Articles
It Really Does Work!
When our son Monte was 11, he decided to make a cardboard model jet plane, based on instructions in the book Things to Make and Do by Douglas W. Downey and Karin Wistol. In the chapter on how to make the “Supersonic Jet” it says, “Follow the directions for each step exactly.”
As he was completing the project Monte commented, “Some of the directions didn’t seem right to me, but I followed them, and they were right.” He was pleased with the result.
As the Israelites looked back and saw the Egyptian army pursuing them, and the Red Sea in front of them, they panicked. “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Moses replied, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today . . . .”
After it was all over, and their Egyptians pursuers were dead, “the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses” (Exodus 14:11, 13, 31 NASB).
After several generations the Israelites grew discontented with the way God was leading them, and so they demanded a king like the nations around them. In spite of Samuel’s warnings they insisted (1 Samuel 8). Time proved God’s way was best after all.
Saul, Israel’s first king, was unwilling to follow God’s instructions (1 Kings 13, 15). His life ended in tragic alienation from God.
Sometimes certain aspects of God’s plan, as revealed in in the Scriptures, may not make sense to us. But do we really think our way is better than His? “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).
But if we’ll follow the directions, even when we’re tempted to do otherwise, in time we too will discover that God was right all along.
And we’ll be pleased with the result.
