This passage in Exodus 14 comes right on the heels of God's warning that the Egyptians will come after the children of Israel at the Red Sea. In spite of this warning and in spite of all the miracles which God performed in the land of Egypt, the children of Israel still don't trust God to deliver them from this situation, but complain to Moses for bringing them out of slavery! God's response is simple: stop complaining and go forward. He promises and proves repeatedly throughout the book of Exodus that He will look after them.
This promise is for us too, and so is the instruction: go forward.
We have all left Egypt, but whether we make it to the promised land (a life of victory) depends on how we face the trials which God allows to happen to us. Do we grumble against God? Do we allow ourselves to become complacent and unprepared for enemy attack? Do we simply settle for less than God wants for us, content to keep wandering in the wilderness? I know that I have been guilty of all of these attitudes at one time or another.
We should not expect our Christian lives to be easy, any more than the children of Israel should have expected flight across the desert to be easy, especially with the one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world hot on their heels. We should remember that we too have a powerful kingdom against us, one that does not like us being successful in our walk with God, and that the more we allow God to work in our lives, the more opposition we are going to face.
But God is much more powerful than any enemy which may come against us. He has already prepared a way before us, just as He had prepared the way for the children of Israel; filled with trial and persecution, certainly, but also with unimaginable blessing. He simply requires us to keep going forward.
