THE WRONG QUESTION

Do you ever find yourself in circumstances where you don't know what to do or how to respond? Do you ever look at a situation that seems impossible and wonder how any good can ever come out of it? Do you ever find yourself on your knees, crying out to God "What am I going to do?"

Well, maybe that is the wrong question to ask. Instead of asking God "What am I going to do?", maybe our question should be "Lord, what are YOU going to do?"

When the children of Israel left Egypt at God's command, they soon found the Egyptians hot on their heels. They had left Egypt excited to be out from under the bondage of the cruel Egyptians. God had promised them the "milk and honey" of Canaan. Now as they heard the pounding hoofbeats following close behind them with a vengeance, fear struck their hearts and they began to cry out to Moses:

"Because there were no graves in Egypt have you taken us out into the wilderness to die? Why are you doing this to us...........Didn't we say to you in Egypt 'Leave us alone'" (Ex. 14: 11, 12)

In essence they were saying "What are we going to do!?"

But Moses replied,

"Fear not! Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will show to you THIS day, for the Egyptians which you have seen today, you will never see again! The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace." (Ex. 14:13, 14)

They did not ask what God would do, but Moses told them anyway!

And God then showed them! He moved the pillar of cloud from in front of them to behind them so it formed a shield between them and the Egyptians...a cloud of darkness to the Egytians and light to the Israelites, "so that one came not near to the other all night". (Ex. 14: 19, 20)

God put the Shekinah Glory between them and their enemies and even though they could not see what was happening, God was at work. The next day, Moses parted the Red Sea and they walked through on dry land. The Egyptians followed them and God released the wall of water and they all perished....every last one of them!

When Abraham was instructed by God to take his only son...the son he had waited almost 100 years for, Isaac...up the mountain and offer him as a sacrifice to God, Abraham did not question at all. In fact, scripture tells us that he got up the next morning and immediately sat out on the journey!

Glynnis Whitwer writes of that event,

"It had to be the darkest day of Abraham's life as he trudged up the mountain, with firewood strapped to his son's back. Every step took Abraham closer to what he believed to be the sad ending of a hopeless situation---the death of his son. Yet in spite of his sorrow, Abraham trusted God. His heart wasn't soaring with joy. He wasn't dancing up the mountain. But he put one foot in front of the other. Walking through the darkness of the situation, obeying His God's commands.

Unbeknownst to Abraham, something else was walking up that moutain. Quietly. Out of sight. On the other side of the mountain. Something else was putting one foot in front of the other. Only Abraham couldn't see it.

For every step Abraham took, a ram on the other side of the mountain took a step.

All Abraham saw that day was his solitary journey of pain. As he got closer to the top of the mountain, his dread must have increased. I wonder if he asked himself any questions. I would have. I would have wondered why hadn't God intervened? Why hadn't God stopped this testing? Couldn't God see that Abraham was a man of faith? Why test him in this way?
But there was no answer. There was no voice from heaven. And so Abraham kept obeying his God's command. He put Isaac on the altar and prepared to sacrifice his one and only son.

And just at that very moment, at the very last second, when it looked like the end had come, God spoke, stopping the sacrifice. Abraham looked up and there caught in the thicket was a ram. Abraham took his son off the altar and replaced him with the ram, and offered the sacrifice to God.

[This] was written so that you and I today would read it as we face our own hopeless situations. It was captured in print so that you and I would know that God is already planning for our provision. We don't see it. We don't hear it. But we can trust that our God is at work. On your behalf and on mine......A ram is on the way." (Proverbs 31 ministries)

I'm sure in his heart Abraham must have been crying out "What am I going to do!!?" or maybe not. Maybe he was crying out "Lord...what are YOU going to do!?"

When our situations appear hopeless, maybe we need to start changing the question we ask God. After all, everything that threatens to be over our head, is already under his feet. He has the answers. He is in control. He works all things for our good. So we don't need to ask what WE are going to do. We need to start asking what HE is going to do and then wait for our ram to show up!!