Exodus 14:15-18 - Why do you cry to me?

14:15

Moses has responded to the people, not God responds to Moses. “Why do you cry to me?” It isn’t clear whether God is complaining about the Israelites as a whole, or whether Moses had been crying out to God? Whatever the case, God tells Moses to tell the people to go forward. We face problems, but we must not be ruled by fear. God is well able to overcome any supposed obstacle. Indeed, Jesus tells us that in Him we are able to overcome any obstacle (Mark 11:23). We must not let fear rule over us.

14:16-18

Moses is then told how to move forward. He is to lift up his staff and stretch it out over the sea, which would then divide, so that there was a way forward. We are then told yet again that God will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, so that they will chase the Israelites and see that God has glory over Pharaoh. So we see that the focus of the Israelites was on themselves. The truth was that God was going to rescue them, and God’s focus was on the Egyptians. We can have a similar mindset. When facing trouble we focus on ourselves. This is a natural human reaction, but it leads to wrong thinking. We can get frustrated by events we see in the world, asking why doesn’t God do something about it? God may well be doing something about it, just not in the way that we would choose. God’s focus may well be different than ours!