Should you stop singing? (Part 1)

My children and I have this Bible-reading ritual. One person picks a book in the Bible, and we read through the whole book and share what we have learned from each chapter in the family group chat. When finished, another person picks a book, and we do the same. The whole idea is to ensure we read the Bible and be sure each person picks a lesson or two for their life’s treasure. We spend an average of one month on each book, depending on the volume of the book.

We are currently reading Exodus, and much of what I have learned has been the basis of what I share on the blog. My last child read Exodus 15 and simply wrote in the group chat, “It’s just a song.” He was ahead of me in the reading, so I looked forward to Exodus 15 to see if all it contained was a song. And yes, it was mostly a song but loaded with lessons, which I want to discuss in today’s blog.

The chapter before Exodus 15 contained the story of how the children of Israel crossed the read Red Sea on dry ground, and when Pharaoh and his men attempted to do the same, they all perished, swallowed up by the water, which was the reason for the song in Exodus 15. It was a calculated trap set by God Himself. We read in Exodus 13:17 how the Lord led the children of Israel through a longer route that landed them at the Red Sea. So, it was a calculated arrangement by God.

Have you ever felt that God may be slow in handling an issue that you trust in His hands? You probably think there should be a shorter or faster way to get things done. This story may help you, as it does for me, too. By the time the children of Israel got to the Red Sea, the cloud that produced light for them and led them on their journey moved position and became darkness for their enemies and protector for the children of Israel. But that is not just the highlight of Exodus 14; it was the fact that God destroyed Pharaoh on behalf of the children of Israel. The long journey was aimed at the fact that Pharaoh would never have to come and intimidate or enslave the children of Israel again. Every one of his servants who could have taken up the assignment of enslaving Israel again or continuing in the pursuit of Israel perished in the Red Sea, and the exciting thing is that Israel didn’t have to lift a sword or fight. In Exodus 14:14, God said the battle was His to fight, and He won fear and square.

If you are a person of faith and you hold dearly to God, you would have known and experienced that God’s work is not always in line with your style or timing. If you can figure out how it (your challenge or situation) will be done, then it’s most likely not God at work but you doing your thing. The wisdom of God is beyond human comprehension, and His strategy is far beyond understanding. But the best of it all is that His timing is always perfect.

For the children of Israel, getting into the Promised Land as soon as possible would have been the most important thing to them. For God, it was beyond getting to the Promised Land; it was about them remaining in it without ever being troubled by Pharaoh again. God started with hearing their cry and coming down to save them. Then, He plagued Egypt so that the children of Israel would be free from slavery, but it wasn’t just about leaving Egypt, but about receiving what was due to them for all their years of labor in Egypt. But God didn’t stop there; He ensured they never had to go back to slavery in Egypt, and so He completely destroyed their enslaver and his servants. He even destroyed the firstborn of all Egyptians, both human and animal, so that it would not even come to the mind of anyone in Egypt to force Israel back into slavery.

We often judge issues based on our limited understanding of God’s strategy and what He is working on for us. Sometimes, we give up a little too soon, and we miss the mark of His goodness. It is at this point that faith becomes very essential. Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” With faith, we focus on two things: the result, which is the goal or desired outcome, and the One who is making it happen—God. We disregard the process of achieving the result entirely because focusing on the process may shake our faith and cause us to abort the process without achieving the goal. We can’t do it like God will, so bothering about the process can be a little beyond us. Our only assignment in the process is to listen to God’s leading and do what He tells us to do, nothing more. Then, praise Him in the process as we wait. And as we are learning in the story of the children of Israel, the outcome will always be far better than what we can imagine or achieve by our limited minds because exceedingly and abundantly above all we can ever ask or imagine is always the way God delivers the goods.  

I deviated from what I had intended to write. I started with the song in Exodus 15 but only gleaned from Exodus 14. But I have been blessed to be a vessel in God’s hands in sharing this blog with you. So, in my next post, I will continue with what I learned in Exodus 15. It’s worth looking forward to the next post. 

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