Empowered

Life Lessons Devotional Series, Thursday May 4, 2023

Scripture: Exodus 14 ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Life Lesson: Moses’ exhortation to “fear not” is one that speaks to every believer regardless of geography, historical context or pedigree.  However, the exhortation to “fear not” comes with another exhortation, to stand firm in our faith!

– The Israelites believed they had every reason to quake with fear given the fact that they had a sea of water on their one side and an enraged Egyptian army charging down on them on the other.  How is it then that Moses can tell his people to not be afraid?  How could they respond any other way to such an impossible situation that threatened immanent death? 

– Put yourself in their place if you dare. How do you think you might respond to Moses’ message?  As an escaping Israelite you believed that God had finally set you free from your enslavement to the Egyptians.  You were on your way to what you believed was freedom!  

– But now, not long after you left Egypt, you find yourself in the worst possible situation you could have imagined.  A situation that offered no possible natural solution!  Did God really set you free only to lead you and your family to certain death?  What about all those plagues on the Egyptians that resulted in your being released? Did God strike down Pharaoh’s firstborn son only to later on allow him to hunt you down and unleash his vengeance?!   

– In your mind, this makes no sense! Deliverer?  God has delivered me and my family over to death!  Your mind races with thoughts of why you ever left Egypt in the first place, why you trusted the Moses message of God’s deliverance.  O, that I had kept my family in Egypt where at least we had some semblance of a life.  But this!  This right here is nothing but madness! 

– Then Moses tells you, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”  Deliverance?  My eyes do not see any possibility of deliverance!  My mind knows with certainty that I’m a dead man!  But the man of God, the man of faith, lifts his eyes and staff heavenward!  Somehow, he is not concerned with the Egyptian army that is charging at them.  Moses declares with conviction that the salvation of the Lord is at hand!  And what does he say we must do?  He says that we must stand firm!  I can barely stand at all!  But the Word of the Lord assures me that if I stand firm, I will see His salvation!  God’s Word makes us promises that to us, at times, seem impossible!  The glory of God is revealed when God does the impossible!  Stand firm in your faith and you will see the deliverance of the Lord!