"Go Forward"

As we enter 1983 we may take courage from the Lord's word to Moses in Exod. 14:15: "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward".

Obedience to that command called for great faith and courage. For the raging waters of the Red Sea stood in the way. A strong east wind was driving the waters back to provide a pathway for the Israelites. "He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as an heap" (Psa. 78:13). Taking into account the description in Psa. 77:1619 it must have been a frightening experience:

The waters saw Thee, 0 God; the waters saw Thee, they were afraid:

The depths also trembled. The clouds poured out water;

The skies sent out a sound: Thine arrows also went abroad.

The voice of Thy thunder was in the whirlwind;

The lightning lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

Thy way was in the sea, and Thy paths in the great waters, and

Thy footsteps were not known.

By that strange, unknown way, so remarkably opened up by God, Israel must go forward. Looking at those restless waters, piled so unnaturally beside them, they might well have feared to venture. Or if they had regarded the clouds "pouring out water", the lightning, thunder and quaking earth, they might well have shrunk back. But it was "by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land" (Heb. 11:29). God had said "Go forward", and on the strength of that word Moses led them through the terrifying elements to freedom.

In Luke 21:25, 26 the Lord Jesus spoke of "the distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world". His words will apply particularly, of course, to the great end-time crisis immediately before His coming as Son of Man. Yet even now in 1983 we recognize how fitting is the metaphor-"in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows". The present distress of the nations is well typified by a storm-tossed sea. In so many parts of the world we see distress, unrest, uncertainty and fear.

Within the Western Alliance serious differences have developed between USA and her European partners. The unsolved Palestinian problem threatens stability in the Middle East. War drags on between Iran and Iraq. Nations such as Argentina, Mexico and Poland face grave difficulties in meeting charges on their international debts. Unacceptable levels of unemployment in once prosperous nations reflect continuing world-wide business recession and the effect of technical progress which replaces men by machines.

"He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap," wrote the wise Preacher in Eccles. 11:4. If today we regard the ominous clouds lowering over the world scene we may all too easily fail to go forward in evangelism. But the Lord Jesus has given His people the great "standing order" to "make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them ... teaching them ... even unto the end of the age" Indeed, the greater the general distress among the nations, the more clearly the glorious hope of the gospel should shine through the darkness!

Men die in darkness at your side, without a hope to cheer the tomb; Take up the torch and wave it wide, the torch that lights time's thickest gloom.

Nor let any say, "It is not the time for ... the LORD's house to be built" (Haggai 1:2). This had been the attitude of His people in Haggai's day, when political pressure stopped the rebuilding of the Temple, and economic problems made life difficult. Through the Lord's messenger they were stirred to renewed activity. "Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord". So the house of God was rebuilt despite the troublous times.

Let us then "go forward" in all our service for God throughout 1983 or until Jesus comes-forward in the spread of the good news of salvation, in the making of disciples, in the furtherance of God's spiritual house. "Go forward". With this watchword stirring in our hearts, may our faith respond to God's command and rest on the promise of His presence and the power of His Spirit!

For yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.

But My righteous one shall live by faith: and if he shrink back, My soul hath no pleasure in Him.

But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul. (Heb. 10:37-39)

unknown | Jan 1983
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