Scripture Daily

Context No. 1837 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 14:10-14: in context

10When Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were very afraid. The children of Israel cried out to the LORD. 11They said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to bring us out of Egypt? 12Isn’t this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today; for you will never again see the Egyptians whom you have seen today. 14The LORD will fight for you, and you shall be still.”

Trapped between Pharaoh's advancing army and the sea, the Israelites are terrified. They cry out, and then turn on Moses: were there no graves in Egypt, that you brought us here to die? Better to have served the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. But Moses answers, do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall be still.

Moses' counsel in the crisis is surprising: stand still. The people are panicking, trapped, seeing no way out; and the natural response to such a moment is frantic action, doing something, anything, to save ourselves. But Moses tells them to stand still and watch God act: the LORD will fight for you, and you shall be still, or as it can be rendered, you have only to hold your peace. There are times, Moses is saying, when the right response is not frantic effort but stillness and trust, letting God do what we cannot. This runs against our instincts. When we are trapped and afraid, we want to act, to strive, to force a way out by our own effort; and there is a time for action. But there are also times when there is nothing we can do, when the way out is not in our power, and the temptation is to thrash about in panic rather than to be still and trust God. Moses calls the people to the harder discipline: to stand still, to stop striving, to watch for the salvation of the LORD which they could not work themselves. The sea was not theirs to part; the army was not theirs to defeat; their part was to be still and let God fight. There is deep wisdom here for our own trapped and fearful moments. When we have come to the end of what we can do, when the way out is not in our power, the call is not to greater frantic effort but to a trusting stillness: to stand still and see the salvation of the LORD. This is not passivity born of despair, but stillness born of trust, the confidence that God will act where we cannot. In quietness and trust, the prophet says, is your strength. The Israelites had only to be still and watch God make a way through the sea. And sometimes our part, too, is not to strive but to be still, and see the salvation of the LORD.

When I am trapped and afraid, with no way out in my own power, do I thrash about in frantic effort trying to save myself, or can I heed Moses' word to stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, trusting God to act where I cannot, in the stillness that is born not of despair but of trust?

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