“And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. 14. The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
This text is one of greatest statements of faith in the Bible, and is a recurring theme in my preaching and writing. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, now they have the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaoh’s army behind them. What do they do now? They can’t swim across with all of their animals and belongings. There are no boats to carry them across. There are no buckets big enough to bail all of the water. What can they do? They can do absolutely nothing. This situation is far beyond the ability of Moses, Aaron, and all of the Israelite people to do anything to help themselves. Here is the point: They needed for God to do what only God can do. This is a test of faith that we sometimes encounter in our lives. We come to some crisis that we can do nothing about. This is when real faith kicks in and waits for God to do what only He can do. These two verses hold the keys to what we should do in case this happens in our lives – and it will at some time or other. The first thing that Moses told the Israelites was to “fear not.” Moses knew that the Israelite people were afraid, and who wouldn’t be? After all, Pharaoh’s army was the greatest army in the world at that time in history. Moses told them to allay their fear because fear causes panic and panic erases clear thinking. The first thing that we need to realize when we face trying times in our lives is to not let fear rule our hearts and minds. Psalm 56:3 tells us what to do when we are afraid: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” The second thing that Moses told the Israelites to do was to “stand still.” Another translation of this is “stand firm.” In our fear we might try anything to try to get beyond the situation. When we face the crises of life, we need to stop in our tracks, stand still and stand firm. As we would say today, “stand till and don’t do anything stupid.” We need to remember that God knows what we are going through and He knows what the solution is. As result of our faith, we are to stand firm in the Lord and wait and see what He can do. Sometimes we do not stand firm in our faith and wait, and we make mistakes that only complicate the situation. Moses said: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today…” They just needed to wait on the Lord, which is good advice for us as well. The third thing that Moses told the Israelites was: “For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them no more forever.” In times like this, God says I will handle your enemies, you just stand still. In Romans 8:31, Paul wrote: “If God be for us, who can be against us.” That’s a good thing to remember when the devil is hard at work in our lives trying to defeat us. We need to always remember that our greatest enemy is the Devil and only God can handle him. Just as the Egyptian army was too strong for Israel to fight alone, the devil is too strong for us to fight alone. If God is for us, even the devil cannot bring his harm into our lives. The fourth thing that Moses told the Israelites was: “The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” Basically, what Moses is telling the people is to “shut up and watch what God can do.” We should just stop complaining about the hard situations in life and realize that the Lord is fighting for us. He even fought for our salvation on the cross. He still fights for His people. We just need to trust Him, stand still, and realize that God is fighting for us. What a comfort! Don’t you agree? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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