No Waste in the WaitingSample

Stuck in the In-Between

When Pharaoh relinquished and allowed Moses to take God’s people out of Egypt and out of slavery, the Lord told Moses to lead the people into the wilderness toward the Red Sea.

As the people were making their way, Pharaoh had a change of heart. He knew he had made a mistake by letting them walk out of bondage and into the promise. He ordered his chariot and hundreds of other chariots and soldiers to go and bring them back.

Imagine the throng of pounding hooves and screeching chariots stampeding their way toward the Israelites. There was no denying that their enemy was coming back for them and they became angry and afraid. 

They accused Moses of bringing them out into the wilderness to die. They told him it would have been better for them to stay in their past than die on the way to their future. 

I imagine Moses looking behind him and seeing the enemy of the past relentlessly pursuing them and then looking ahead and seeing the Red Sea with its waters of impossibility. He was trapped in the wilderness; trapped in the in-between. He couldn’t go back and he couldn’t move forward. 

How many times have we felt like our past was about to merge into our present? How many times have we looked at the future and everything seems impossible? We feel stuck between what was and what will be, and we are frightened and confused. 

But 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; you need only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:13-14). ESV

Think about those thousands of Egyptians as symbols of your past mistakes, past regrets, past sins. God is saying, “Look at them one last time. If you trust me and have faith—here in the waiting, here in the wilderness—you will never see them again.”

We know that God parted those waters of impossibility and allowed the people to walk through them into the promise. The enemies of the past were swallowed up, never to be seen again.

If you are struggling in the season of the in-between, know that God is behind you in your past, before you in your future, and beside you in your present. 

Do not fear. Stand firm. The Lord will fight for you, just be still. 

The miracle is coming!

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