TO CHEW ON: "The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace (literally: be quiet)." Exodus 14:14
God had led the Israelites into a corner. With the sea in front of them and Pharaoh in pursuit they had three options: surrender to Pharaoh, fight, or trust God.
It's not surprising that the people hurled fear-laced sarcasm and bitter we-told-you-so blame at Moses: "Because there were no graves in Egypt have you taken us to die in the wilderness? Is this not the word we told you in Egypt saying, 'Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness'" - Exodus 14:11-12.
But neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians had bargained on the intervention of a wonder-working God. Moses' reassuring "Do not be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" was backed up with a string of miracles.
First God moved that GPS cloud (see this devo) between them and the enemy. It blocked the Egyptians' sight of Israel while it lit the Israeli side. Then God told Moses to stretch his rod over the sea. This brought up a strong wind and pushed back the waters, creating a path on which the people walked over to the other shore. After the Israelites were across and the Egyptians tried to follow, God caused catastrophe amongst them. Their chariot wheels loosened and when they tried to turn around, the water rushed back and they drowned.
Though our problems and challenges differ from the ones the Israelites faced, I wonder how many times we wouldn't do well to respond to them in the way God instructed Israel: "Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today .... The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace (be quiet)."
Sometimes God needs our grubby fingers off of our circumstances (circumstances that He has engineered - Exodus 14:1-4) so He can accomplish stuff in our lives and the lives of our opponents that will never happen if we try to fix the problem, stir up action, or keep something from happening.
PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to have the faith that trusts in You to act on my behalf. School me in the discipline of inaction, patience, waiting for Your solution to my dilemma. Amen.
PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 21
MORE: A mother's meddling fingers
The above is the story of a time when I had the chance to test out the truth of Exodus 14:14.
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
"But neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians had bargained on the intervention of a wonder-working God."
ReplyDeleteOne of the things Ann Voskamp said this week in the "Say Yes to God" webcast with Lysa Terkeurst was in effect "Instead of looking at worry, turn it to wonder: how is God going to meet me here?"
I think that webcast is still available on demand on Lysa's site but I don't want to post a link here in the comments in case the filters eat it. :)
Thanks for the tip, Janet. I just went over there to check and the webcast is no longer available *Sigh.* It sounds like it would have been a wonderful resource!
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