The Unseen Pathway
Autumn is such a lovely time of the year. Picture yourself walking on a dirt path through the woods. As you enjoy the colorful fall foliage and the squirrels scurrying through the fallen leaves, you inadvertently wander off the path and soon find yourself in the middle of the woods with no path in sight. Suddenly the foliage seems dense, letting no outside light in, and the squirrels, they are nowhere in sight either. What is that rustling of leaves you hear off in the distance? You try to retrace your steps, but soon convince yourself that you have passed the same dead tree stump twice. You seem to just be going in circles.
Have you ever felt trapped with no way out? Your finances are a disaster, bankruptcy seems right around the corner. You have an addiction and life just keeps spiraling deeper and deeper into a dark hole. Or it could be your marriage has hit a rough patch; an off-the-rails child; a serious, maybe even life threatening, illness; a dead-end job; loneliness; or any number of things that make you feel like there is no way out.
In the Bible, in Exodus 14, there is a story about one of those moments. The Israelites were set free after 400 years in slavery. As they marched to their freedom, beginning to no longer feel trapped, suddenly that path to freedom seemed to disappear. On both sides were tall mountains, in front of them was a body of water, and behind them, an angry army in hot pursuit. This was certainly one of those moments when it would have been easy to take matters into their own hands. But, instead, the Israelites chose to trust God, even when they saw no path ahead of them.
The story goes on to tell us that God parted the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to walk across dry ground, safely reaching the other shore, just before the waters flooded back into the basin, flooding the army, killing them all. Years later, the Israelites looked back upon that event and sang the words found in Psalm 77:19 – “Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters – a pathway no one knew was there” (NLT).
In Isaiah 43 we find God telling the Jewish people that He will be with them, delivering them out of danger – “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (43:2).
Later, in that same chapter, we read this – “’I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.’ Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick” (43:15-17).
So, even when you see no way out, and all you see are trees and overgrown brush in every direction, trust God and have faith that He will make a pathway, maybe one that up until it was revealed was unseen. I will end with this – “For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you” (Isaiah 41:13).
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