"The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." Exodus 14:14 (NKJV)
How many times do I worry or pine or sit in depression because I think that I'm the only one who can fight my battles? It's so easy to know in your head that worry is useless, but try acting it out. God really brought a verse to me a couple of days ago. I was trying to sleep, but found myself upset about this and that. Then God reminded me of a verse that I had long since forgetten about. "My child, I will fight for you. You don't need to worry or figure out what to do, because that's my job. I will fight for you. You rest, be at peace, in me." It was like a heavy bag was lifted from my back. I could breath again, not because the problem was solved in my head, but because I knew God had it solved in His.
In Exodus 14, the children of Israel have just left Egypt. At first Pharoah (the King of the Egyptians) said "Go! Leave, take whatever you want, just get out of here so your God will stop breaking us down!" (my paraphrase) So God's people leave Egypt and come to the Red Sea. At this point, God tells Moses in Exodus 14:4 "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue [the Children of Israel]. But I will gain glory for myself trhough Pharoah and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." (NIV) And, just as God said, Pharoah changes his mind, figuring it was kind of nice to have slaves to do his bidding. Pharoah gets up and pulls an army together and they rush out to overtake the people of God. When the Israelites see a wall of dust from the chariots and horses and hear the sound of that huge army coming toward them, they become terrified. We're not talking a little concerned, we're talking frantic. Now, back then, when the people had an issue with God or a question, they would generally go to Moses, Moses would talk to God, God would respond to Moses and Moses would tell the people what God said. Since the people were VERY upset, they came to Moses and complained. "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?..." (Ex 14:11) So, yeah, they blamed Moses. But instead of getting mad at them, Moses says, "Do not be afraid..." (How many times does God say that to us and we ignore it?) "...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" (Ex 14:13-14 NKJV) At this point, the bible tells us that God says to Moses "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground..." (Ex 14:15-16 NIV) In other words, the Israelites thought they were trapped, but God provides an escape. Moses does stretch out his hand, raises his staff, and a big wind comes and the sea is parted on each side. And, in order to keep the Israelites from being cornered, God has "the angel of God" (who brought light to lead the Israelites) go behind them as well as a pillar of cloud. As a result of this, the Israelites can see throughout the night, but the Egyptian army can't see them. It's an amazing story. You've probably heard the rest. Once the Israelites are across the sea, the Egyptians start running through the sea after them. But God tells Moses to stretch out his hand again and the sea swallows them up. And God gets all the glory.
"The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." It wasn't because the Israelites were perfect, they complained. But God faught their battle. The Israelites had no strength left to fight. They were going to die and they knew it. But God faught for them.
And He will fight for you if you're His child, one of His people. Let Him fight for you. And as for you, hold your peace.
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