Is your back against a wall?

March 12, 2019

Filed in: Hindsight, Thoughts

We’re coming up on the FIVE YEAR anniversary of Reagan’s crisis. It happened April 8, 2014. Back then, things looked grim, like they were over. But oh, how God can take the really awful things and make them really awesome. Only God can take a locust destroyed land, and restore it, as if the locusts were never there.

It’s not every day we talk about locusts, but I got wrapped up in reading Exodus 10 and the surrounding chapters this morning. It says one day God blew in a strong east wind all day and night, and in the morning locusts “invaded” Egypt and “covered all the ground until it was black.”

Can you imagine?!

Let me briefly unpack what happens next. Pharaoh was angry, he summons Moses, says he’s sorry, asks for the locusts to leave, and then God brings a strong west wind and they all blow away into the Red Sea until not one locust was left in Egypt.

The plague of the locusts was actually the eighth plague out of ten that God brought to Egypt leading up to the mass exodus of the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt. I know when we go through hardships, like a locust eating hardship, we’re often we’re quick to blame God.

“How can He do this to me?”
If he was a loving God, he would never do this.”

Those questions are human and valid, but they come from a place that lacks the full knowledge of what God knows. When looking at the 10 plagues and the exodus from Egypt, God gave Pharaoh nine solid chances to let his people go, it was the 10th plague when Pharaoh had enough and couldn’t take it anymore and finally let the Israelites go.

Want to know what’s even more crazy? When the Israelites are set free, God doesn’t take them on the shortest path out of Egypt, he takes the long, scenic route. He took them around the desert and he had good reason, it says in Exodus 13:17-18 that God knew if they went the shortest way, they could face war and then run back into Egypt and into slavery.

Ugh…reading this, for me was super impactful. I really feel like our family has really gone off the beaten path to get to where we are. But God knew something we didn’t. In order for our family to get here, with our faith, with our marriage, with our ability to communicate and enter into someone else’s hard space and speak some of God’s hardest truths, with confidence, we had to walk that path. We had to go the long way around.

It gets better though, for the Israelites and for you! I’m telling you, read the plagues in Exodus and about God’s deliverance of Israel, the Bible is for sure not boring in these chapters.

Good news, the Israelites escape, even though they went the long way, but now their backs are literally against a wall, a wall of water known as the Red Sea, and it looks like it’s over because the entire Egyptian army is racing toward them. But God made a way. He said:

The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” – Exodus 14:13-14

What if that was our stance toward every arrow that is flung in our direction? In sickness, in financial trouble, in marital woes, with our children, with our enemies. The Israelites stood there looking back, and God said, don’t you worry about that army of 600 of Pharaoh’s finest chariots loaded up with officers and his entire army of troops coming after you; I’ll fight that battle, you just be still.

I’ll fight the battle with Reagan, just be faithful to me, Rob and Anne-Marie.
The Lord will fight and she’ll walk again. You be still.
The Lord will fight and she’ll eat again. You be still.
The Lord will fight and she’ll talk again. You be still.
The Lord will fight and she’ll read. You be still.
The Lord will fight and she’ll smile and laugh, and we will take the long way to get there.

The thing that’s cool about going the long way, is you will only see beautiful things, gain wonderful wisdom and walk with confidence when you go the long way.

Five years ago, I firmly believed it was impossible for Reagan to re-gain anything back. You know what else looked impossible? Escaping Pharaoh’s army.

Did you know that the Red Sea has a maximum depth measured at 8,200 feet and has an average depth of 1,640 feet? Neither did I. God made a way for the Israelites by splitting the sea and they walked across on DRY LAND. The Bible is super clear that the land was dry.

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”
– Exodus 14:21-22

If you feel like you’re drowning, or in a place that seems hopeless and a place where you future feels less than sure, remember what God has already done, and if you can’t remember what he’s done in your life, man…Exodus is a really cool place to be reminded of what God can do, what He has done and that putting your faith in Him is a great place to start.

If you’re thinking, “Yeah but that was so long ago, he won’t do that for me.” Then look at my family, because if God can restore us and Reagan, he can restore you too. He can take whatever you are struggling with and turn it into something beautiful that has a purpose. The path to restoration might not look how you want it to, it never does to be honest. You’re most likely on the scenic route, where you’ll see really beautiful things and learn something you never could with a shortcut. Then and only then, will you walk confidently out of your hopeless situation feeling hopeful, strong and a lot wiser.

comments +

  1. Sarah Barth

    March 13th, 2019 at 5:06 pm

    As a member of the Jewish faith, the story of the exodus from Egypt is one we relive every Passover and are reminded that each person has to view life as coming out of their own Egypt and overcoming their limitations – your faith and dedication have taken you so far and there is no doubt that Reagan has assimilated your beliefs and that faith is inculcated into her soul also – may you be blessed with joy and goodness and good health all the days of your lives

  2. Anne-Marie

    March 13th, 2019 at 7:24 pm

    Thank you so much Sarah!

  3. Anne-Marie

    March 13th, 2019 at 7:24 pm

    xoxo Thank you!

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