Exodus 13:17-18 New International Version (NIV)
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.
God sees the big, big picture!
Exodus 14:11-12 (NIV)
They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Exodus 14:14
The Lord will fight for you;
you need only to be still.
[One of Kari’s “Go-To” Verses!]
Exodus 14:15-18 (NIV)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”
Exodus 15:21 (NIV)
“Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.”
Exodus 15:24 (NIV)
So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
Exodus 15:26 (NIV)
He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”
Exodus 15:27 (NIV)
They they came to Elim,
where there were twelve springs
and seventy palm trees,
and they camped there near the water.
…you never want to mistake Elim for the Promised Land. The purpose of an oasis is just to renew you enough to keep following God through the desert.
Extravagant Mercy by M. Craig Barnes, p. 69.