The Divine Setup

Sometimes God is setting you up. And not in the sense that He is setting you up so that He can frame you for a crime, but rather that He wants so set you up for a victory. God wants you to experience His power and glory as He performs a miracle for you. He wants you to know how big He really is. And we can see this side of God in action when we look at the story of the Exodus in Egypt.

After the ten plagues, the first Passover meal, and the plundering of Egypt, the Israelites set off into the desert. They started on a steady course out of Egypt as the Lord lead them supernaturally as either a cloud by day or a pillar of fire by night.

Then they set out from Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness. The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Exodus 13:20‭-‬22 NASB1995

But as they went in the desert and camped out in Etham by the wilderness, the Lord actually told the Israelites to turn around and camp elsewhere. Now the Lord was already leading them around by the pillar of cloud and fire so it is strange that He would have them turn around.

“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 .” And they did so.

Exodus 14:2‭-‬4 NASB1995

But later in the passage we see that the purpose of God moving the Israelites around like that was to bring Pharaoh into His trap. He had already planned on using the Red Sea to glorifiy Himself before the Israelites. And the obedience of the Israelites lead them to a situation that looked really bad, but the Lord set it up for their success. Now the reason why I am sharing this with you is that the Lord also does this for us. He will call us and put us into situations that seem impossible, but He has set it up for us to win. Now having these types of situations in our life means that we were obedient in following what God told us. This Red Sea moment won’t happen if you are on your own making decisions. And not only will God have you win, but He will also use this situation to strengthen you for the future. The more Red Sea moments you have, the stronger your faith is going to be.

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