…For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Exodus 14:12-14
The Israelites were a people of very little faith. God was in the process of delivering them from the Egyptians and from slavery, yet they were easily discouraged and they quickly forgot the great miracles that the Lord had performed for them. (Does that sound like anyone you know?) In this passage, they are up against the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s armies are in hot pursuit. They decided that it would have been better for them to spend their entire lives as servants to the Egyptians than to “die in the wilderness”. The one thing they forgot was that God was on their side- “the Lord shall fight for you…”.
God obviously didn’t bring the Israelites out of Egypt just to let them die in the wilderness. Nor did He save us and bring us out of the world just to wander around in the desert and long to be back in Egypt. God wants us to trust Him and follow Him. The Israelites followed Him into the Red Sea and experienced one of the greatest miracles recorded in the Bible. How sad it would have been if they had returned to Egypt and not trusted the Lord.
We may get discouraged, but we must remember that the Lord did not “bring us out of Egypt” to die in the wilderness, but that we might follow Him and see the “salvation of the Lord”.
Justified Freely 