Walking Through Parted Waters
Scripture Reading
Genesis 1:6-7
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.
Exodus 14:15-16
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.
Joshua 3:9-13
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites,Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
2 Kings 2:7-8
7 Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak,rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
2 Kings 2:13-14
13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
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Devotional
There is something special and very important about God parting waters. This topic has been weighing on me for years, but to be honest, I would do a little bit of digging into the Bible, commentaries, etc. and then eventually stop. Finally, I had enough of putting it off and I started getting back into the scripture and with a lot of prayer began to have a revelation. I share this with you because it turns out it is uncannily relevant as you’ll see shortly.
Did you know that God parted the waters 5 times in the Bible?
God separates sea from sky during creation
Moses parts the Red Sea leading the Israelites out of captivity
Joshua and Israel cross the Jordan with the ark of the covenant after the water is parted, leading Israelites into the Promised Land
Elijah crosses the Jordan after the water is halted upstream before he is taken up to Heaven
Elisha crosses back across the Jordan as Elijah’s predecessor after the water is halted upstream once more
After prayer and meditation on the Word, I just simply asked God:
What is the deeper significance with the parting waters that I’m not understanding here?
My revelation was this:
Every time the water is parted, it’s providing an opportunity to choose life over death and what separates us from life or death is our faith and obedience. Faith and obedience must always be partnered together for us to be aligned with God’s will and for his will for us to come to full fruition.
All the way back in Genesis, God is first parting waters, preparing the Earth before creating us and giving us life. Eden will be mankind’s first opportunity to exercise faith and obedience to God while dwelling in his presence. It’s our very first proving ground and all was going well…. until it wasn’t. We eat the fruit, we get kicked out of Eden, we are separated from God, and are no longer immortal. Why was this? It was all because we lacked faith that what God was telling us was true followed by disobedience. Notice that doubting or even questioning God’s Word was not enough to give us the death sentence, it was our lack of belief coupled with disobedience that caused us to lose eternal life.
In the remaining scenarios of Moses parting the Red Sea, Joshua and Israel crossing the Jordan, Elijah crossing the Jordan, and Elisha crossing the Jordan, all of them are in perilous conditions where the enemy is actively either on the lookout or pursuing them and God has led them into a situation that looks like a dead end. In fact, if they were to wait at the water pondering God’s instructions for long enough, the enemy would eventually overtake them. Even if they believe what God says, if they were paralyzed by fear and stood at the shore, they would have been overtaken.
Faith is belief in the unseen, but obedience is movement and action.
Imagine for a moment that you’re standing at the bank of the river or the shore of the sea that you were instructed to cross and you look up to God saying “I believe you God! I’m here, but I don’t really want to do this. Can you just rescue me from here? A helicopter would be ideal.” How many times in your life have you faced a really big obstacle or a dire situation maybe with your job, finances, health, or relationship and you pray over the situation, you trust God, but you want to do things your way? Don’t feel bad because literally the majority of the Bible is about how God’s chosen people follow and then ignore God over and over and over again despite all the miracles they saw with their own eyes. We are always fighting against ourselves because our thoughts are not His thoughts and we’re constantly battling sin ever since we got evicted from Eden.
What we also see here is that partial obedience is inadequate. Imagine if Moses struck the water, the water separated, and he started walking through, but then stopped. If he stopped in the middle of the Red Sea, God’s will for him and his people wouldn't come to fruition. If Israel and Joshua didn’t cross the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant, the Israelites wouldn’t have been led into the Promised Land. If Elijah, didn’t cross the Jordan with Elisha, he wouldn’t have been protected from the enemies and he wouldn’t have been able to impart his blessings onto Elisha as his predecessor. Similarly, in order for God’s will to be done in our lives, we must continue to progress even if it’s two steps forward and one step back, just keep moving. Even if it makes no sense to us, just keep moving. Even when we’re scared, just keep moving. Even when people around us tell us what we’re doing is stupid or they tell us to just give up, just keep moving. Even if it hurts, just keep moving. God always does what only he can do that is beyond human comprehension and his plans are perfect. The enemy knows this and so all the enemy really wants you to do is stop you from moving. If you stop moving, it delays God’s will for your life and how he’ll use your situation to bless others. It’s a domino effect.
In my case, with this topic in particular, God put this topic on my heart for years. I knew this, I believed he wanted me to do something with it. I studied the scripture, I prayed, but then I didn’t fully follow through. I was just standing in the middle of parted waters for no good reason. That’s not the end of the story though because you’re reading this today. Thankfully, all God is looking for is progress and not perfection.
Today, you might be facing a seemingly impossible situation or maybe you’re fighting procrastination on something you know God needs you to do. If so, take a moment to pray over it, but then commit to doing something about it today.
Prayer
Father God, thank you for being a God who is patient, gracious, and loving. You always want the best for me. Help me to align my will with yours because your will is way better than mine. And Lord, please do not let me remain stagnant in my faith and obedience. Help me walk to the shore by faith, walk all the way through the path of parted waters by continued obedience, and into your will for my life starting right now. In Jesus name I pray, Amen!