Stand Firm. Stay Calm. Keep Moving.


Is your back against the wall? No place to run? Take a tip from Israel’s experience in Exodus 14. They’ve escaped Egypt, but Pharaoh has changed his mind and is pursuing them, intent on bringing them back. It finally clicked that he had just allowed his whole labour force to walk out on him.
Though the King of Egypt didn’t know it, his decision was divinely orchestrated (14:4) so that both Egypt and Israel would know Who was the LORD. Moses knew that and we assume he passed that information on to the people.
However, the sight of the Egyptian army barreling down on them drove the implication of God’s promise from their minds. They panicked (14:10-12). Funny what fear does to us. The Hebrews were ready to bolt, to surrender, to throw a fit.
“Moses answered the people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you to day. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” —Exodus 14:13, 14, NIV.
It wasn’t that the Israelites were not to move physically. The next verse shows us Moses telling them to get moving across the pathway that God was about to create through the Red Sea; a path that would take them to safety. The instruction was to stop fussing, fretting, worrying, complaining, panicking, doubting, and to keep moving in the direction that God was showing them.
They were to stand firm in their faith and calm down.
The passage from the New Testament that came to mind as I was reading this story is from 1 Corinthians 15:58. Paul writes: “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord in not in vain.”
To keep moving isn't in her vocabulary—but two out of three isn't bad!
Here again the instruction is not to physically stop but rather to remain faithful, to calm those panicked thoughts, and to keep on going in the direction that God has indicated.
Would it have been easier on the nerves if God hadn’t incited Pharaoh to pursue the Hebrews? Yes, it would have. But then their faith journey would have been lacking an important element: “And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.”
Stand firm. Stay calm. Keep moving.

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