“As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked
when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them…”
Exodus 14:10-12
Today we find the Israelites camped peacefully by the shores of the Red Sea. Finally headed to the Promised Land, their future was the brightest it had been in 400 years…that is, until they saw the Egyptian army descending on them! The freedom they had just begun to taste, quickly blurred as panic struck!
Accusations began to flow…Why did you bring us out here to die? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? That’s what happens in panic mode…lashing tongues move faster than the brain as we desperately attempt to restore security with our own strength.
Panic mode creates even more danger when common sense flies away and takes clear vision with it. Just imagine…these newly-freed pilgrims concluded it was better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness! Did they forget so soon the overwhelming misery under which they had toiled their entire lives? How could slavery ever trump freedom!
This panic mode began when the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians overtaking them. Perhaps they should have simply looked up higher. Instead of seeing the enemy overtaking, they would have seen the Cloud hovering!
Looking higher could have cured their panic, just like it can always cure ours!
