Do you really know what God is capable of? The biblical account of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt is an amazing story of God’s provision. 

According to Exodus 12:37-38: there were “about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children, and a mixed multitude” of people from Egypt that left with them. Some Bible scholars suggest there were close to 2 million people that left Egypt on that day. 

Exodus 14:19-24 recounts how God opened the Red Sea for the Israelites to escape in one night. If you’ve seen the classic movie “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston, then you’ll remember the scene of the Red Sea parting and the people walking across on dry ground. 

Researchers suggest if it was just a narrow path and the people formed a double-file line, the line would have been 800 miles long and taken 35 days for them to cross. Actually, the space was about three miles wide so that they could walk 5,000 abreast in order to cross it in one night. 

According to the quartermaster general in the Army, it would have taken 1,500 tons of food to feed the Israelites each day (imagine a freight train two miles long). Yet God provided what they needed. Exodus 16 tells how each morning, when the dew would burn off, there would be small white flakes of manna lying on the ground and each person gathered up two quarts. 

It took over 11,000,000 gallons of water for them and their livestock wseeach day (imagine a freight train 1,800 miles long). In Exodus 17:6, God told Moses to hit the rock with his staff and water would come out of it — and it did!

When they set up camp they needed an area two-thirds the size of Rhode Island or 750 square miles. And when they wanted meat to eat, God sent quail– 24 miles wide and 3 feet deep! (Numbers 11:31)

Research into the migratory habits of quail in the Middle East makes the miracle of the Lord’s provision all the more exciting. Each autumn, the birds fly from central Europe to Turkey. There they prepare for a crossing of the Mediterranean. The flight across the ocean is done in a single flight at a very high speed. Any bird that falters falls into the sea. When the birds approach the land, they drop down in altitude but maintain their high speed. As soon as they are over the coastland they land exhausted and completely drained. They lie motionless for hours while they regain their strength. For years Bedouins who lived near the coast harvested the easy prey.         

So how did the quail get to the wilderness of Sinai for God’s people to eat? Numbers 11:31 says “there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp.” God knew where His people were in the wilderness, He knew where the quail were and He brought them together! God knows where you are and what you need as well. 

The same God who made the Red Sea into a super-highway, provided manna from heaven, gave water from rocks and quail in the desert can also take care of you. No matter what your problem is, put your faith in the Lord of the Impossible!

Rev. Doug Johnson is the senior pastor at Raven Assembly of God in Raven, Virginia.