DON'T BE AFRAID, STAND FIRM AND BE STILL

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord."

So the Israelites did this.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!" So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.

The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians—all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Exodus 14:1-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If you thought that the releasing of the Israelites would be the last we would hear of Egypt’s Pharaoh in the scriptures, you would be wrong. For as we begin to look at Exodus, chapter 14, we see that there is yet one more confrontation between Egypt’s supreme leader and the God of Israel. Look again at the first fourteen verses of this chapter here:

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord."

So the Israelites did this.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!" So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.

The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians—all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

The one-sided conflict of God versus Pharaoh is not yet finished as we enter Chapter 14. God knew Pharaoh had not truly surrendered his heart to Him and would make yet one more attempt to go back on his word and return Israel to slavery. God, however, showed once again that He had other plans.

You know, we can draw a parallel between Egypt’s Pharaoh, who repeatedly sought to keep oppressing the Israelites, and Satan, who repeatedly seeks to oppress us. In the case of the people of Israel, the only way they were going to be freed from their oppressive bondage was if they completely turned their trust over to God.

Likewise, if we wish to ward off our greatest spiritual enemy, an enemy who wishes to first deceive and then destroy us, then we need to constantly place our hope and trust in the Lord, keeping Him closer to us than anything else in life. For the absolute truth of the matter is that Satan cannot stand in the presence of the Lord who has gained unchanging victory over him and so it’s impossible to be afflicted by Satan if you keep the Lord always by your side, ever near Him and Him ever near you.

Back to our scriptures now where we find God providing the following instruction to His messenger, Moses:

"Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord."

As He gave these directions, God knew how Pharaoh would behave before he actually pursued Israel with his army with a hope of returning them to slavery. In Pharaoh’s eyes, the Israelites were nothing more than a labor force but God saw them in a while different way. To Him, they were His beloved nation, one He would protect her against any foe.

Like Pharaoh’s view of the Israelites, Satan sees us, the people of God, as sinful pawns that he can manipulate and move during the course of games he likes to play and win. God, however, sees us as a people in need of mercy, forgiveness and love, and He will always make good on His promise to protect and shield us from the devil, the evil one who is our foe.

So with the stage set for a coming climatic showdown between Pharaoh, his army, and the people of Israel, we see that there were more problems in play than just the fast approaching Egyptians. For we see in this passage and through their own words how the Israelites allowed themselves to lose faith in what God could and would do for them.

"Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

Here, we clearly see how anxiety and fear had overcome the people of Israel, just as Satan had hoped it would. For his greatest desire was that they would simply give up hope, attacking their shallow faith, and as we see his wish was being fulfilled.

I wonder if we’re not like the Israelites sometimes, experiencing life problems that come rushing toward us with the desire to entrap and hold us captive. In our human nature, we can easily find ourselves allowing anxiety, stress, and worry to lead us away from faith and toward fear.

With this, I think we can see the words of Moses speaking to believers today as much as he was the Israelites when he speaks these words at the end of our passage for today:

"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Here, Moses speaks into the frightening place the Israelites found themselves with four simple words of power:

“Do not be afraid.”

These words are found throughout the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments as God speaks into situations where His people were troubled and scared. And in the case of the words here, we find the call to be unafraid followed by words of encouragement and strength:

“Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

From these words, words that the Israelites would soon see God fulfill fully, we find four key truths to remember as we live this thing called life here on earth and face our own challenges:

First, we don’t need to be afraid.

We need to remember that we serve an awesome God who has promised to always watch over us, to never leave us nor forsake us, and to never give us a burden we couldn’t bear as long as we trust Him. Indeed, our God is an awesome God, an almighty, omnipotent, all holy and all loving God who we should trust in all matters because there is nothing beyond the work of His hands. All things are possible with Him and we would be well served to never forget that because it’s a truth that displaces fear.

Secondly, we need to stand firm.

When life’s difficulties arise, we need to refuse to waver in our faith.

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you can revisit the account of Jesus’ disciples being afraid while in a boat underway on the sea when a great storm came. The storm caused the waves to build up and toss the boat to and fro.

While this was going on, the scriptures tell us that Jesus was fast asleep below deck and the disciples, fearing for their life, woke Him up, wondering how He could be sleeping when it appeared they were about to perish.

Do you remember what happened next?

Jesus admonishes His disciples for not having faith before quickly calming the storm and stilling the raging seas with a simple wave of His hands.

Here in these verses in Exodus, when we find Moses telling the Israelites to "stand firm", he was essentially telling them to just trust God, their mighty God who was there to help them then just as He is alive and present to help us today.

Third, the Lord fights for us and delivers us.

God wants us to be free of the life burdens that can come on us quick and plague us.  His great desire is for us to just put our faith and trust in Him, knowing that He can and will deliver us in accordance with His will. When our enemy attacks, He will fight our battles and ultimately reign victorious.

Finally, be still.

Philippians, chapter 4, verses six and seven, tell us that when we trust God to handle our problems through prayer and petition, we find the peace of God that transcends all understanding and our hearts and minds are guarded by Christ Jesus. Yet so often, we refuse to let go and let God have our issues, failing to find the peace that He has promised.

Friends, the Lord wants us to pause every day and reflect on what He has done for us, counting the blessings we have received through Him. He would want us to be still and listen to His comforting still, small voice. And He would want us to be patient and know He will help work out any situation we might be going through.

So...don’t be afraid, stand firm, and be still. All these are God’s expectations as we step out in the world each and every day, facing uncertainties while holding onto the certainty that we truly serve a powerful God who loves us so much, a God who will always fight for us and deliver us. All we need to do is maintain our faith.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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