Day 7: God will fight for you
Exodus 14:13-14 (NLT)
But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”
Picture the scene.
You’ve got the people of Israel. They’ve fled from/been delivered from slavery in Egypt. God was leading them, a pillar of cloud by day, fire by night. He leads them to the edge of the Red Sea. (Which is interesting because the Egyptian army by now, is regretting what they have done, and they’re trying to overtake the Israelites.) And God leads them to basically a dead end. They’ve got this huge expanse of water in front of them, and behind them is an Egyptian army.
And so they start to panic.
They turn to Moses, “What do we do? We’re about the be overtaken. This is going to be worse for us again.” And God says to them, “Just stay calm. The Lord is gonna fight for you.”
And what happens after that?
God does what only God can do. He splits that sea in half. So you got a wall of water on two sides. And he leads the Israelites through the Red Sea on dry land.
How is that possible? That’s only possible because of the power of God.
They get to the other side, and the Egyptians are like, “Okay, we’re gonna follow after them.” Bad idea, because the water comes crashing down over the Egyptians.
What God had said in Exodus 14:14 proved true. Just like his promises always prove true. The Lord will fight for you. He fought for his people. And all they had to do was just stay calm.
Right now what are you facing, it’s probably not an uncrossable sea or an entire army coming to take you away. But what things are in your life that you can’t see a way out of, you don’t see a way through.
This is where I want to land today in our devotion. When we feel like you are blocked in both sides with fear, doubt, addiction, hopelessness, worry, shame, ________ (fill in the blank in your life.) Most of the time we try to fight our way out of it, or hunker down and hope and prayer it just passes, or we give up and give in.
It’s in those moments when God says, “Stop. Don’t panic, just stay calm. I’ve got this.”
Today find time to simply stay in God. Give him your fears, give him your doubts and thoughts, and allow him to fight for you.
A number of years ago in church we used to sing a song called Open Up Our Eyes, by Elevation Worship. I encourage you today to spend 4 minutes and 25 seconds and really listen to this song and the words.
The chorus declares:
Our God is fighting for us always
Our God is fighting for us all
Our God is fighting for us always
We are not alone, we are not alone
My pray today is that we would truly believe that God fights for us, that he is in control and that we hold onto the truth that we are not alone.
God Bless
Ps Richard McGuinness
Associate Pastor