HIS STRENGTH FOR OUR WEAKNESS (Part 3)

3.  THEIR GREAT DISCOVERY (No Task is Too Great for God – His Strength for Our Weakness)

     An yet Paul had said that it was when he was at his weakest that God’s power was channeled most effectively in his life. It is difficult to imagine a situation that would be more threatening than the one Israel faced. Little did she realize that she was about to make a great discovery. No task is too great for God.

     Moses responded to the cries and laments of Israel by saying: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13). Pharaoh was behind them, the Red Sea was before them, but Israel was about to discover that God makes a way where there is no way. When we are dealing with Him we have touched supernatural resources. An east wind began to blow all night long, and a path was made in the sea.

     Israel was about to discover that when God acts He acts in the nick of time. His words to Paul had been: “My grace is sufficient.” Not an overabundance, not too little, but just enough. This is a thought that characterizes God’s actions: “When the fullness of time was come” (Gal. 4:4). God sent forth His Son, Christ Jesus. God acts in our lives at a time when we needed Him to act. This was Israel’s discovery. Now they needed the Red Sea parted. The time had come.

     But there was a third discovery. Salvation is not what we do, but it is what God does. These were the words of Moses: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Not what we do, but what He does. No task is too great for Him.

     Let me ask you:

·         Do you feel like there is no place to go?

·        Is your back to the wall?

     We don’t have to go anywhere or do anything to experience His presence and His strength. It is there for those who will make the discovery “When I am weak, then am I strong.”

HIS STRENGTH FOR OUR WEAKNESS (Part 2)

2.  THE TEMPTATION WITH WHICH THEY FLIRTED (No strength Left to Fight – A Great Danger)

      Israel’s anxiety over her dilemma was only exceeded by its dangerousness. There are great dangers in weakness. When we are weak we have little strength left to fight. Certainly a fight appeared inevitable. Pharaoh’s army was thundering down upon Israel and her strength was gone.

      She began to flirt with temptation. She had no place to go and no strength left to fight. Temptation is most effective when we are at our weakness. Esau made this discovery when he sold his birthright to Jacob. Saul found himself flirting with temptation while he waited on Samuel to offer the sacrifice at Gilgal. When we are at our weakest the pressure to give life’s pressures is at its severest level.

      How do we know that she began to flirt with temptation? We see it in her behavior. She began to look for someone to blame for her circumstance other than herself. You know you are at your weakest when you began to look for someone to blame your problems on. Israel did. She began to accuse Moses of leading her “away into the wilderness to die” (Exodus 14:19-31). And her accusations were wholly false. Her own description of the circumstance sounds like she was compelled to leave Egypt. This was not the case. Moses had led, but Israel had followed of her own free will. A generation of her parents had “cried to the Lord” for deliverance. This fact was related to Moses at the burning bush. “The cry of the children of Israel has come unto me” (Exodus 3:9). With little strength left to fight she began to blame others for her circumstance.

     With little strength left to fight she was tempted to sacrifice her faith in a moment of fear. “The children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid” (Exodus 14:10). Fear is a great instrument of temptation sometimes. It causes us to do things that at a more rational moment we would never consider. Saul offered the sacrifice at Gilgal because he was afraid that Samuel would not arrive before the Philistines pitched their battle. David had Uriah murdered because he was afraid his own deeds with Bathsheba would be disclosed. Fear is a great tempter. Israel was afraid.

     Yet there was still a third dimension to Israel’s temptation. She forgot the past from which she had come. She told Moses that it had been better if he had never come and she was still in Egypt “to serve the Egyptians” (Exodus 14:12). It is always a mistake to forget the past for which we have come. It provides a perspective on the present and the future that God’s people need to be effective. Yet with no place to go and with no strength left to fight, Israel found herself flirting with temptation.

Be sure to check the blog posting in a couple of days for 3rd Installment – (THEIR GREAT DISCOVERY (No Task is Too Great for God – His Strength for Our Weakness).

   Remember, you gain victory by finding His Strength for your Weakness.

HIS STRENGTH FOR OUR WEAKNESS (Part 1)

1.      THE SITUATION THEY FACED (No Place to Go – A Great Dilemma)

     When Paul was writing the Corinthians about this new discovery – His strength for our weakness – he says: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). Israel found itself in a particularly weakened position. Yet it would have been difficult to convince Israel that their circumstance was one in which to glory. With the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaohs armies descending, Israel had no place to go.

     Let me ask you:

·        Did you ever face a situation in which you did not know what to do next or you did not know where to turn?

·        Did it seem you had no place to go?

Such was the situation for Israel then (and my I add now with the world situation in the Middle East). She was facing a great dilemma with no place to go. It could be said that her alternatives were limited. She could not go forward. The Red Sea was in front of her. She could not retreat because Pharaohs chariots (the Scripture says there were 600) bearing down upon her. She could not make a lateral move left or right because great mountains were on both sides.

      Another question:

·        Did you ever feel life had taken away your choices?

·        Did you ever feel that the only options that you had were bad options?

      It must have seemed so for Israel.

     And yet there was something else that contributed to Israel’s weakness. She had expended her energies. She had marched all night long and now she was tired. I think many people are tired today. Our world lives in a very rushed place. The stresses and strains of expended energies leave us like Israel in the midst of a great dilemma with no place to go and little energy left to fight.

     Yet Israel, between Pharaohs chariots and the Red Sea waters, was weak for anotherreason. She had displaced her affections. She wasn’t home anymore. She had left her home in Egypt. Even if it wasn’t the kind of home that she had journeyed into the desert with her home on her back. She was homeless. Her affections had been displaced. We hear much about homelessness today. Perhaps there is no situation that is more anxiety producing or more energy sapping than that of homelessness.

     Israel found herself facing a great weakness brought about by a great dilemma – no place to go.

     Be sure to check the blog posting in a couple of days for 2d Installment – (THE TEMPTATION

     WITH WHICH THEY FLIRTED (No Strength Left to Fight – A Great Danger).

     Remember, you gain victory by finding His Strength for your Weakness.