Aren’t you at least a little bit curious what he’s trying to keep
you from experiencing?
I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with the story of Moses and
the children of Israel, pinned up against the waters of the Red
Sea while the Egyptian pharaoh and his armies were bearing
down hard from behind. Israel was fast in the process of being
surrounded by people whose nation had brutalized them and
their ancestors for four long, horrendous centuries. No escape.
And the only direction that wasn’t swarming with enemy
hordes, the one path God was directing His people to go, lay
straight ahead through the sea.
So these two million Hebrews had every reason to be
terrified. Mortified really. There was no swimming out of this
one.
And yet, in the face of such impossible circumstances, with
the odds so heavily stacked against them, and with no
indicator of the miracle that God had planned, Moses said to
the people, “Do not fear!” (Exod. 14:13). His very first
instruction to them was not to be afraid.