfulness in past deliverances. “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim (2 Chronicles 14:9) an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.” 2 Chronicles 16:8 We must remember the awareness of the LORD to see and to reward the wholehearted faith of His people. “For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His….” 2 Chronicles 16:9a
Our challenge is to claim His willingness to respond to our needs, and to prayerfully consider WITH HIM what the next steps need to be, and to go forward WITH HIM through the conflict. Your ways are higher and better than the path we would choose, Lord. Isaiah 55:8-9 And so we can let go of our attachment to ‘how it should be’ and trust whatever process and end result You permit and overrule. You are able to do way beyond what we can think or imagine! Ephesians 3:20
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