When the Will of God is a Dead End

There are times that we feel that we have a clear direction from God in a particular area only to find out that we have been led right into an impossible situation. Excuse the personal illustration - when my wife, Lori, and I became convinced that I should pursue a master degree we looked at our circumstances and said, "This is impossible." There was the problem of employment (so that I could support the family and study), the problem of housing (we had another baby on the way, #3, and a two-bedroom apartment), the problem of transportation (our old Chevy couldn’t hold all of us), and the problem of curriculum. God is a matter of one summer turned all that around. He provided a new job, a new and bigger home, a new and bigger car, and solved the problem of the course of study. 

God, at times, leads us into unreasonable or even impossible situations to test us so that when we see and experience His sovereign, omnipotent deliverance, our trust in Him is strengthened and His glory is manifested. One often approaches this text being so taken by the miracle that he misses altogether the lessons that the Lord seeks to convey. This is understandable, to some extent, because this is a real miracle that the Lord performed for His people Israel. That is why a miracle is a miracle, isn’t it? It is very easy to be so enamored by the miracle that one misses the lessons that are evident in it. As one examines this portion of Scripture more closely it becomes very clear that God was teaching His people Israel as well as delivering them, to say nothing of judging Egypt.  

Our present text of holy Scripture illustrates this truth very well. God seems to have led His people into this distress in order to test them and to strengthen their trust in Him. We can learn much about the will of God through this passage.