By: Dr. Don Touchton, President
Good Word Ministries, Inc
2 The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
3 The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name. 4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
5 The depths have covered them: They sank to the bottom like a stone. 6 “Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.” (Exodus 15:1-6)
In 1446 BC, or thereabouts, after years of suffering under cruel despots with continual cries to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for deliverance from their taskmasters, the fledgling nation of Israel was led out of Egypt by God’s high hand. In their escape, He led them in an escape route to the shores of the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his hordes were pursuing them and with the way of escape blocked by the Red Sea and Pharaoh pressing in from the rear, they seemed doomed. But God intervened, as was His plan all along, for he was setting the stage for the utter destruction of Pharaoh’s military, and with a mighty east wind He opened a path through the sea and the Hebrews went across dry shod. Pharaoh seeing this highway led his army and cavalry into the sea bed in hot pursuit, whereupon when Israel was safely across, God withdrew the wind and the sea returned to its place and drowned all of Pharaoh’s army that sought Israel’s destruction. Immediately, on the other side when Israel saw their great deliverance wrought by God, they performed this song, written on the spot for this occasion, a portion of which we see in today’s verses.
This was a normal and rational response by those assisted by divine providence and intervention. They rejoiced for their great deliverance and praised God for His mercy and salvation of themselves and punishment for their tormentors.
On September 11, 2001, America was attacked in the most diabolical way one could imagine. Using commercial airliners as missiles fully fueled and loaded with innocent passengers, maniacal Islamists hijacked the planes and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City killing all the passengers, crews and many in the buildings which were just arriving for a day’s work. Within an hour, the buildings began to fall down, killing even more people who had survived the hellish inferno produced by the exploding jet fuel.
Churches were filled the following Sunday and for a few Sunday’s after that. Everyone it seemed, was praying not only for the families of those missing or known dead, the firemen and other hero’s of the day, but we prayed also for God to smash with His righteous right hand those who plotted, planned and executed this foul deed. President Bush, spoke for us all when he said we would hunt them down and bring them to justice and there was no place on earth they could hide to escape our just wrath.
We prayed for God to deliver us, to bring our enemies to naught, to frustrate their evil plans and to administer justice upon their heads. American Christians paused and prayed, and called upon the God of the Bible for assistance, guidance, and courage. God answered our prayers. Beginning October 7, 2001 Operation Enduring Freedom began which led to the invasion of Afghanistan and, given our military superiority were it not for touchy-feely liberal do-gooders, would have met with a resounding success. Not concerning Himself with politics, a greater success happened on December 26th 2004 when God sent a mighty earthquake deep in the bottom of the Indian Ocean resulting in a very destructive tsunami (tidal wave to us old-timers) and killed hundreds of thousands of the Islamists who danced in the streets after America was attacked. The ring of nations that was affected by the tidal waves was all Islamic states.
Did we rejoice? No. Did we at least give God credit and thank Him for answering our prayers? Not on your life. Instead, we rushed our soldiers, sailors, and airmen to the scene on a mission of mercy and rescued others who surely would have died in the aftermath. But still, we continued to pray for God to help us, and continue to do so unto this day.
America has hunted bin Laden with no result, though we knew where he was – in Pakistan. Then a year or two later, God sent an earthquake with the epicenter located under bin Laden’s cave and more thousands were killed, but instead of rejoicing we prayed for the survivors, some of whom would one day train to destroy us, and spent our nations God-given resources on rescuing them. We still did not even acknowledge that God had struck our enemies again and that He did what we could not do. But God leaving enough alive for us to prove ourselves worthy by conquest, did we capitalize on the edge we had been given and finish the job? No, we sought peace.
Still we prayed, “Oh God, don’t let them attack us again - defeat our enemies and spare our land.” In 2010 God answered with His flood to a desert land – imagine that- a flood in the deserts of Pakistan, bin Laden’s back yard. It is the worst flood in hundreds maybe thousands of years. Are we rejoicing that God is wielding His mighty sword? No! We send our nations resources to help them out and save their pathetic lives. Do we dance, do we make songs, do we rejoice in thanksgiving prayers in our churches which ought to be able to see the hand of God at work? No! If it were possible, we would send church teams to rebuild the place.
We should help Christians in these places, but not our enemies. We should distinguish between help for God’s people and for those who seek our ruin, for we are a Christian nation. But what do we do, especially of late? We give aid and comfort to our enemies while permitting the wanton destruction of God’s people in these God-forsaken heathen nations.
The floods also came to India, the place where Good Word Ministry works to bring the gospel message to those who are the lowest of the low in Indian society. The Indian government purports to be America’s “friends,” yet the Hindu and the Muslim thrives on the backs of the poor whose lot in life is less than the animal’s they tend and persecutes any who dare to openly confess Christ. In our ministry to those flood victims, we have instructed our India team to assist only those who are God’s people. Allow the others to fend for themselves. To do any different would be tantamount to Israel sending in rescuers for Pharaoh’s drowning army, in an attempt to save their enemies whom God was destroying.
America is a good and generous nation – but sometimes she is impossibly stupid.
Don Touchton
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