Gods Sabbath

AN E DUCATION IN G OD ’ S W AYS

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His course tak ing them to the west side of the Red Sea, thus placing a seem ingly impassable barrier between them and their objective. To the marching Israe lites, God’s ac tions must have seemed quite il

God’s and Israel’s Responsibility

•make the plan

God’s responsibility

for their journey

•daily guidance

•accept the plans •follow his guid ance

Israel’s responsibility

logical, tempting many to believe that He had actually de ceived them. But God offered no explanation and required them only to follow Him with unquestioning faith. What the Israelites could not know was that the Egyptians whom they had last seen cowed and beaten, would recover from their fears and pursue them. Had the Israelites gone the way that they would have chosen, their enraged enemies would have come upon them in the open country where there were no natu ral defenses. The outcome would have been terrible. But, on the western shores of the sea was a natural fortress formed between the Red Sea and the rugged mountains to the south. It was a simple matter for the Lord to interpose a protec tive cloud so that the Egyptians could not reach His people. By His mighty power, God opened the waters of the sea for them to pass through, and when the foolish Egyptians tried to follow without the Lord’s protection, they were engulfed. Once again the Israelites were provided with a convincing demonstration of the way in which God works, how they were expected to co-operate with Him, and the infallible success which attends such a partnership. There was no such thing as failure, loss, impossibility, or defeat. Although Moses was the divinely chosen spokesman to deliv er the Lord’s plans to Israel, God did not require Moses to carry all the workload himself. As we saw in chapter 5, through his fa ther-in-law, Jethro, Moses was instructed to share the burden of his work with other carefully selected men. Again, this was not