Series: Champions Of Grace Moses Lesson 11

              Preparing 40 years for this one moment

Exodus 14: 26, 27 And the Lord said unto Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may return upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horseman." And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared: and the Egyptians fled from it, and the Lord drowned the Egyptians in                                                                                             the sea.

What an awesome deliverance! In one moment of time God drowned Pharaoh and his entire army in the Red Sea! Whoosh! The most invincible army in the earth gone!

And how did God do it? 

"Moses, lift up your rod." The Red Sea opened.

"Moses, lower your rod." The Red Sea closed. 

Think about it: for Moses, how hard was that? Lift your rod; lower your rod. Not very hard. 

However, this is what we have to recognize: as easy as lifting the rod was, it took God 40 years to prepare Moses for this one moment at the Red Sea where he would simply stand and lift his rod.

How do I know this? Remember at the beginning of our study we said that as strong as Moses was, there came that day he ran into something bigger, greater and stronger than himself: Pharaoh! 

When Pharaoh heard that Moses had killed the Egyptian he sought to kill Moses. Moses crumbled in fear and ran for his life. Moses did not possess the strength to stand before Pharaoh then. 

Yet, now 40 years later at the Red Sea, Moses is standing in the strength of God and lifting that rod. 

In the face of Pharaoh and his entire army, Moses is standing on the shore with rod in hand, lifting it up before the Lord. He is not lifting the rod in his own strength; he is lifting that rod in the strength of the Lord. 

What I really want us to recognize is that it took God 40 years to cultivate that strength into Moses life.

It took God 40 years to prepare his strength for that one moment of time at the Red Sea. Standing there on the shore there was absolutely nothing of human strength lifting that rod; it was all the strength of the Lord. 

I believe with all my heart God is preparing a people to go into the darkest, most depraved, demon-oppressed places in the earth with the gospel. These are place where human strength just cannot stand. And right now these Christian people do not have the strength to stand in these places. Facing what they will be facing, crushing darkness, gross depravity, horrendous oppression, they just do not possess the strength to stand in these places. 

However, like Moses, God is cultivating in their life the strength they are going to need. Like Moses, He is continually pressing them into places of utter weakness and cultivating within them a complete dependence upon the Lord. In places of great weakness He is stripping them of all human strength and raising them up in divine-strength. And like Moses at the Red Sea lifting his rod, one day they will stand in the midst of the darkest places on earth, lifting up the cross of Jesus Christ.