Exodus 14:3 Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' (God is about to tell Moses His plan and is giving him background information. He knew what Pharaoh was going to do. In their journey from Goshen in Egypt, God had instructed His people to turn back south instead of going north toward their promised destination. Now their encampment had placed them in a vulnerable position in a pass. They were hemmed in by mountains on their right with the sea to their left and front and their enemies at their back. The Lord's purpose, however, was powerfully strategic. Knowing that Pharaoh would change his mind yet again about allowing these Israelite slaves to leave Egypt, He also knew that Pharaoh would misjudge the location of the campsite where the Lord had directed the people. He knew that Pharaoh, thinking the Israelites had become lost, would try to take advantage of what he assumed was their strategically vulnerable location. He knew Pharaoh would think he would be able to overwhelm them with his superior armed forces and compel them to return to his enslavement. Because the Lord leads and directs us, often in ways we ourselves don't even understand, He causes the forces of darkness that seek to entrap and oppress us to suppose our apparent situations make us helpless, lost, and trapped. What may look to the world, what may look even to us, like an unsustainable, indefensible, and even dangerous place from a logical and strategic perspective is, in fact, the very place in which the Lord is most at work. Often, when we feel confused by what we ourselves can see the Lord is doing or is not doing, He is bringing together opposing forces and ideas and situations and people into a convergence that He Himself has orchestrated for our benefit and where He will be able to show Himself strong on our behalf. No matter how hopeless the situation may appear, Pharaoh does not win.)
