What Is A Red Sea Moment?

I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.
–Exodus 14:4

As we begin this new year, we are looking at Israel’s Red Sea moment, a difficult and perplexing situation they encountered that became a pivotal event in their history.

A Red Sea moment is an impossible situation through which God miraculously delivers us. Notice that God does not necessarily deliver us out of our problems, but He promises to guide us through them.

Many of you know what I am talking about. You have been in an impossible situation before, and there seemed to be no way out of it. You were at an impasse, with no idea how you were going to get through your dilemma, when God supernaturally intervened and gave you a way through the problem. That is a Red Sea moment.

In Exodus 14, God gave Moses the direction He wanted the Israelites to travel:

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea; you shall camp in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ Thus I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” (Exodus 14:1-4)

God was saying to Moses, “I am going to lead you and the Israelites straight toward the Red Sea. And the reason I am going to put you in this impossible situation is so that not only Israel, but all of Egypt will know that I am the Lord God.”

As we face our own impossible situations, let’s remember that, just like the Israelites’ Red Sea moment, our Red Sea moments do not happen by chance or by accident. And they are certainly not anything we would design for ourselves. Moses did not sit down with his map and say, “You know what? I want to plan a route that will ensure that we get trapped with absolutely no way of escape. So I am going to plan the most difficult route possible for me and for the Israelites.” It did not work that way, did it?

God is the One who prepared the way that the Israelites would travel. And God is the One who prepares the experiences that you and I will encounter in our lives as well.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Seizing Your Red Sea Moment” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2005.

Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.