Thursday, December 19, 2013

The LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still.

Photo by: Allyson Wall- church pew in Uganda
I stumbled across Exodus 14:14 the other day:

The LORD will fight for you, 
you need only to be still. 

I know I've heard this verse before, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't taking it out of context before I got too excited about the peace this verse brings just reading it. Sure enough this verse is AWESOME! I came across the commentary below and thought it was so great. (From www.enduringword.com)

 Exodus 14:13-14 Moses responds with great courage.

And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

a. Do not be afraid: At this point, Moses had no idea how God would help them in the situation. All he knew was God certainly would help. In a sense, Moses knew he was in such a bad situation that God had to come through.

i. When we see that our only help is God, we are more likely to trust Him. Sometimes it is the little things - the things we think we can do in our own strength - that get us down, not the big things that we know only God can do.

b. Stand still: Moses told the people of Israel to stop. This is often the Lord’s direction to the believer in a time of crisis. Despair will cast you down, keeping you from standing. Fear will tell you to retreat. Impatience will tell you to do something now. Presumption will tell you to jump into the Red Sea before it is parted. Yet as God told Israel He often tells us to simply stand still and hold your peace as He reveals His plan.

c. See the salvation of the Lord: Moses didn’t know what God would do. Yet he knew what the result would be. He knew that God would save His people and that the enemies of the Lord would be destroyed. He could say to Israel, “the Lord will fight for you.”