Walking By Faith

Exodus 14:10–14 “When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “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.””

What happened? Moses went from a nervous wreck who was more afraid of Pharoah than God. Now he has complete trust in God.

When God told him to go, he did it. But he was kicking and screaming the whole way.

What changed?

Do you know what the strongest shape is? A triangle.

There are three points to a triangle. And when you connect those points, it creates the strongest shape.

I want to give you three points, that when YOU connect them, it will give you a strong view of God that will help you no only be obedient to God, but love Him and delight in Him. For a long time, I had a point that was missing the connection between the other two points.

Trusting that God knows best.

God choose Moses.

Moses doubted that he was “the guy”, but later on he trusted God. He didn’t believe that the people would believe that God sent him.

But in Exodus 4:29–31 “Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.”

God harden Pharaoh’s heart.

We don’t know why for sure. But a theory that makes sense is God uses the plagues to show that He is the true God, and not the Egyptian Gods. But to the Egyptians, but also to the Israelites.

Think of it, they are associated with and then slaves for so long, that they began to adapt some of the Egyptian beliefs.

We need to trust that God knows best. Another way to phrase it is that God is all wise.

Wisdom is different than knowledge. I love this example. Knowledge is knowing that a Tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

In God’s perfect wisdom, He knows what is best for you and for me.

Has there ever been a time in your life where something happened and you were like. “God, that was not good. What up?” and then later you were like, “Okay, that was good for me.”

Trusting that God is in control.

The different Plagues.

God’s powers were on display. Think of what Moses got to see.

Not only did he see the signs God gave him.

But he also saw God…

Turn the Nile River into blood. Targeted the Egyptian god Hapi (Spirit of the Nile)

A swarm of frogs came. (Heqet, the frog-headed goddess of fertility)

Gnats/lice that bit people and animals. (Geb, the god of the earth)

Flies fill the air. (Targeted Khepri (The scarab/fly god) and Ra, god of the sky)

Sickness on the livestock. Targeted Hathor (The cow goddess) and Apis (The bull god)

Painful boils. Targeted Sekhmet (goddess of healing/disease)

Hail storm. Targeted Set (storm god)

Locusts. Targeted Osiris and Isis, protectors of crops.

Darkness. Targeted Ra (The God of the sky and sun) and Horus (Who was also a god of the sun)

And then death of the first born. Pharoah, who had other’s worship him as a god.

None of these Egyptian God’s helped at all. God proved to Moses and the Israelites, who were around the Egyptians that worshiped all these gods, that they had no power. That only I AM, the God who appeared to Moses. Only He was God. Only He was in control.

And God has displayed His power to us.

Through His creation.

His word.

But also in our lives.

Trusting that God is good.

The passover.

God told them to take a lamb without blemish and kill it. Then to put the blood on the doorframe.

Exodus 12:12–13 “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

God’s love is on display.

He didn’t have to protect the Israelites’ first born, but He did.

In the same way, Jesus didn’t have to pay the price for our sins. God would have been perfectly just to make us all pay for our sins. That is what we deserve.

But God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him will not parish, but have ever lasting live.

Jesus was the perfect lamb that died for us. His blood took away our sins.

Often times, trials are the means or the lines that connect these points together.

For example, for a long time I knew that God knows what is best. God was in control. And that God was good.

But in practice, in my heart, the only connection between the points was God knew what was best, and that God was in control.

You see, I knew that God was in control. Of all these points, that was the easiest for me to grasp. I had been a Christian long enough to see a pattern of God working in my life.

I also knew he was wise. He knew what was best.

And I knew God was good. God’s nature is that He is good. He died for me. Seemed to be good. Everything pointed to the fact that He was good.

So when something happened that didn’t make sense. I knew His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Which led into God was wise. God knows what is best. And God was in control.

So the problem was when hard things happened, I knew His definition of good wasn’t always my definition of good. Because my definition of good was easy. Pain free.

The problem was, knowing he was all wise and knowing he was in control helped me trust the outcome, but not the process.

You see, I ended up stop coming to God. I would just accept what was happening and thought I just had to man up and get through it. Because He knew what He was doing and He was in control.

But the point that wasn’t connected was that He actual loved me. He cared for me. I could go to Him when things were hard.

But it wasn’t until I went through the hardest moments in my life, did it push me towards His love. I would try to hold on the line between the other two points, and it would bend on me. I felt like my life was shaky.

It wasn’t until I leaned into God’s love and connected it to the other two points, that I was able to go through trials (That were still hard), but I was able to go through them with a peace. Because I was now going to God and asking for things, with open hands, but still asking.

There are examples in the Bible or times in your lives that God will lead you down a path, not to reach that destination, but for you to walk with Him and practice these things.

What about you?

First, do you know all three of these things?

Do you know that God knows best, He is all wise? Do you know He is in control, He is all powerful? Do you know He is good, He loves you?

Second, do you believe these things? In the mist of trials, are these three things connected? Or is there one point that is disconnected from the rest?

So take a second and ask yourself, do you trust God?

And if you don’t, which point sometimes seems disconnected from the rest?

Group Questions:

Of the three truths about God—that He knows best, He is in control, and He is good—which one is easiest for you to believe? Which one is hardest to trust when life gets difficult?

How do we move from knowing these truths in our head to connecting them together and believing them in our hearts.

When something difficult happens in your life, how do you usually respond to God?

What’s one area of your life where you need to move from simply doing what God says to genuinely trusting Him?