As we face these uncertain times, I find myself thinking back to the many times God has delivered. Our scriptures are filled with these examples. Think for a moment what it must have been like for the Israelites as they walked, not just out of slavery in Egypt, but as a victorious army taking with them all the gold, silver and jewels they could carry. I can only imagine the elation that filled their hearts. Yet within what must have seemed like moments, they now faced an uncrossable body of water to the front, and an angry army bearing down on them from behind. They have gone from celebrating victory to facing certain death! How much they must have asked why? Is this what God intended, to simply bring them out of what had been their only home to die here in the wilderness?
Aren’t we facing just such a time? We have seen life going well, perhaps even better than it ever has. Career, family, finances, church; all at a point that has done nothing but improve over the last years, perhaps even to the best point in life. God has delivered us from the slavery of our sin, of extreme need, to an economy that has been running at full steam for years. But now, we are standing on the banks of the Red Sea, looking at uncrossable waters. We have an unseen illness that seems to spread faster than the plague. In an effort to stem its spread, our economy appears to be on the edge of total collapse. Why God? What is the point of this?
The fear is real. We really are facing a complete unknown. Our leaders have failed us, our careers have failed us, our medicine has failed us. It is no wonder why so many people are afraid. But remember the Israelites, when they too faced what was surly certain death, they were delivered. God did a thing that no one could have imagined. God found a way to offer safety by doing the impossible. Yes, we face uncertain times. No, I don’t see a way out. Yes, it feels like I have been deceived. But throughout our history as a people of faith, God has worked the miraculous. God has found a way. And it has always been a way that no one could have seen coming. I hold to the hope that God will provide, that God will deliver us from this time as has been the case so many times in the past.
Amen.