“And Moses said to the people, “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.””
Have you ever felt completely trapped with no way out and no hope?
The Israelites are trapped.
Behind them is Pharaoh’s army, charging across the desert. In front of them is the Red Sea. On either side, the terrain makes it so there’s nowhere to go.
It is an impossible situation.
Not surprisingly, fear takes over. The people cry out to Moses. They even begin to wonder if slavery in Egypt would have been better than dying in the wilderness.
Fear has a way of narrowing our vision. It convinces us that the present moment is the whole story. We forget what God has already done, and we cannot imagine what He is about to do.
Moses responds with words that God’s people have returned to again and again:
“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord… The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
Those words must have sounded almost unbelievable.
Stand still?
Don’t panic?
The army is getting closer.
The sea is still there.
Nothing has changed—at least, nothing they can see.
But that’s precisely the point. Before God opens a path through the sea, He first calls His people to trust Him.
How often do we find ourselves standing at our own “Red Sea”?
We look ahead and see obstacles. We look behind and see fears chasing us.
Our first instinct is usually to take control. We scramble for solutions and exhaust ourselves trying to fix what is beyond our ability to fix.
Yet there are moments when the most faithful thing we can do is exactly what Moses says:
Stand firm and watch for what God will do.
That doesn’t mean doing nothing. The Israelites still had to look to God and trust Him to work. They also had to walk through the sea when God opened the way. But they did not create the path. God did.
The Lord was the One who fought for them.
The same is true of our salvation.
We did not rescue ourselves from sin, nor could we defeat death or overcome the power of the devil. Christ fought the battle we could never win. Through His death and resurrection, He made a way where there was no way.
It’s no coincidence that Israel was delivered through water. Listen to what 1 Corinthians tells us:
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
In this we see the sacraments all typified in the exodus and journey through the wilderness, baptized in the water and eating and drinking spiritual food and drink, which is Christ. Indeed, the exodus, journey through the wilderness, and entry into the Promised Land are not only true history, but also show us the Christian’s life from deliverance from sin, death, and devil through the waters of baptism to entering into our eternal life with Christ.
And because He has already accomplished the greatest deliverance, we can trust Him with the smaller seas we face today.
You may not yet see the path forward.
But the God who parted the sea is still the God who makes a way for His people.
Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father,
When I feel trapped by fear and cannot see a way forward, remind me that You are the One who fights for Your people. Help me to stand firm in faith, trusting Your promises even before I see Your answer. Thank You for the greater deliverance You have given me through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
As part of your devotion time, I encourage you to also pray for at least some of the following:
After praying for these people, you may want to finish your devotion time with the Lord’s Prayer…
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and every. Amen.
In Christ’s Service,
Pastor Kurt
