Episode 165 The Red Sea Road to God’s Glory (giving thanks as we walk through his parted waters)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.

 Season 3 Episode 165 The Red Sea Road to God’s Glory (giving thanks as we walk through his parted waters)

Here’s the gist, human. I prompted us to make a list of Red Sea moments when the water walls were held up by God. Let’s consider Moses, God and the Red Sea first. The epic exodus. And the Red Sea process we can expect when God fights for us to gain his glory. These moments, experiences, seasons are such an honor. An honor to be able to see the water walls as we walk, to see what God is containing, the horses, the chariots behind us being submerged by his hand.

I have two Red Sea affirmations.

Affirmation #1: When I am confused, and I want to turn back; when I am terrified, doubtful, frustrated, I continue to walk through his parted waters. 

Affirmation #2: Whatever he delivers me to, makes me stay in, pulls me out of; however I depend on him, how I call for him, how I rest in him, will be for one purpose—that he gain glory for himself in the eyes of believers and nonbelievers.

E165. Thanks for listening.

Preparing for the birth of Jesus begins with gratitude. In episode 163 I prompted us to make a list of Red Sea moments, experiences when the water walls were held up by God. And see where that consideration takes us.

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

I committed to sharing a few of mine in e165, this episode, published on the eve of Thanksgiving 2025.

Let’s start with Moses and God and the Red Sea. I am talking about the epic exodus. But the question is, exodus from what?

The Red Sea Road to God’s Glory

Exodus from Egypt after more than 400 years of slavery. A prophecy fulfilled according to Genesis 15:13. This was the great, big, watery exodus from Egypt that believers, and our culture, in general, use as a literal and metaphorical reference to something that happens of miracle proportion. Someone was delivered from someone or something in impossible circumstances.

But this exodus cannot be reduced to 10 seconds of a divine mighty hand parting waters and whisking an enslaved people to the other side.

Here’s how Moses tells it.

Exodus 14:1-15:21

 

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.” So the Israelites did this.

 

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7 He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. 8 The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

 

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 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? 12 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!”

 

13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

 

While this Biblical scene is fresh on our minds, let’s consider the process that identifies the Red Sea experience, the process we can expect when God fights for us to gain his glory.

1. God’s orders to turn back and wait are so familiar. When we are thinking we can’t stay in a situation one second longer, God turns us back toward the situation and tells us to wait.
2. God’s purpose in our trials is not to bail us out of situations or seasons that are just plain hard, but to gain glory for himself. A Red Sea moment demonstrates the power of God’s nature.
3. God changes minds, hardens the hearts of the enemy toward his purpose, in such a way to demonstrate who is in charge.
4. God’s people were terrified and cried out to the Lord. A gloom and doom perspective, that the new hardship is worse. But God was about to teach them that there is glory in this submission to his sovereignty.
5. God’s people said it would be better to go back to the troubled environment. This is the human thing to do when the hardships endured during the process of changing the circumstances seem too, well, hard.

Let’s continue, verse 15.

15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 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. 17 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. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

 

19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

 

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

 

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

 

26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

 

29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

 

6. God’s commands through Moses are clear and direct: do not be afraid, stand still, I will deliver, just stand still. Yet we know how hard it is to do nothing, no manipulation, no provocation, no reconciliation, etc.
7. Moses tells the people that the Lord is fighting for them. I would love to have Moses tell me that, but we have the Holy Spirit chanting this in our ear, that the Lord is fighting for me, for you, for every believer.
8. God moved in-between them, an incredible positioning move to separate his people from the danger.
9. God’s amazing persistence and strength in the form of drawing the sea back all night long, that ours is a God that works within our earthly parameters.
10. God threw the Egyptians into confusion, again to demonstrate his power over humanity, every human.
11. The Egyptians realize God is fighting for the Israelites, which is a mic-drop moment, don’t you think? The enemy actually recognizes that God has chosen sides, and he is demonstrating his nature – this concept runs throughout scripture.
12. And finally, the action that monopolizes so many Red Sea prayers. Delivery from the danger. Israelites moved through the water walls on either side. What an intimidating visual of how God was taking them through it.

Picture this: that God’s power over his creation is something to behold, far more than the earthly enemy in hot pursuit. That when we see our God at work to gain his glory, we should fear it and be thankful that his power is turned toward our redemption from a Red Sea situation.

When God Fights for Me

Red Sea moments, experiences have been running through my life since birth. Here are few highlights.

• When I was six and changed families, the first time I can remember relying on my Heavenly Father to embrace me through the emotional confusion.

• In my 40s, when I had a hip surgery with complications that left me psychologically paralyzed for several months. I literally had to walk through those waters one step at a time, as God healed my body, but more so my confidence and trust that he would restore my physical and spiritual stride. That I did not have to live in fear of reliving that experience. A fear that was only in my mind, not God’s heart.

• And recently when I traveled alone, during the government shutdown, first time traveling apart from my spouse in five-plus years. Every scenario I feared happened on my departure flight schedule. A very long day getting to the other side. When I laid my head on the hotel pillow I felt God’s faithfulness in all his fullness. Through the people I talked to and those who serviced my journey he gained glory for himself.

All of these experiences were bigger than my understanding of how I would get through them.

Childbirth is the experience I have 100% recall on; how it felt to experience the power of God in all his glory. I realize this excludes men from relating to this in a physical sense, but certainly not spiritually.

I was a few days from turning 21 and had gone through pregnancy with my doctor’s description:  labor grows in intensity, your Lamaze breathing handles it, when you hit the transition point, you will experience some heavier pressure. But it will mean you are almost to give birth. When I became pregnant I had immediately decided on a natural birth. No meds, epidurals. I never even considered it. I wanted to be fully present. I wanted to be schooled by it. I loved having my toughness be tested. I just knew somehow it would serve me in life.

And it has. It was a 9-hour labor to birth. As the contractions began to escalate, I did what I was familiar with. Rise to the fight. Meet it head on, regardless of how terrified I was beginning to feel about the escalation. But God had a different lesson for me. As he parted the waters for me to labor through this experience, I realized that fighting was not needed.

That day I learned how to make letting go my response to the pain. To let the rhythm of the breathing he breathed into me by his Spirit hold me and submit to the pain. This is impossible to explain, but childbirth, and the nine months that lead up to it, is probably the best example in my life of being in a situation that allows no turning back.

I remember thinking when I arrived at the hospital, there is only one way to the other side of this. I have to submit to the birthing process the Lord created. When the contractions were at their peak, I had already given the pain to God, when transition hit, I immediately corrected my dr.’s description of “heavier pressure” to a more appropriate descriptor, “a freight train” trying to be born. An overwhelming force that overpowered me more than ever in my life. God was in control, he created me, this process, and the baby traveling through the birth canal. His glory is the divine power in this process. And in that moment the Spirit led me deeper into the power of my Creator, and I rested in his glory. The glory God gains through his creation is life-changing for those who embrace it.

That day I learned how to let God fight for me. Thank you Lord, for your beloved Son. Thank you Lord, for my beloved sons. All three. My first childbirth experience served me so well. How God strengthened my spirit to get me through to the other side, when I was seeing some pretty tall water walls. The following two births fortified what I had learned on the first one.

Red Sea moments, experiences, seasons are such an honor, human. To walk through that water tunnel with a God who is holding all of it in his hands. An honor to be able to see the water walls as we walk, to see what God is containing, the horses, the chariots behind us being submerged by his hand. I have two affirmations.

Affirmation #1: When I am confused, and I want to turn back; when I am terrified, doubtful, confused, frustrated, I continue to walk through his parted waters.  

Affirmation #2: Whatever he delivers me to, makes me stay in, pulls me out of; however I depend on him, how I call for him, how I rest in him, will be for one purpose—that he gain glory for himself in the eyes of believers and nonbelievers alike.

Fleshy Prayers on Repeat or Thanking God Right Now?

I received a deeply thoughtful Red Sea response from a longtime friend. I want to share one of her Red Sea moments and how she reflects on this Red Sea process.

Pam writes, “Forty-five years ago, living in poverty, I made a list of long-term goals for which to pray and save. Following the advice of Dave Ramsey and trusting God to provide, I can look at that list today and see every one of the goals checked-off, being enjoyed, and shared. I had to keep walking with deep waters threatening all around and God as my only hope to now look back at that Red Sea Moment.

And she goes on to reflect: “An especially precious lesson I’ve started practicing now is to view my unanswered prayers with the sea walls rising high on either side. I only need to trust God to give me enough light on the dry path (or seafloor) before me to take the next step. Instead of worry and fleshy prayers on repeat, this frees me to say ‘thank you God for what you are doing now.’ He holds back the waters while I keep walking, remembering His promises and my lifetime of Red Sea Moments.”

Thank you, Pam.  So powerful.

I am thankful for a friendship that is so deeply-rooted in the glory of God. Pam and I went to high school together, then went our separate ways for 50 years, and reconnected about three years ago. We recently shared a meal together in our hometown. I am still wondering, “did that really happen?”

Let’s Sing with Moses and Miriam

Praises are spilling over the brim of my heart right now. Not unlike what the Israelites did when they came to the far shore, leaving behind the dead Egyptians, horses tied to chariots, what a terrible-but-true scene to envision. Surely we have all heard that God won’t remove our challenges, but he will walk us through them. The next time you hear this again, think Red Sea.

And think Exodus 15, because I am closing with it today, with Moses singing praises with his older sister, Miriam and God’s chosen people so God could gain glory for himself. This song comes after their walk through parted waters as they exit Egypt and before 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Isn’t that almost incomprehensible?

Happy Thanksgiving, human. Let’s listen.

Exodus 15

 

The Song of Moses and Miriam

 

15 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

 

“I will sing to the Lord,

    for he is highly exalted.

Both horse and driver

    he has hurled into the sea.

2 “The Lord is my strength and my defense;

    he has become my salvation.

He is my God, and I will praise him,

    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a warrior;

    the Lord is his name.

4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army

    he has hurled into the sea.

The best of Pharaoh’s officers

    are drowned in the Red Sea.

5 The deep waters have covered them;

    they sank to the depths like a stone.

6 Your right hand, Lord,

    was majestic in power.

Your right hand, Lord,

    shattered the enemy.

7 “In the greatness of your majesty

    you threw down those who opposed you.

You unleashed your burning anger;

    it consumed them like stubble.

8 By the blast of your nostrils

    the waters piled up.

The surging waters stood up like a wall;

    the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy boasted,

    ‘I will pursue, I will overtake them.

I will divide the spoils;

    I will gorge myself on them.

I will draw my sword

    and my hand will destroy them.’

10 But you blew with your breath,

    and the sea covered them.

They sank like lead

    in the mighty waters.

11 Who among the gods

    is like you, Lord?

Who is like you—

    majestic in holiness,

awesome in glory,

    working wonders?

12 “You stretch out your right hand,

    and the earth swallows your enemies.

13 In your unfailing love you will lead

    the people you have redeemed.

In your strength you will guide them

    to your holy dwelling.

14 The nations will hear and tremble;

    anguish will grip the people of Philistia.

15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,

    the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,

the people of Canaan will melt away;

16     terror and dread will fall on them.

By the power of your arm

    they will be as still as a stone—

until your people pass by, Lord,

    until the people you bought[g] pass by.

17 You will bring them in and plant them

    on the mountain of your inheritance—

the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling,

    the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established.

18 “The Lord reigns

    for ever and ever.”