When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. (Ex 13:17-18 ESV).
The children of Israel were truly frail and spiritually weak when they came out of Egypt. When God delivered them with his mighty hand from the power of the cruel and tyrannical Pharaoh, he rescued them knowing full well their immaturity and propensity to run away from him. But after setting them free from slavery, our text tells us that God did not lead them straight to the promised land of Canaan by taking them on the short and direct route, east through the land of the Philistines. Rather, God led the people through the wilderness—to the impassable waters of the Red Sea.
What a strange route to take to enter the promised land! Yet God with the superior wisdom of a discerning parent knew that his firstborn child was not ready to go into battle against the Philistines, let alone the Canaanites. God knew that though Israel had excitedly marched out of Egypt equipped for battle, their childish hearts were not ready to wage war against their adversaries and would quickly run back to the shackles of slavery at the first hint of trouble.
So instead, he brought them first through the wilderness to the Red Sea—a place where they would be hemmed in and trapped on all sides—both by the impassable waters of that body of water and the murderous army of Pharaoh and his chariots. There God would begin the training of his young children. For what the people of Israel needed to learn with their hearts was that any hope of victory lay not in their skill with the sword, the cleverness of their tactics, or even their strength in numbers. God’s people needed to understand that their help came from the Lord alone, the maker of heaven and earth. The horse might be made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord (Prov 21:31). And to teach them this lesson, he drove them to a place where they faced certain destruction if the LORD God did not act.
And there, at the brink of the Red Sea as the people were thrown into utter pandemonium, God declared to them, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Ex 14:14). And that day, the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea with the mighty waters towering over them, a wall of divinely bound water on their left and right. But the Egyptians who pursued them through the midst of the sea did not prevail. As Moses stretched out his hand, a deluge of millions of tons of water came crashing down on the Egyptian soldiers, wiping out the entire army in an instant. And so, God saved his children, not through any action of their own, but solely through HIS actions.
God sent his children to the Red Sea, not to destroy them, but to teach them an invaluable lesson before they squared off against the Canaanite cities of the promised land. God needed to burn into his children’s hearts the understanding that he fought FOR them before he would fight THROUGH them.
How humbling and comforting this is to learn! God knows our weak hearts and will not place us into trials where we are doomed to give into our temptations and abandon our faith. The trials that he sends us are perfectly crafted by our Master to grow us in steadfastness—that we might be perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing. And the reason we are still in the faith today is because God did not lead us into the trials of war when we were not yet ready for it. He is not a cruel master who sends infants in Christ to die in spiritual wars that are reserved for mature, battle-hardened soldiers of the cross.
Believer, are you in a period of trial in your life that is humanly impossible to pass? Do you look at Pharaoh’s army on one side, the Red Sea on the other, and cry out to God for help? Do you wish that you were back in the land of Egypt living as a slave or perhaps that he had sent you by way of the land of the Philistines instead? Child of God, do not turn either to the left or to the right and stray away from the road that divine Providence has brought you on. We serve a God who fights for us. We serve a God who acts on behalf of those who wait for him (Is 64:4). We serve a God who sympathizes with our weaknesses and knows that we are but dust. He has brought you here in life and not anywhere else although you may think that the grass is greener on the other side. He knows your weak frame better than you know yourself. He knows that the way of the Philistines is too hard for you at the moment, but that through this particular trial, as impossible as it seems, you will grow.
Would you trust him and submit yourself to him along this road that he chosen for you? Let the LORD your God fight for you. You need only to be silent.
Samuel D. Chua 