Stand Still

The tension was palpable.  Fear gripped our hearts from the back to the front of the vast crowd and spread like a massive contagion.  We couldn’t express it audibly, but we all knew it was there.  We had been several days out from Egypt, and we didn’t understand why Moses was taking this long route to the promised land.

We could see that God was providing our direction.  The pillar of cloud above us led the way in the daytime, and the pillar of fire by night.  We traveled by foot day and night those first few days and had little time for rest.  But now, we had come to an abrupt halt.  The Red Sea was before us, and the mountains were beside us.  We could look back and see the cause of our fears.

After letting us go, Pharoah changed his mind.  He had gathered his army – horses, chariots, and an immense host of soldiers.  The surrounding mountains, the Red Sea, and Pharoah’s military might pinned us in.  Death or slavery awaited us.  Mothers were clutching their children close to them and weeping.  Fathers looked around them for an escape route for them and their families.  There was none.

We complained to Moses.  “It would be better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

Then Moses stood up and spoke with a supernaturally loud voice that echoed in and around us.  “Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.  You will never see the Egyptian soldiers again.  The Lord shall fight for you.”  (Exodus 14:13-14)

How are we supposed to stand still in the middle of this crisis?

Then, the most fantastic thing ever happened.  The Angel of God moved the pillar of cloud behind us, making it dark for the Egyptians but light for us.  We could not see them, and they could not see us.  But then we saw and heard what God was doing.  Moses lifted his hand and rod over the sea.  A powerful East wind arose, divided the waters, and made a dry land path in the sea with a great high wall of water on each side.

As the bottom of the sea dried, a great multitude of Israelites started marching through the sea on dry land.  What an incredible and fearful experience!  Following us, a little distance behind was the Egyptian army.  But something strange occurred.  In the few moments we could look behind us, their chariot wheels appeared to be falling off.  What had been dry land for us was becoming mud for them.  By morning, we had all crossed over, and Moses held his rod over the waters.  The water walls came crashing down over the Egyptian soldiers.  They tried to escape, but they couldn’t.

In the morning, we saw the dead bodies of the soldiers washed up against the shore.

What an unbelievable, astounding miracle!  If we had not seen it, we could never have believed it.  Moses said we would see the salvation of the Lord and that the Lord would fight for us.  That’s precisely what He did and what we saw.  God had truly delivered us.  We could now praise him with heartfelt conviction, “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation.”  (Exodus 15:2).

How often has God told you to “stand still” or “wait on the Lord”?  Take the time to make a separate study of “waiting on the Lord” from Psalm 27.  It is a marvelous lesson to learn.  I have found it necessary to “relearn” this lesson many times.

When you were a child, your mother probably told you many times to stand still.  It was hard to do, wasn’t it?

When we get in the midst of a problem too big and too impossible for us, God says, “Stand still” or “Wait on the Lord.”  It is so hard to do.  We feel we must DO something, yet we don’t know what to do.

Undoubtedly, it was hard for the Israelites with the Red Sea in front and the Egyptian army behind them.  Yet they were told to “stand still.”  They didn’t have a solution, but God did.  In the words of Genesis 18:14, “Is there anything too hard for God.?”  Or, Jeremiah 33:3.  “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”  Or Jesus, in Matthew 19:26b, says, “With God, all things are possible.”

Our most significant and most overwhelming problems are not big to God.  He is the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Sovereign over everything that exists.  AND He invites us to cast our every care on Him. (1 Peter 5:7).

David said in Psalm 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the  Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”  Jesus said, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John14:13-14).  Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.  And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Stand still and wait on the Lord today!