by God has a way of placing us into situations in life where there is no retreat. We have no place to withdrawal to where we ‘feel’ comfortable. We have to stay put where we are placed, deal with life’s difficulties, wait on the Lord, and see his hand operating in our lives.
I recently reviewed Exodus because of a previous post by Gail called “No Place to Go but Forward.” It is whimsical how God works. A Bible verse can be read for years and then one day, it hits home. Here is one of those times.
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, God didn’t take them the shortest way through the land of the Philistines because he knew they’d see war and want to run back to Egypt. Isn’t that just what we often think, “Oh my this is extremely hard, I want to go back to __________(fill in the blank).” God knew the Israelites, so he took them another way out of Egypt with no retreat. The way God lead them would have been the easiest way, if they had heeded to God; but the Israelites made this journey extremely difficult for themselves, but that is another story for another time. Today, we will focus on the thought – when God places us somewhere and there is no retreat. The only way out is to fully, 100% trust in our Lord and Saviour. This is what the Israelites were forced to do when their backs were against the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army was quickly pressing in on them.
Exodus 13:17-18 “And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: 18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea…”
When the Israelites became stuck, they had to stand still and wait on God. They couldn’t go running home to a place they considered comfortable (slavery in Egypt). They had to stay, stick it out, and wait on God. In their eyes, both situations had problems, but their bondage in Egypt was what they had become comfortable and familiar with. They just wanted to go back to something familiar and comfortable even thought it was slavery.
At times, we are all like the Israelites. I think that is why God gives us so much in the Bible about their lives. We all have hard times. We all find ourselves wanting to go back to a previous time in our life that was just as hard, if not harder, just because it was something familiar.
When we went into full-time ministry, we sold our house in Pennsylvania and moved to North Carolina for my husband to attend Bible college. We rented a house near the Bible college, per the advice of friends. They all said, “Just rent, because when you get ready to go to the mission field, you won’t have the burden of selling a house and you can just go straight to the field.” They were all correct. This piece of information is important further down in reading.
However, when we moved the North Carolina, there were so many times we both wished to just quit and move back to Pennsylvania. When we moved, God had sold our house quickly in Pennsylvania because he knew we’d be tempted to quit during Bible college. Since we had no house to return to, we could not easily retreat, so we went forward and trusted God. My husband finished Bible college and on we went to follow God’s plan for our lives.
Then we hit the foreign mission field. Many times, we so desperately wanted to go back to the states. But again, we had no house in the states to return to, so we could not retreat. Remember, we had only rented a house during Bible college. We’ve had to stick it out on the foreign mission field and trust God. So again, no house to return to. No place to retreat. We’ve had to stand strong where we are, trust the Lord, and stick it out.
Over ten years later, we are so thankful God made it so we could not retreat. We had to trust in him and see his working in our lives.
Now 2020 is behind us, the effects of Covid still linger on, we can’t travel internationally; however, we’re on the mission field. Again, God has made it so we cannot retreat. But God knows best because in his awesome wisdom, he knew all that would transpire in the world, and he knew Covid would hit the world scene when he created everything. Since God made it so we couldn’t retreat in our life, we are now in a place and able to reach lost souls that otherwise would not have a chance to hear about the saving grace of our Lord.
God always knows best and many times in our lives he has to put us in circumstances that we cannot retreat from so he can manipulate us to where he wants us to be. The exciting part are the miracles God will perform as he is manipulating us to be where he wants us to be. For example, he parted the Red Sea for the Israelites. Imagine standing against a sea with no escape and visually seeing the waves role back and your family walking to safety on dry ground. Wow! Another example, our family gained permanent residence on the mission field in one year. Wow! This had never been done before for other missionaries.
Exodus 14:21-22 “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.”
In Conclusion:
- Don’t look for places to retreat but look for the miracles God may be performing in your life or miracles already completed.
- Don’t retreat to an old path in life that is hard just because it may be familiar, but rest in the strength of our Lord and Saviour and go forward in life.
- Trust in God’s ability to get you through.
Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust…”
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