Tuesday May 17, 2022

Scripture Ex. 14: ¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. ¹¹ 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? ¹² 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!” 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: Only those who have walked with God will be still when God tells them to.

– What does it mean to stand firm in this context?  How does a person “stand firm” when their family is being threatened, when death is literally charging toward you? 

– Let me say this, you will only stand firm in such terrible times if you have made a practice of standing firm all of the time!

– If we have become accustomed to ignoring the necessity of prayer, Bible study and application, walking with Jesus daily, sharing our faith in as much as we are capable, and resisting temptation that comes our way from day to day; we are dreaming if we think we will stand firm in the day of trouble. 

– In today’s lesson we need to take note of the difference between how Moses responded and how the Israelites as a nation responded to the same crisis. The different response cannot be credited to Moses being superhuman, he was not superhuman; he was a person who spent much time with God and that was his secret! In Acts 4:13 we read that the reason Peter and John made such an impression on the religious leaders was not because they were so great, they were simple, unschooled, ordinary men, the reason for their boldness and strength was because they had spent time with Jesus!

– Eph. 6:13 says, Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

– You cannot do better than to spend time with the Lord! 

– Moses said, “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance of the Lord”!  Now we know the people were not standing firm, but Moses most certainly was.  Has God given us an insight into how we can see God’s provision? 

– We are told to stand firm and then we will see God’s deliverance.  Conversely if we will not stand firm by faith we may miss out on seeing the deliverance that God is providing!  

– Moses also tells us that, “the LORD will fight for you”.  What does it mean to you to know that the LORD is willing to fight for you? 

– Again we have a contingency stipulated, “You need only to be still”.    Are you willing to do that?  Are you willing to be still and trust that God will fight for you?