Has your startup hit a dead end | Exodus 14

 INTRODUCTION

Have you found yourself in a stuck-up position in life? Times when you start something very enthusiastically only to realize that there is no way to go ahead. You really do not know why you started; now you can neither stop nor go back. This is called hitting against a wall. Maybe you have lost your job in a recession with no other job offering. Maybe you are sick, and cannot work, the worst is confirmed. Maybe your business is going from bad to worse, or maybe your relationships have reached a point where it cannot be saved.

This morning we are going to see why God leads his children to dead ends, we are also going to see how to respond when you hit a dead end in your life.

BRIEF BACKGROUND

God delivered the Israelites of our bondage from Egypt.
They leave the Egyptians plundered.
They are on the way to the Promised Land.
They had a great start.
People are very happy, rejoicing, singing, praising God and Moses all the way.
No more hard work, enjoying a retired life just praising God.

Let us see what happens to them:

Exodus 13:17-18 17 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.” 18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.

When they left Egypt, they had a short route in their mind. In the shorter route they had to fight a battle and they were prepared for the battle. God took them through a longer route.
But much beyond their understanding and logic God led them differently.

1. GOD’S WAYS ARE NOT ALWAYS LOGICAL

What God does in the life of a child of God cannot be reasoned with our logic sometimes. If you really look back at your lives God has brought you thus far very uniquely.

Exodus 14:1-2 1 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.

Now, the children of Israel were not only asked to take a longer route, they were asked to backtrack and go back to the same direction that they had just traveled.

Illustration: Last year we went to Kerala going to a destination and we got stuck in a one way. The one way was a circular one way 4-5 km in circumference. We thought we were hitting the destination but after some time I saw the same buildings and roads. I told Glory the places and buildings here in Kerala look pretty similar, we just saw that 10 minutes back. She was smart enough to know that we had hit the same road again. By the time we realized this we had already passed the turning we had to take and we had to take the entire route for the second time.

What am I telling? It is very irritating to go along the same route again and again, especially when you are going to a destination. God wanted the children of Israel to backtrack and go back to the same direction they just traveled.

God’s plans are not always logical to human understanding. If you carefully watch God’s ways here: In a short time, God would place them in front of the Red Sea, with mountains on either side and wilderness at the back. We need to understand that they have been led to this place not by their own choice or by Moses. It was God’s decision and if God brought them there, God has a way out of that situation.

Exodus 14:3-4 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.

2. GOD’S WAYS ARE ALWAYS MADE IN ADVANCE

God was not surprised when Pharaoh’s army chased the Israelites because that was God’s plan. God is not surprised at where some of you are at today in failure, in stress, in pain. That is exactly where God wanted you to be. Maybe today you are in a stuck-up position, you do not know what to do. Understand this is God’s plan in your life and he has brought you in this situation.

God is telling Moses: Here is the plan.
Pharaoh will know that without way you are wandering back and forth in the desert.
Pharaoh will think this is his chance to bring you back.
Pharaoh will follow you and this is a trap I am setting for Pharaoh.
Pharaoh fell for the trap.

Exodus 14:7-9 7 Pharaoh 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.

God’s plans are made in advance. Where you are now is absolutely is planned by God. Your dead ends are God’s plan to show His glory.

3. THE FACT IS MAN FAILS TO UNDERSTAND GOD’S WAYS

Exodus 14:10-12 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!”

The Children of Israel murmured, questioned Moses, they in turn questioned God’s authority when faced by the mighty Egyptian army again.

Illustration: One missionary went to North Germany decades ago for mission work and he lost his way in the jungle. He was really upset that he went for God’s work on God’s command and finally he has lost his way with nowhere to go. He walked through the forests and after days he saw some light and movements. As he approached it was a village in the middle of the forest. He went and knocked at one of the doors and asked for shelter. The missionary was scared what the villagers would do to him, upset that after obeying God this is his fate. The people in the house were very generous and they gave him shelter in the night. The missionary slept that night in the village house, the next day he shared the gospel with the man of the house, and gave him a Bible, and went back to his mission never to see them again. This village man’s son is presently known as Reinhard Bonke, one of the great evangelists we have seen in our times. No one knows who was the missionary who shared the gospel to this family, where he came or where he went. In his lifetime the missionary never saw the reason why he lost want and went through the forest but God had a plan for his trouble and dead end in life.

Understand God has a plan for you and through you when you reach a dead end in life.

Isaiah 55:8-9 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HIT A DEAD END?

It is very natural that when we hit a dead end in life people see the end of the road. That is why people commit suicide, give up in life, get depressed etc. The children of Israel saw death at this point.

Exodus 14:11-12 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!”

If some of them had a rope they would have ended their life. Understanding ending life is not the solution when you read a dead end. Our ends are God’s beginnings.

Read See what Moses did:

Exodus 14:13-14 13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the delivery 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.”

1. Do not be afraid

When you reach a dead end do not be afraid. When nothing is going your way do not be afraid.
Fear is a powerful de-motivating factor. It can paralyze one’s thoughts and reasoning. Many times, when we are faced with a stuck-up situation Satan brings fear in a child of God. Through God we can overcome all our fears.

Psalm 34:4 4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

We all have things that we’re afraid of. We do not know how it is all going to end up. God is telling – Do not be afraid.

2. STAND FIRM

Means – Offer resistance to the devil, refuse to abandon one’s belief. Do not be fickle minded. Resist the devil.

When we are faced with a dead-end situation, we get so fickle minded we try to do something in haste. God is telling us to be firm.

1 Corinthians 16:13 13Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

Stand firm in faith.

Example: When the 3 Hebrew boys: Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego were told, either bow down to the golden image or be thrown into a fiery furnace, they decided to “stand firm” in their decision. They told Nebuchadnezzar, “we don’t know how we’re going to get out of this mess, but one thing we do know is that the “God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.” God in fact delivered them because they stood firm.

3. Be Still

Be patient. I told you about patience a few weeks ago. “Patience is calm endurance based on the certain knowledge that God is in control.”

God is definitely in control.

See what happened:

Exodus 14:19-20 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.

Exodus 14:21-31 ”21Then 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 made the wheels of their chariots come off 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 great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.”

CONCLUSION

The Lord fought the battle for the Israelites. He prepared a way through the Red Sea. The same sea was the sea of judgment for the Egyptians.

When we determine not to be afraid, stand firm, and stand still in the presence of God, God turns our dead-end situations into great highways and God uses the same situation to destroy the enemy once for all.

God wants to solve your problems today and you will never see them back but you need to be firm and stand still in the presence of God.

God Bless You!