PRAY

Show me Your glory, I pray.
Exodus 33:18

READ

“What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the
very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the LORD will accomplish
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 keep still.’”
Exodus 14:11b-14

What is your reaction to Scripture comparing us to the Israelites coming out of Egypt? How do you feel being told that what happened to them “happened to them to serve as an example [“types”], and they were written down to instruct us” (1 Corinthians 10:11)?

I am admonished in reading this, realizing the Israelites are types of you and me making our spiritual journeys. While I would like to think I am not like them in their unbelief and ingratitude, I have to often admit I am.

Today’s scripture stands as yet another reminder that God’s deliverance of His people is wholly of His grace and not our deserving. All the while the Israelites are grumbling against God and wanting to run back to Egypt, God is readying an amazing deliverance of them. Trapped between the Red Sea and the armies of Egypt, God promises: “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

They must keep still! And we too must learn to keep still. We have nothing to gain by frantic effort and flailing about. We must keep still in order to see the Lord’s deliverance. In a world besieged by upheaval and terror, God commands the psalmist: “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10). In every trial and Red Sea catastrophe God first commands us to be still, cease from our own works, and look for the Lord’s deliverance.

We shall see in the Exodus story that the Lord clogs the chariot wheels of the Egyptians so that they turned with difficulty, leaving them to cry out: “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt” (Exodus 14:25). The Lord always fights for His people! Generations later the Israelites still face another impossible enemy as “a great multitude” has come in battle against them, and again God promises to fight for them:  “This battle is not for you to fight, take your position, stand still, and see the victory of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 20:17).

Stand still, and see the victory of the Lord. The Lord never promises exemptions from trial or trouble; quite the opposite! But God does promise to be with us and fight for us in our trouble. God’s presence with us is never so wondrous as when we experience our Red Sea deliverance. There is no problem too great for the Lord; in fact, the greater the problem we face, the more room it gives God to reveal His power and grace. So, keep still and the Lord will fight for you!

REFLECT

• Are you facing a situation that might feel like the Red Sea before you and the armies of Egypt closing in behind you? If so, tell God all about it.
• Now, take a few moments to be still as you practice PALMS DOWN/PALMS UP. That is, first with you palms held downward, let go into the Lord’s hands your worries, troubles, and trials. Then, turn your palms upward and take a few moments to receive from God what you need.