The Highway to the Promised Land

The Highway to the Promised Land

by Charles R. Swindoll

Read

Exodus 14:15--22

Had we been in charge of the Red Sea project, we would have handled it

differently. Our group of engineers would have pushed back that water a week

in advance.

We would have installed great, massive fans to dry out the land. We would

have erected huge neon signs. Somebody would have brought in concession

stands

to handle the hot dogs and drinks. You see, when people do it, the project

takes on all the trademarks of market-driven hotshots. The supernatural is

easily

eclipsed by human ingenuity.

That's not God's plan. When He wants you cornered, outnumbered. And there

are no signs. There is no slick ad campaign. There are no great human

resources

to trust in. There's just an uncrossable Red Sea and an encroaching army of

impossibilities. So you wait. And time passes. He will fight His way at His

time. Bite your nails all you want to---He's in no hurry.

Do you feel cornered right now? Up against it? Overwhelmed? Listen, child of

God, your predicament is by His design. It takes those dark and dreary

streets

of heartache and those dead-end feelings of intimidation to prepare you for

the glorious days of deliverance.

Perhaps you're a single adult. Those can be frustrating, hard years and

lonely times. More than anything you'd like to find a spouse.

Or maybe you're married. You can be so involved in making a living that you

fail to make a life, and then the time is gone.

Or perhaps you feel backed into some physical cul-de-sac, where you've

languished for weeks, months, maybe years . . . still in that wheelchair.

Listen carefully. Read this slowly. Coming to the Red Sea is just as much a

part of His plan as crossing it. It may well be that the Lord is breaking a

habit born in Egypt, a habit that has no business living in Canaan. Those

habits are tough to break. The tears flow as God works in His time. But in

the

burning of those tears, God becomes very significant and real. And we

realize, at last, that a predicament in God's hands finally leads to a

highway to

the Promised Land.