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I have been reading through the Book of Exodus once again. Chapter 14 recounts when the Israelites miraculously crossed the Red Sea on dry ground.
When God’s people came upon the Red Sea they were terrified and wanted to return to their slavery in Egypt— they thought surely that they would die in the wilderness with the sea before them and the Egyptian army coming up behind them. But as they cried out in fear (loudly), the Lord said,
“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Exodus 14:13-14
He was saying to them to not surrender and return to where he had delivered them from. Do not give into fear! He asked them to calm down and watch him work on their behalf. The very enemies that would come to seek their lives that very day would never be seen by them again.
Then the Lord instructed Moses to stop crying out to him and tell the people to go forward. He also told him to extend his staff and his hand over the waters of the Red Sea and divide it. So Moses did as the Lord instructed and the people passed over on dry land.
This is not an unfamiliar story to you who are reading this but somehow we often live as though this story is about a God who is different than the God we serve today. We sing about him being the God of miracles but fear is more prevalent in his people today as it was in the Israelites thousands of years ago. Do we actually believe and live as though he is the God who still parts the seas that stand before us?
When his people crossed through the Red Sea they had a wall of water standing at attention on their right side and on their left side. They had the Lord going before them to hold open the way forward and the Lord as their rearguard— destroying their enemies. They even had the Lord prepare the ground for them that they would walk on by drying it and making it easy to cross over on (for they had their children, the elderly, their belongings, their herds and the plunder of Egypt).
The God who did this for them is the same Lord that is with us today. Far too often we believe that this is only the “God of our ancestors”, but the God of Moses is the God of you and your children and household today. When the enemy comes to pursue you (even outnumbering you)— do you keep moving forward or do you run in fear? We are His people and we can stretch out our staff of faith and our hand over the obstacles before us and see the Lord divide them. We can walk through impossible situations with a wall of protection at our right side and at our left. We can experience how the Lord will go before us to lead us and behind us to defeat the enemy that has pursued us. He will also prepare the ground beneath our feet so that we and our households can pass over easily— on dry ground that was prepared by the Lord.
Here is your part, “You only have to be silent and step forward.”
This particular “silence” speaks of confident trust that the Lord will not only fight for you and cause your enemy that you see today to be found no more— but he will guard you on every side as you cross through what you are currently facing.
“In returning and rest is your salvation, in quietness and confident trust is your strength…” Isaiah 30:15
Often we face hardships and enemies for the glory of the Lord to be revealed. But when we begin to take matters into our own hands due to fear or begin to shout out, “God has sent me here to destroy me.”, we create a new situation that often stops the glory of the Lord from being revealed.
We must quiet ourselves in confident trust in the Lord and by faith in his instructions— move forward. He is surrounding you— he is fighting for you— he is saving you, strengthening you, redeeming you. He is giving you the plunder of your enemies and moving you forward toward his promise.
The Israelites again and again repeated this pattern of rejoicing when God did a miracle and accusing him of “their ruin” when adversities once came their way (even calling on other gods— and creating golden calves). Let us hold fast to our faith, especially when adversity is before us and enemies are pursuing us.
He is saying to you,
“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the enemies whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent as you put your trust in him alone.”
He is the same God— yesterday, today and forever!
Kathi Pelton
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