The Red Sea Road: Creativity as a Path through Life’s Storms
When waiting for God, becomes him waiting for you.
The Exodus has always been one of my favourite stories in the Bible, especially the part where Israel has made their way to the edge of the Red Sea. A sea of water confronts them, and an obstacle in the shape of the armies of Egypt is coming after them.
God had orchestrated for them to stage the biggest heist in history – to plunder Egypt’s gold before they fled, but now here they are on the edge of the Red Sea, and they have all of Egypt’s gold with them, and they are on the run. Israel is going to worship God in the desert according to what He has told them, but now, instead, they are fearing for their lives at the sight of the Red Sea.
So they start complaining to Moses.
And he replies in Exodus 14:13,
“Do not be afraid, stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today - the Lord will fight for you; you only need to be still.”
Since I was a teenager, I have sought to practice this.
To become still enough to hear His voice or to rest in his ability to deliver me. It has been a wrestle, but I have come to appreciate what is created and transformed in me as I wait for Him.
But as I read those verses more recently, I saw something different – something I had never noticed.
In the verse straight after Moses has told the people to be still in Exodus 14:15, it says that the Lord asks Moses;
“Why are you crying out to me? Move forward.”
I was taken aback; surely, when we find ourselves in desert places, under threat, or in a challenge, it is good that we would be still and let God fight and cry out to him for help. But God tells them to:
Stop crying out.
Walk forward.
Move on.
And it is then that you realize that the only thing in front of them is something capable of drowning them. A gigantic sea!!!
And yet God is clear:
Stop crying out and move on.