Stress Test Devotional April 20
April 20, 2024
EXODUS 14:13-14, 21-27 | 13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were
divided. 22 The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. 24 At the morning watch the Lord, in the pillar of fire and cloud, looked down on the Egyptian army and threw the Egyptian army into a panic. 25 He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” 26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.” 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.
Crises provide the greatest opportunities for leaders to lead. Moses saw the approach of Pharaoh as an opportunity for God to act decisively and rescue His people. He trusted that the one who engineered an impossible escape from servitude would not let His people die by drowning or the sword. There is a power greater than the power of any King or nation, any human ruler or sovereign state.
History is not a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. No. It is a redemption story told by a God of love and justice! In the great victory at the Red Sea, God’s power over both nature and history became visible, as it had in the sequence of plagues in Egypt. Secularism is an empty philosophy, for it misses the deep way God moves in history.
Picture the scenes described in our lessons.
Pray for those who see the tragedies of life and feel hopeless about history.
