We must wage war against the bitterness and unforgiveness growing in the crevices of our broken hearts. There is also the battle to love difficult people, and the battle to surrender something good that God has asked you to release.  In every battle we win through God’s power, we must battle against pride. Victorious people often begin to stick out their chests. Do not believe your own press. We must also fight the battles of contentment, stewardship, discouragement, and the list could go on.

There are spiritual battles we, as Christians, need to fight that we are not ready to face. In his mercy, the Lord shelters us from them, but only for a while and only to train us up. There’s a picture of this truth in the book of Exodus.

Immediately after God sets Israel free from Egypt, he begins leading them out of slavery with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. As God is leading them, scripture says, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said, lest the people change their mind when they see war and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17). Never forget that they would eventually face the Philistines when God would move them into the promised land, but at this point, they were not ready. They would have retreated into the land of slavery had they faced the Philistines then.

It is a mercy that God protects us from battles we are not ready to fight. But as he does, he teaches us to trust him, so we will be ready to fight in the future. In the case of the Exodus, God was going to train Israel by pinning them between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army. In doing this, God was going to destroy their enslavers. “For the Egyptian whom you see today, you will never see again. The Lord fights for you, and you have only to be silent. (Exodus 14:13b-14).

We know the story. God parted the Red Sea so his people could pass safely through. Then, as Pharaoh’s army pursued, God caused the water to swallow them.

There are verses in the Bible we rarely quote because they don’t fit our current sensibilities, but they speak volumes. Exodus 14:30 is one of them. It says, “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” This would have been a powerful sight.

The army that had enslaved Israel and had just threatened to kill them was now nothing more than waterlogged, dead bodies lining the shore. What are we to do with this?

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