Daily Devotions based the Sermon from January 3, 2021
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: Be Still…and Get a Move On!
Sitting on the beach in most situations is a relaxing and refreshing activity. As you watch the waves roll in and hear their roar, you are mesmerized by the uniqueness and power of each wave. If you venture into the water, you realize the weight and force those waves have as they shift you around.
Taking time to observe the creation of God is a good thing to do. The beach is a good place to do it. (Just my humble opinion!)
However watching the power of God is not always so relaxing…or so calming.
The community of Israel was sitting on the beach. The water of the Red Sea in front of them. The cliffs beside them and their only path out being closed in by the Egyptian army. The cliffs were no longer marvels of God’s immensity, but a high point over which they could not climb and from which any army could fire upon them. The water in front of them was not the calming waves of a relaxing vacation, it was a death trap which may be preferred to the Egyptian army.
The people wanted to surrender. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Exodus 14:11-12)
Ironically, the nature around the camp of Israel would be their deliverance…they only had to watch God act.
The passage way between the cliffs was blocked by the pillar of cloud – making the army of Pharaoh unable to see the Israelites. The opposite side was the light of the pillar of fire, enabling the camp of Israel to get ready to move while darkness prevented Pharaoh from attacking.
Then the water in front. What would you be thinking as the waves stopped and the water coming on shore was blown back until the ground covered with water was now as dry as the land on which you were sitting. The water you thought would be your demise was now your deliverance.
God acted while you watched.
NOTHING humanly speaking would save them from the Egyptians. I’m sure some were grabbing their swords, trying plot how they would escape or figuring out words they would speak to save their lives, or graveling to offer themselves to be slaves again.
But God wanted them to stop the fretting, stop the planning and be still and watch the Lord act.
13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14)
Perhaps we don’t face the same situation as the Israelites did in the year ahead, but we will encounter obstacles that humanly speaking have no way of overcoming. Maybe in those situations the voice of God whispers, “Be still and watch me fight for you.”
Apply: What situation are you facing that seems to have no way out? Ask the Lord to act on your behalf and show you the way. Be still and watch him act.
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for my fretting, worry and lack of trust that faces life with my limited perspective and power. Help me in 2021 to trust that you WILL fight for me…and then calmly and confidently watch you act. AMEN.