Why We Don't See More Big Old Testament Type Miracles

How many of you have said, “Why don’t we see the big miracles of the Old Testament, like the splitting of the Red Sea and the walls of Jericho falling down, in our world today?  Maybe if I saw these big miracles happening in my life it would be easier to believe and trust in God.”

Think about it though, if you had been in Moses’ shoes at the Red Sea incident, would you have heard God and obeyed?  Let’s look at this through Moses’ eyes for a moment. What was the situation?

• Moses was responsible for a lot of people’s lives!  It is estimated that Moses was leading approximately 2.4 million Israelites out of Egypt.  Plus Exodus 12:38 says “A mixed multitude also went up with them along with flocks and herds, a large amount of livestock.”  This was a huge undertaking.
  
  
• They had left Egypt in confidence (Exodus 14:8) after plundering the Egyptians (Exodus 12:35 & 36), a piece of the story that often gets left out but is awesome and deep in meaning for another day!
  
  
• Now the Egyptians had changed their mind about letting their slaves leave and were pursuing them.  
  
  
• They were boxed in by the Red Sea on the other side of them.  The Red Sea is up to 6 miles wide at its widest spot and 1,608 feet deep on average.  You are not getting this large crowd with children and animals to swim it.
  
  
• The people became “extremely terrified” (Exodus 14: 10).  Not slightly concerned, but extremely terrified. Can you imagine the crowd control issues with a crowd this size that is extremely terrified?
  
  
• And they weren’t quiet about it either.  They weren’t supporting Moses with ideas and saying, “It’s okay Moses, God showed us how faithful He is by the plagues in Egypt, we believe He can save us.”  No, they said, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?  Is not this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14: 11-12)
  
  
• God told Moses to “lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.”  Moses had never seen this done before. He had absolutely no reason in the natural to think this was going to work.  Wouldn’t he look like the fool if he tried it and nothing happened? It would be natural to think, “Seriously? Do you realize how much is at stake here, God?”

Moses told the Israelites, “Fear not!  Stand firm! And see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today.  For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see again. The Lord shall fight for you, while you hold your peace.”  Oh, it gives me goosebumps! The courage! The faith! The absolute trust in God!

When Moses told the people this and then did as God told him to do with the rod, split the sea and made the ground dry. “Then the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud moved before them and stood behind them.  So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and there was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night. Therefore, the one did not come near the other the entire night.” (Exodus 14: 19-20)

You know the rest of the story.  The Israelites all made it over on dry ground and when the Egyptians tried to come through the split sea, the waters came back together on top of the Egyptians.  “There remained not so much as one of them.” (Exodus 14:28)

So, I ask you again, if you had been standing in Moses’ shoes that day with all those circumstances in the natural against you, would you have held out your rod to split the sea?  God didn’t do it for them until Moses heard and obeyed. He didn’t need to have Moses hold out his rod. He could have just made the waters stand up without that, but He chooses to work through us.  

You want to see Old Testament miracles happen today?  You’ll need Moses’ faith in God and be obedient to what He tells you to do.  We all want this radical life of miracles where blind eyes see and deaf ears open but we don’t want to put in the time or heart devotion of obedience to make it happen through us.  

And as to that idea that if you saw these types of miracles happen it would give you the faith you need...well, one chapter later the Israelites murmur against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”  They found the water bitter in their travels and they immediately went back to their old ways of murmuring, complaining, doubting, and seeing the problem in the natural without turning to God for the answer.  No, miracles are great, but they don’t build faith.

What builds faith?  Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  If you have an obstacle in front of you as wide as the Red Sea, you feel boxed in by your troubles with nowhere to escape to, today don’t murmur and doubt and become extremely terrified.  Get in the word of God. Build your faith up until you can say as Moses said, “Fear not! Stand firm! And see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today.  For the problem you have seen today, you shall never see again. The Lord shall fight for you, while you hold your peace.” Then watch as your troubles, that are causing you so much stress, get drowned in the deepest sea and you walk away into your Promised Land.

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