What an Awesome God we serve!

I like to follow golden threads through Scripture.  Stay with me here.

Paul said, "We do speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. However, as it is written,
     'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
     what God has prepared for those who love Him.'
but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit." (I Corinthians 2.6-10)

Isaiah said, "Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before You....For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways.  But when we continued to sin against them, You were angry. How then can we be saved?....Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, and You are the potter; we are the work of Your hand."  (Isaiah 64.1, 3-5, 8)

King David said, "How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cringe before you....Come and see what God has done, how awesome His works in man's behalf!  He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot--come, let us rejoice in Him. He rules forever by His power, His eyes watch the nations--let not the rebellious rise up against Him." (Psalm 64.3, 5-7)

This week my daily Bible study took me to Exodus 14, where God delivered Israel from the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptian army.  Doubters among the Israelites thought they were stuck between a rock and a hard place--the chariots and warriors of Egypt on one side, and a large body of water on the other.  Believers among the Israelites saw the presence of God in the cloud (which would lead them by day) that stood between them and the Egyptian army, and the pillar of fire (which would lead them by night) between them and the Sea. "Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so that neither went near the other all night long." (Exodus 14.20)

God sent a strong East wind that dried up the Sea, so that the Israelites could walk across on dry ground.  I believe God didn't need the wind to part the waters, because the Bible says when they walked across, there were walls of water on either side.  The Hands of God held back the water.  I think that the purpose of the wind was to dry out the ground, so that the people would not sink into mud up to their knees as they crossed the bottom of the Sea.  But I am a Believer.  The unbelievers of the time would have seen the East wind as an Omen, a sign that they shouldn't go.  Remember, they were headed east, away from Egypt to the west.  These people would have heard Moses say "Go, we will cross the water with God's help," but would have said, "Are you crazy? And go against that awful headwind?"

Not to get too caught up in details, people, but look--God was about to do something that people would talk about, sing about, and read about for thousands of years after it happened.  He was about to do an Awesome work by making it possible to escape Evil.  But He did not make it easy.  Let me say this again: He made escape possible; He did not make it easy.

God was dealing with the Egyptian army in ways that the Israelites could not see.  He set a cloud between the two camps; He sent darkness over the Egyptian camp.  And when the Egyptians were getting ready to advance, the cloud became a whirlwind to confuse them and give the Israelites time to escape.  Once the Israelites were on the other side of the Sea, only then did the Egyptians see what had happened.  But when they tried to follow in the way that the Israelites had gone, the walls of water collapsed and drowned the entire army, chariots and all.

God is more Awesome than a well trained, well equipped Army.  God is more Awesome than Nature.  He is more powerful than Man and Machine; He is stronger than Natural and Spiritual forces.  And yet we doubt.  Or we accept His gift, but we continue in our sinful ways.  We try to meet Him halfway, and then wonder why our worship is dull and uninspiring.  Isaiah 64.6 says "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."



Our Father is full of surprises.  Miracles, Signs and Wonders catch our attention.  The next step is up to us; we can choose whether to follow or to freeze. We can either disciple up, or doubt out.  God has made it possible.  We must take the next step.