Have you ever felt trapped and despondent in your circumstances? Stuck! Even afraid? No apparent way out? Such was the plight of the children of Israel, recorded in Exodus 14. Pharaoh’s Egyptian army was marching towards them and they were trapped by the Red Sea. They feared death and no deliverance from the imminent danger.
Moses had been called of God and appointed their leader. With the appointment came a God-given authority: Where the appointment is, the provision is. What God demands, He supplies!
Exodus 14:vs. 13-14: “And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord which He will show to you today, for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace”.
One can picture the scene and hear the God given authority in Moses’ words. The record continues in the next verses showing that the Lord required Moses to use what He had equipped him with, that is, the rod of God. Whom God calls, He equips!…for His divine purposes.
Verses 15: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying unto me? Speak to the children of Israel to go forward: But you, lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea’.”
What happened next is well known and can be read in the remainder of the chapter: Exodus 14. Moses used the authority God had given him and God delivered the children of Israel on dry ground through the parted Red Sea. When the Egyptian army attempted to pursue them, they were all drowned as the waters closed over their heads.
Someone once said: “Don’t tell God about your problems, tell your problems about God!” Jesus told His disciples to speak to the ‘mountain’ – Matthew 21:21-22 “…but also if you shall say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive’.”
Jesus came to this earth in obedience to His Father, to do the Father’s will because our Heavenly Father so loved us. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Moses was a “sent” man. Only a sent man is effective in divine purpose. Moses was given the rod of God. Our ‘rod’ is the Word of God, the Bible. It is our handbook for life, the sword of the Spirit but we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to give us a living word, a proceeding word for the situations we encounter along life’s journey. The devil quoted scripture at Jesus during the wilderness temptations, (Matthew 4), but it was not a living word for Jesus’ situation. Jesus replied to the devil, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”, so God has a living, proceeding word for every situation.
Jesus had a God given authority because He was totally committed to doing His Father’s will. He could be trusted with it. That authority is often lacking in our lives because we are more self centered than God conscious. Where is the authority of my words? When Adam and Eve were first created they had dominion over the earth and everything in it. They lost it when they removed their focus from the Lord and what He had said, and listened to the voice of the serpent. The result was they became self conscious and self centered and lost their dominion, their godly authority.
When my focus and gaze is on the Lord, desiring things for His purpose and glory, then I can speak to the mountains in my life with the eyes of faith, as the Holy Spirit inspires and directs. Faith in God includes faith in His timing. I expect to see results, but there is an appointed time in God’s divine calendar. God is faithful to “keep that which I have committed to Him”, (2 Timothy 1:12). When I have declared God’s word over the ‘mountains’ in my life, decreed through His direction and authority, then I must refuse sense knowledge, feelings and evidence but wait expectantly for God’s manifestation of His answer and fulfillment, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on Him and what He has said. He will do ALL things for His glory, (not mine, no room for self glory in divine purpose.) His timing is immaculate. He is never in a hurry, never late, but always on time!
