Go Forward
23
How powerless they felt before that mighty foe! The wailing of the
terror-stricken women and children, mingled with the lowing of the
frightened cattle and the bleating of the sheep, added to the dismal
confusion of the situation.
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But had God lost all care for His people that He should leave them
to destruction? Would He not warn them of their danger and deliver
them from their enemies? God had no delight in the discomfiture of
His people. It was He Himself who had directed Moses to encamp by
the Red Sea, and He had further informed him: “Pharaoh will say of
the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness
hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall
follow after them; and I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all
his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.”
Jesus stood at the head of that vast army. The cloudy column by
day and the pillar of fire by night represented their divine Leader. But
the Hebrews did not patiently bear the test of the Lord. Their voices
were lifted up in reproaches and denunciations against Moses, their
visible leader, for bringing them into this great peril. They did not trust
in the protecting power of God nor recognize His hand staying the
evils that surrounded them. In their frantic terror they had forgotten
the rod with which Moses had changed the water of the Nile to blood,
and the calamities which God had visited upon the Egyptians for
their persecution of His chosen people. They had forgotten all the
miraculous interpositions of God in their behalf.
“Ah,” they cried, “how much better for us had we remained in
bondage! It is better to live as slaves than to die of hunger and fatigue
in the desert, or be slain in war with our enemies.” They turned upon
Moses with bitter censure because he had not left them where they
were instead of leading them out to perish in the wilderness.
Moses was greatly troubled because his people were so wanting in
faith, especially as they had repeatedly witnessed the manifestations
of the power of God in their favor. He felt grieved that they should
charge upon him the dangers and difficulties of their position, when
he had simply followed the express commands of God. But he was
strong in the faith that the Lord would bring them into safety; and he
met and quieted the reproaches and fears of his people, even before he
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could himself discern the plan of their deliverance.