Exodus
14:10 ¶ And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the
children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched
after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out
unto the LORD. 11 And they said unto
Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in
the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out
of Egypt? 12 Is not this the word that
we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the
Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we
should die in the wilderness. 13 And
Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of
the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen
to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. 14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall
hold your peace.
The
Hebrews seem to be trapped between the Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea. They
were terrified, or sore afraid. They
believe they’ve made a terrible mistake by following Moses. They would have
been better off as slaves in Egypt than to die so miserably in this situation.
But,
Moses tells them to wait as God will fight this battle for them as salvation, more often than not in the
Bible, typically means physical deliverance from an impending calamity rather
than eternal life.
There
are many times that God says that He will do the work for us but we are often
too fearful to believe that. In the next verse, Christ tells this to His
disciples regarding what they will say under persecution.
Mark
13:11 But when they shall lead you, and
deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye
premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for
it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
Even eternal salvation
is purely a work of God in response to our faith.
John
1:12 But as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name: 13 Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Ephesians
2:8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
One
important aspect of being a Christian, as I looked at before in the example set
in the book of Job, is to trust God no matter how bad things get, even if we
don’t see any relief in this life.
Job
13:15a Though he slay me, yet will I
trust in him….
And taking the
example also of the Hebrew men in Babylon.
Daniel
3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve
is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us
out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if
not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
And
here, in this passage in Exodus, we can see another principle linked to that
one; waiting on the Lord to work in our lives rather than jumping ahead and
acting on our own. The Hebrew situation was a total disaster without some kind
of intervention. There was no power on earth that could save them when the
greatest power on earth had them trapped. There will be situations in your life
over which you are totally helpless and without God’s help you just know only
complete disaster awaits you. You’re cornered. It is in that time you are
forced to trust only in God, when you are between the proverbial ‘rock and a hard
place’ where there is nothing left for you but to wait and see what God does.
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