Robert J. Morgan - The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times

2001, 2014 by Robert J. Morgan

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

For information on all translations used, see the notes section at the back of the book.

ISBN 978-0-5291-0440-3 (RPK)

ISBN 978-0-7180-1883-2 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Morgan, Robert J., 1952

The Red Sea rules : 10 God-given strategies for difficult times / Robert J. Morgan.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7852-6649-5

1. Bible. O.T. Exodus XIVCriticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Christian life. I. Title.

BS1245.2 .M67 2001

248.4dc21

2001040335

Printed in the United States of America

14 15 16 17 18 WOR 5 4 3 2 1

To Katrina

Contents

The Lord will make a way for you where no foot has been before.

That which, like a sea, threatens to drown you, shall be a highway for your escape.

CHARLES H. SPURGEON

T he Middle Eastern sun was down, the cold envelope of night having closed around Jerusalem. The streets of the old stone city were emptying as stragglers stumbled home. All over town, oil lamps yielded the last of their flickering lights and pungent odors, and embers lay dying in hearths.

But in a tiny room near the temple, a man named Asaph was awake, sitting blanket enfolded on the edge of a small bed. His world was in ruins, and though exhausted, he couldnt sleep.

Finally he lit his lamp and started reading his Bible. His mind recalled the miracle at the Red Sea, the story in Exodus 14 when the waters parted, allowing the children of Israel to escape the pursuing armies of Pharaoh.

Asaph later recorded his thoughts in Psalm 77 where, after describing his anguish, he turned his thoughts to the power of God in days of old:

You made a way through the sea

and paths through the deep waters,

but your footprints were not seen.

You led your people like a flock

by using Moses and Aaron. (Ps. 77:1920 NCV)

In that storyin that GodAsaph found overcoming strength.

Just think of it: the winds blew, the sea split, the waters congealed into towering walls, and the Israelites passed through dry-shod. This happened not for the entertainment value of the experience, but to prove to us in earthshaking, history-making fashion that, even when we are most anxious and distressed, God will make a way when there seems to be no way.

I, too, am an Asaph. Not long ago I was flying from Athens to New York, dealing with a problem that had reduced me to a bundle of nerves. Someone I loved was in trouble. Gazing down on the choppy Atlantic, I asked God for His help, then opened my Bible. The days reading, as it happened, was Exodus 14.

The seat beside me was vacant, but as I began reading, I felt as though the Lord Himself were sitting beside me, tutoring me through the passage. My fingers reached for a pen, and I started scribbling.

As I worked through the chapter, ten rules unfolded like rubber life rafts; ten ways of handling dilemmas and discouragementsa divine protocol for handling life when we find ourselves caught between the devil and the deep Red Sea.

I spent the rest of the flight pondering my notes, and once home, I actively applied these principles to my problems. I found them then, as Ive found them since, a powerful and effective strategy for coping with the messes and stresses of life.

These arent ten quick-and-easy steps to instant solutions. In my case, it took quite a while to work through the anguish and achieve a positive result. However, like Asaph, I found that Exodus 14 provides a biblical method to process difficulties by faith, in the light of Gods almighty presence, providence, promises, and power.

The Red Sea may roll before us; the desert may entrap us; the enemy may press on our heels. The past may seem implausible and the future impossible, but God works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way of escape for His weary, but waiting, children.

I [the Lord] will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. (Isa. 43:19 KJV, emphasis added)

When you pray, keep alert and be thankful. Be sure to pray that God will make a way. (Col. 4:23 CEV, emphasis added)

The LORD will utterly... make a way to cross on foot. (Isa. 11:15 NRSV, emphasis added)

You can trust God. He will not let you be tested more than you can stand. But when you are tested, He will also make a way out so that you can bear it. (1 Cor. 10:13 BECK)

No sea is deeper than the ocean of His love. There is no army stronger than His hosts, no force greater than His throne of grace, no enemy who can overcome His direct and indirect work in our lives.

The reality of the Red Sea, in a word, is this: God will always make a way for His tired, yet trusting, children, even if He must split the sea to do it.

Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon.

EXODUS 14:12

Cul-de-Sacs

The sea was before them, Pharaohs hosts behind them, and the mountains around them. And all this, be it observed, permitted and ordered of God.

C. H. MACKINTOSH

R eba Robinson lay awake night after night, tense and tired in her little room in Starkville, Mississippi. Her imagination raced out of control as her fingers clung to an old T-shirt that had once belonged to her son and still carried the scent of his cologne. He was confronting death in some exotic locale, though she didnt know where or what for, how or by whom.

Dillon was a marine assigned to a covert commando unit. His assignments were so secretive that even his mother could not be told the time or location of his missions.

But her mothers instincts told her when he was in harms way, and during those times she fervently prayed for Dillon day and night. She was undoubtedly praying the night he swam ten miles from a submarine to the forbidden coast of a hostile country. She was praying the night he parachuted behind enemy lines from a high-flying aircraft. She was praying the day he jumped from a chopper through a hail of bullets, his eyes blinded with tears, to retrieve the body of his fallen compatriot. She was praying the night a terrorist stuck a gun in his face and pulled the trigger; and perhaps it was her prayers that caused the gun to jam, giving Dillon the split second he needed to resolve the problem and escape.

She prayed through nocturnal tears and terrors and torments.

When Dillon finally returned home, he was a hero whose bravery could never be explained, declassified, or honored. He couldnt discuss his exploits or seek help in processing his traumas. He tried making the transition from action hero to typical guy, but life slowed to a snails pace in his little hometown. He began frequenting the local bars, trying not to remember what he couldnt forget.

Reba prayed on.

Like Dillons mother, we sometimes go through prolonged periods of pain and pressure. Trapped by circumstances. Hurting. Afraid. Facing impossible odds. Traversing long, dark valleys.