The Valley Of Decision

One of the most wonderful miracles in the Bible was the crossing of the Red Sea. One dimension to this wonderful miracle was that the Egyptians were so dumb as to follow the Israelites into the Red Sea. They felt that since the Israelites were their servants they could still surpass them in anything. They did not for once consider who parted the Red Sea, and the fact that the same person could decide to change his mind when they went in. It was a very big mistake. So shall your enemies make mistakes, in the name of Jesus.

This account is recorded in Exodus 15:19 - 21: “For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. And Marian the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dances. And Marian answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.”

That was a miraculous deliverance. But what happened immediately afterwards? The Israelites were not prepared for the next shocker. Verses 22 - 24 say, “So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter, therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink?”

The Israelites travelled three days to the water of Marah after the wonderful miracle at the Red Sea. They must have been excited to see that river in front after three days of having nothing to drink. But what a disappointment when they got to it and found that it was bitter. They were unprepared for what they saw but God was prepared because He never has an emergency. It is only human beings who talk about emergency but as far as God is concerned there is no emergency. As far as God is concerned too, once you are born again, there is nothing like luck or being fortunate, your life is teleguided from above. Your life is in the outline that God has laid. God is never confronted with a situation which He does not have an answer. Businessmen, pastors, doctors, etc, could sit down and deliberate on a situation without coming up with a solution but God is never confronted with any situation that He cannot solve no matter how terrible it may be.

A woman suddenly discovered that her husband was acting strangely. He stopped talking to her and eating her food. Then it took another turn. One day, he invited two girls who sat in their sitting room and watched video film with him till day break while she was inside the room. The situation got so bad that she ran to an herbalist, who after consulting with his oracles, told her that when her husband was born he was handed over to his village idol, which happened to be a woman. Therefore, her husband was already married before he married her. The herbalist advised that in her own interest, she should move out before the man cut off her head with a cutlass when she was asleep and nobody would know what happened to her because the man would throw away her body. She went home in fear and after some time, she became born-again, and started attending a living church. One day, she attended a crusade where the man of God made an altar call for those who wanted to give their lives to Christ. As those who gave their lives to Christ were going back to their seats, there was another altar call for those who wanted to grow spiritually. As the woman came out for the second call, she saw her husband among those who came to give their lives to Christ. She hid her face and went for her own altar call. When she got home from the crusade that night she found him in the sitting room tapping the table with a biro pen. Then suddenly, he said, “Madam, I am sorry for all I have been doing to you. Please, forgive me.” That night, everything was sorted out by God who is never confronted with a situation for which He does not have an answer. And they started living happily again as husband and wife. You may say the man would never change again with all his girl friends. But when the God who does not know emergency arose, he gave up the girl friends and reconciled with his wife.