The LORD Will Fight for You
Trapped between an army and the sea, Israel is told that its part is to stand still.
Exodus 14:14NIV
Exodus 14:14. "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." Moses says it to a terrified crowd with Pharaoh's chariots closing behind them and the sea in front. They have just told him they would rather have stayed slaves. His answer is not a strategy. It is an instruction to stop.
There are moments when the most faithful thing a person can do is nothing. Not the nothing of despair, but the nothing of a people who have run out of options and have decided to watch what God will do instead. It goes against every instinct we have. We want to act, to solve, to fix the thing before it fixes us. Sometimes God's answer to that is to say, be still, and let me.
Notice, though, that the very next verse has God telling the people to move on. Stillness is not the whole story. It is the posture in which we wait for the word that tells us which way to walk. Today, before you act, be still long enough to receive that word.
More in scripture
Be Still, and Know
A short command from an old psalm asks us to stop, and tells us why.
Be Still, and Know
An ancient line, written for a frightened people, asks us to stop before it asks us to understand.
Peace That Stands Guard
When worry crowds in, an old letter offers a different way to carry it.
