Exodus 14:10-22
10 As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 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.”
15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. 16 But you lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go into the sea on dry ground. 17 Then I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and so I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his chariot drivers. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gained glory for myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his chariot drivers.”
19 The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. 20 It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.
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.
Upon my graduation, my Mom gave me a book of poetry. One poem that stood out for me at that time in my life was called “A Thousand Ways” by Esther Guyot. When I decided to use it in this morning’s sermon, I tried to track it down to give credit, but I could not find it in all of my searches.
And so, I quote it this morning giving this unknown woman credit. Thank you, Esther – whoever you are.
God has a thousand ways
Where I cannot see one;
When all my means have reached their end
Then His have just begun.
If there was ever a poem written for this circumstance (or for the quandaries we face all too often as parents), it is this one. The Israelites were standing in front of the Red Sea and couldn’t go forward. Behind them were the armies of Egypt. They could move neither forward or backward.
Have you been there? Perhaps as a parent, perhaps as a teacher, maybe in your job, or a relationship at work, or one at school. You are standing helpless in the middle with no choice.
Some of you, at this point, will draw your swords and decide you are ready to fight to the death.
Others of you, at this point, will be trying to remember your swim lessons and be ready to abandon your belongings just to save your life.
But there is a third way – there is always a third way. You can turn the problem over to God. And God will do something you never expected. You see it, not just here, but again and again in the Bible.
This morning I want you to remember that “With God, we can always expect the unexpected!”
Let’s go back and look at Sarah and Abraham. When Sarah turned 76, she was in this quandary. God had promised Abraham a son. She could no longer bear a child, so she took matters into her own hands and gave Hagar to Abraham to do the job. Little did she know that God would make her laugh – giving her a son of her own 13 years later.
Who would know when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery that he would grow up to be the one who saved them.
We have seen it in this series with Moses already – a mother sets a basket afloat with nothing more than a prayer, and an Egyptian princess intercedes and saves the baby.
Moses is out doing what he does every single day when he looks up and sees a burning bush.
It will continue long after this story –
Joshua calls on his people to simply march around a town – and the walls fall down.
Samuel goes out to anoint a king, and chooses the youngest son, who was out tending the sheep.
A giant named Goliath taunts the army of God, and this same shepherd steps forward, felling him with a simple stone in a sling.
When the Israelites are in exile in Babylon, Daniel chooses to pray and ends up in a den of lions. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to an idol, and find themselves in a fiery furnace. Esther is taken as a concubine. And every time God turns the circumstances around.
God always has a plan, and almost always, his plan is unexpected!
When Jesus arrived, he tried to help the people understand this upside-down nature of God.
If you want to be first, put yourself last.
The one who wants to be greatest needs to be lowest of all.
He said these words as he, the leader, knelt and washed the feet of his disciples, much like a slave would do.
Since the 1950s, the Pope has taken this charge seriously, and personally gets on his knees to wash the feet of 12 people.
This year (2018), Pope Francis performed the mass at a Rome prison. He knelt, washed, and kissed the feet of 12 inmates. The 12 inmates included Catholics, Muslims, an Orthodox Christian and a Buddhist, the Vatican said. They hailed from Italy, the Philippines, Morocco, Moldova, Colombia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Most rose up and embraced him following the ceremony.
He encouraged them to not allow anything to cloud their hope.
Of course, no one, not a single prophet, not a single Israelite would know or understand. In the end, God would turn the world upside down by defeating sin by taking it upon himself.
This is the God we rejoice in today.
I want to close with a story from the year 1941. If you followed the news at that time, you would have heard that Plainfield Teacher’s College had some outstanding statistics. Plainfield Teachers College won its first four games by scores of 13-0, 27-0, 35-0 and 23-0
Led by coach Hobelitz, their running back named Johnny Chung scored more than half of those points.
After six weeks, as conjecture opened up about Plainfield College actually appearing in a bowl game, one of the reporters actually decided to visit the college to see the team in action.
But when he arrived there, he discovered that Plainfield did not have a college. There was no coach. There was no running back. In fact, even the names of the teams they played had been made up.
The whole country had been following a hoax thought up by a Wall Street Broker named Morris Newberger. He and a radio promotions fan thought up the idea of a fake team and simply called in the scores each week.
With the cat out of the bag, a final press release was issued stating that the entire team had been removed from playing because they flunked their final exams.
A lot of times our lives seem as certain as that team and those scores did in their day. But, when we look from God’s perspective, we see a much bigger picture.
The problems we face, the barriers we see, the impossible road ahead are as imaginary from God’s perspective as the reports of the winning football team.
God already has a plan in place. We don’t have to fight the battle, He has already fought it and won.
Whenever you feel penned in, between a rock and a hard place, always remember. God is the God of the upside down, unexpected, wonderful world. And God has a plan that may be just as unexpected as his plan for the Israelites.
God has a thousand ways
Where I cannot see one;
When all my means have reached their end
Then His have just begun.
Let us Pray ...
