THREE WORRIED MEN
Reading: Exodus 14:10-18; Joshua 7:1-11; 1 Kings 19:9-18
John H. Paterson
WHEN Christians encounter difficulties or dangers, they usually reassure themselves by recalling the many great promises of God in His Word, promises that He will be with them and help them. Most of these promises were, of course, originally given to great servants of God, whose stories encourage us as we read them. We are stirred by the words of God to Moses, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest", or His assurance to Joshua, "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee", and which of us has not in some time of need read over God's promises to and by Elijah, and sought to make them our own: "I have commanded the ravens to feed thee"; "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail ..."? It is good to have this kind of reassurance in difficult times.
But if we read the sections of the life stories of these same three men of God, we see that there were some occasions on which God responded in a quite different way -- not with comforting reassurances but with a challenge. At a moment when each of these three men was facing a particular crisis, and one of them at least was having a nervous breakdown, God's reaction to their cries for help was 'What's all this fuss about?' Each of them in turn was challenged to account for their actions: "Wherefore criest thou unto me?" (Exodus 14:15); "Wherefore liest thou upon thy face?" (Joshua 7:10); "What doest thou here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9,13). Coming as they do from the God of hope, peace and reassurance, these words may well seem surprising. We must try to understand them.
Moses and His Rod
Moses and the children of Israel were in acute danger. They had left the inhabited part of Egypt, but were not yet safely across the Red Sea when Pharaoh's army recovered its poise after the ten plagues and came in pursuit of them. In no time at all, the unarmed ex-slaves were trapped between the enemy and the sea (ironically, in the same situation as the Egyptians at the end of the 1973 campaign, but with the roles reversed). Clearly, unless God intervened, it was only a matter of hours before Israel's bid for freedom was ended. Moses seems to have expected God to intervene; he tried to reassure the people (Exodus 14:13) and meanwhile he himself was evidently praying hard. It was at this moment, however, that God reacted surprisingly, by saying -- if we accept the Living Bible translation of verse 15 -- 'Quit praying and get moving'. With the sea in front and the enemy behind, God said to Moses, 'What's all the fuss about? You've got your rod, haven't you?'
A rod: what could be more ludicrously inadequate than one rod with which to combat all the king's horses and all the king's men? But God was very clear about it; this was not to be a time for praying -- it was a time for using the rod. And, of course, anyone who follows the career of Moses from his commissioning to his journey's end knows why. The rod had become, as it was to remain, the symbol of authority -- God's authority, exercised by Moses. This authority Moses already wielded, but because this particular situation was extra dangerous, and seemed even more impossible than the ones that had gone before it, Moses was evidently looking for something special in the way of a deliverance -- extra power for extra danger. And God had to remind him -- 'You already have all the power you need. Get on and use it. Quit praying and get moving.'
We shall all no doubt sympathise with Moses, for we know this same feeling: 'This obstacle confronting me is so great and so frightening [43/44] that I shall need a very special provision of grace from God to be able to survive, let alone surmount it.' But that is not true; we already have all we need for survival and success. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore ...". Sometimes, it is not a question of praying for more, but of using what we already have. 'Quit praying and get moving.'
