1 Corinthians 10:1-2 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
Exodus 14:12-14 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
The Apostle Paul’s discourse in 1 Corinthians 10 recalls the great miracles God performed for the children of Israel during the time of the Exodus. Delivered from Egypt and Pharaoh’s slavery, they were dismayed to discover his maniacal rage pursuing them anew, driving them into a deadly corner and imminent destruction. Humanly speaking, their terror and panic was understandable. With their eyes they could only see the wrath of Egypt succeeding at last to utterly destroy them. In that state of mind, how might they have remembered the consecutive miracles God had wrought against Egypt which had brought them to this very place?
Panic has a way of spreading through a crowd, and as it did, the children of Israel bitterly complained to Moses against the Lord. Yet in that desperate moment, with His people full of terror and miserable unbelief, the Lord spoke through His servant Moses declaring His faithfulness and mighty power to save. Stand still! – and see the salvation of YHVH! Nothing to do but stand and be delivered by the mighty Hand…… But then, miraculously separated by fire from their enemies, the children of Israel also needed to walk, to walk by faith on a seabed with walls of water towering on both sides, trusting that the Red Sea would not come rushing down upon them! Truly they were in His hands – beholding once again, the miracles of the Lord!
We are standing now on the cusp of eternity, and we too, like the Israelites, are facing our test. The world seems to be teetering on the edge of disaster; so much evil surrounding us, as we wonder how and when can we be delivered from this rising tide of demonic threats? Can we learn from Israel’s moment of panic? Or will we succumb to the rampant fear all around us? Will we have the presence of mind, the discipline, and the faith to remember the miracles God has performed in the past? These words must speak to us: “Do not fear – stand still – and see the salvation of our God, for the Lord shall fight for us – and we shall be at peace!” Those words in our minds and hearts will inspire us to walk through this dangerous world with faith, marveling at His power to protect and bring us to safety.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]So often in ministry, the Lord deals with my own spirit, saying – “You need to step back and get refocused!” And we all know how hard it is at times when we get so busy with the normal every day stresses of life tugging at our limited time.
Throughout the United States today, everyone will be celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — a document through which leaders of the colonies in the New World broke free from the King of England.
The Hebrew expression in this verse from Isaiah is rich with meaning. The root “nus” (from the expression “raise up a standard”) is related to or sounds like numerous words which mean “sign”, “miracle”, “to drive away”, “to flee”, “cause to disappear”, “a waving flag”. This abundance of meanings in Isaiah’s poetic style reveals the multiple dimensions of God’s revelation; in this case, the way he deals with evil. The assertion in this word is that the Spirit of YHVH will be powerfully activated when evil comes.
The word contrite in Hebrew is ‘dakah’ which means one that is crushed to pieces. Paul wrote of being a ‘living sacrifice’ holy and acceptable to God. Being a living sacrifice means we often can walk off the altar. To be a continual living sacrifice we need to renew our minds day to day!
Recently, I’ve been impressed by the Lord to address the anxieties many are feeling about the future– how to be strong in the face of the intense opposition we’ll be facing as believers. One of the founders of the modern state of Israel, David Ben-Gurion once said, “Courage is a special kind of knowledge, the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared. From this knowledge comes an inner strength that inspires us to push on in the face of great difficulty. What can seem impossible is often possible with courage.”
For a season, I worked in Washington, D.C., for one of America’s largest Christian political organizations. Sometimes I saw how politics could get ugly and, more often than not, how it changed people — not for the better…but usually for the worse!
Have you ever felt uneasy, unsettled or unstable? Or maybe a better question is — who hasn’t? How do we overcome these feelings?