Fear Not, Stand Firm


Exodus 14:5-14
5When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” 6So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him, 7and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. 8And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly. 9The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. 10When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13And 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. 14The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

The Children of Israel run into their first truly terrifying problem as they flee their slavery and oppression by the Egyptians. They are caught between the approaching army of Pharaoh who has decided the deaths of all of the firstborn in Egypt isn’t bad enough and is coming back for more and the Red Sea. It would appear they are out of options. Those are the situations where God shines the brightest. Of course, attitudes and internal thoughts are critical to the entire story. The Pharaoh returns to his hard heartedness and the Children of Israel choose fear over faith. These two things together make for an amazing story of God’s power and mercy.

Verses 13 and 14 needs to become foundational for all of us. 13And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today… 14The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” The goal might be to learn how to lean into this verse when we are not faced with the Red Sea at our front and the Pharaoh at our back. It’s tough to just stand there in the face of overwhelming trouble. But if you think about it, we aren’t “doing nothing”. God gives us four things to do in those moments but we are so self-sufficient that we don’t think those three things are enough. But they are enough because God is enough.
  1. Fear not – Fear is one of Satan’s best tools. When we are afraid we cease to think clearly and begin to react rather than to trust in God. We immediately begin to exhaust our own resources in order to escape the fear. But God gives us further action to take in those moments.
  2. Stand firm – And here’s the tough one! Standing still goes against the grain of our self-centered lifestyle. I as the master of my own destiny seems to be what comes out first. God gives counter-intuitive counsel. STAND STILL! We receive the same instruction in Ephesians 6 where Paul talks with us about how to defeat evil in our lives. He helps us see that we have an entire spiritual outfit that brings protection against evil. And over and over in that passage we are told to simple “stand.”
  3. See the salvation of the Lord – Pay attention! Watch and see what the Lord will do. We’re so busy tending to what we will do we don’t pay attention to the mighty hand of God doing what He will. And don’t get me wrong – it is really difficult to stand still when we are struggling. And I don’t mean that aren’t doing anything because we are – we are paying attention to the Lord. We are looking at Him with a laser focus. That can be hard and effective work.
  4. Be silent – We’ve heard it before and we’ll hear it again. Shut your mouth so that you can focus on the Lord.

We are also caught by the ravages of sin in our lives. We have absolutely no where to turn for salvation if we are trusting in our own powers to save us. Jesus comes along and presents a path that we would have never dreamed of ourselves. He parts the waters of baptism and we are saved. We did nothing to make it happen. We didn’t come up with a plan. God moved without our permission or help.
“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, be silent.”

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