Text: “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you” (2 Chronicles 20:17).
If you stop and think for a moment, you and I have faced many enemies in our life time. As a child there were other children who thought they were big and tough who proceeded to take advantage of us. Sometimes we actually fought with them and at other times we just walked away feeling like a scolded dog.
Young people today often come face to face with enemies such as: illegal drugs, alcohol and sex which leads to unwanted babies and diseases for which there are no cures. Even young people who have been raised by Christian parents face the enemy of temptation which they are unable to resist using their own power.
Young and middle-age adults in the course of their everyday work life often face enemies that overcome them. Males and females in the workforce get together and form a relationship that leads to the enemy of adultery, disloyalty or fornication.
It is nice to lend a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen, but care must be taken so this endeavor will not lead to something unfavorable in the eyes of Almighty God. It is good to show your Christian attributes of love, compassion, understanding and caring, but your actions must not lead to disobedience to God.
We have and we will continue to be faced with temptation because we are Christians and temptation is a tool of Satan. As you recall, Jesus was tempted by Satan three times. The first time, Satan wanted Him to turn stones into bread. The second time, Satan wanted Jesus to through Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. The third and last time, Satan wanted Jesus to fall down and worship Him.
Each time, Jesus quoted the Word of God. The Word was Jesus’ defense against the commands of Satan. This same Word is our defense when we are tempted. There is no doubt that temptation is a real enemy that will haunt us each day we live here on earth. Satan is working hard to cause division between us and Jesus.
Satan is trying to fill the rooms of Hell with lost souls because he knows that his time is coming to an end. Satan knows what is in store for him and he wants to take as many with him as possible.
Our defense against Satan’s wishes is the Word. There is no other defense as great as the Word. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the divisions of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
God’s Word is the only weapon we have and the only weapon we need to defend ourselves against the temptations brought upon us by Satan. He does not like when we say we live by “…every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Sometimes life is difficult and we feel as though we do not know which way to turn. There are situations which make us feel trapped and no way to escape. For example; the loss of a loved one, financial burden, unemployment or natural disaster such as hurricane or tornado, or devastation caused by fire or flooding are happenings that place us in unfavorable situations.
The Israelites found themselves in unfavorable situations more than once. When the famine came upon the earth, they had to seek food outside of their country Canaan. They found food in Egypt and later on, at Joseph’s request, they moved to Egypt. Life seemed to be going well and the population of Israelites grew.
As you recall, after the death of Joseph a new and different Pharaoh came upon the throne. He immediately looked out at the population of Hebrews or Israelites and determined they were getting too strong and mighty and might cause a problem for the Egyptians.
The new Pharaoh made slaves of the Israelites. Pharaoh’s officials or taskmasters afflicted them with many burdens. The idea of making them slaves and making them perform heavy and difficult tasks would oppress them and destroy their spirit. The great pyramids of Egypt were built using slave labor. The Israelites were kept under bondage and were slaves for 430 years.
During this period of time, slavery became a way of life for these Hebrew people. Their needs were provided as long as they kept working for Pharaoh and doing what he commanded. Although the people were content for the most part, God had a plan in mind. His plan was to liberate these people and his plan included a person by the name of Moses.
Scripture tell us this: “Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him” (Exodus 2:1-4).
This baby should have been destroyed because, as you recall, Pharaoh wanted all male children destroyed at birth. I believe God spoke to the mother and told her exactly what to do with the child. Next, He made the floating basket visible to Pharaoh’s daughter who opened the basket and found the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter felt sorry for the Hebrew baby.
The baby’s sister, Miriam, was watching Pharaoh’s daughter’s reaction and asked her if she should find a Hebrew woman to care for the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter responded with a “yes” and Miriam went and got her mother, who was also the baby’s mother.
Pharaoh’s daughter said to the woman, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you” (Exodus 2:9). The child eventually became Pharaoh’s daughter’s son. “She named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water’” (Exodus 2:10).
God’s plan was to use Moses to lead the Israelites out of bondage and into the Promised Land. He spoke to Moses from the burning bush and informed Moses of His plan. Moses made excuse after excuse as to why this request was not for him. He said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13).
Moses felt he was facing a mountain he could not get over or a river he could not cross. If he moved forward he might fail, but if he didn’t move he was disobeying God. “Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, ‘What about your brother, Aaron the Levite?’” Exodus 4:14).
Moses had not yet learned to stand still, listen, and see what God could do. One would think that the burning bush incident, the staff God turned into a snake and the leprous hand miracle would have convinced Moses God knew what He was doing.
Moses had a deep sense of inadequacy or failure. You and I face situations like this at times. Perhaps, you have been called upon to serve as a Sunday school teacher, to be chairman of one of the church boards, to be treasurer of the PTA, to speak before a group of people or manage a group of people who appear to know everything, but instead of accepting, you dream up a hundred excuses why you are not qualified.
During times like this, we feel like we are caught in a thunderstorm of turmoil and there is no way out. We forget the words: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
If we are willing to allow the power of Christ to flow through us in times of difficulty, He will see us through the storm, over the mountain, or across the river. We need to stand firm in His Word, stand still and listen as he speaks to our heart and see that he will deliver us according to His will.
Moses was slow in getting the message from God, but eventually he was able to stand still, listen and see what God could do. He could see that through all the plagues God sent upon the Egyptians, none of them affected the Israelites. After the last plague, the Israelite left Egyptian bondage and became free people.
When the Israelites left Egypt, they could have traveled through the Philistine country, which was a shorter distance, but God chose to lead them around the desert and toward the Red Sea. God led the Israelites by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire during the night. Neither one of these pillars ever left the front of the people.
You might ask the question: “What is God’s method of direction for us today?” God directs us by something the Israelites did not have. His roadmap for us is His Word – the Bible. The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire gave the Israelites the assurance they were on the right path while the Bible gives us explicit information of how to stay on the straight and narrow road leading to His kingdom.
After the Israelites fled Egypt, Pharaoh and his officials had a change of mind. Their eyes were opened to the fact that now they had no one to serve them. They no longer had slaves to do building and services that they had become accustomed to. So they decided to pursue the Israelites.
Scripture says, “So he (Pharaoh) had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh King of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly” (Exodus 14:5-8).
The Israelites were camped by the sea enjoying freedom and waiting to make the next move. Then they realized Pharaoh and his army were after them and they had no way to turn. The sea was in front of them and Pharaoh’s army was in back of them. You might say they were between a rock and a hard place.
God had delivered them from Egypt, but now God seemed to be setting them up to be killed. They were terrified and frightened and believed this was the end. They complained to God and they blamed Moses for bringing them out into the desert to die.
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? 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).
This same thing happens to us when we are caught in a difficult situation and we don’t see a way out. When things aren’t going the way we think they should, do we blame God? When we get bad news from the doctor, loose our source of income, have to deal with an unruly child or have problems between us and our spouse, do we blame God?
Are we afraid and terrified when trouble comes our way? When we are faced with something new, such as, a job change, learning something like the computer when we know how to use pencil and paper, or any other change that requires us to move from our comfort zone, do we want to revert back as did the Israelites?
Unfortunately, this thought does cross our mind. Modern technology has brought us from the Model T Ford to the space shuttle. We are moving from a paperless society to a computerized society. We have gone from cranking the phone on the wall to get the operator to connect us to our party, to cell phones, pagers, to cordless phones and to the Blackberry. We have moved from large room size computers to handheld telephone computers and from dial-up connections to cable to DSL and to wireless computers and printers.
Are we going to revert to the “good old days”? I don’t think so. Are we going back to smelly kerosene lamps hanging on the wall instead of the modern light bulbs that require very little energy?
We need to follow the advice Moses gave the Israelites when they wanted to revert back to the “good old days”. Moses said to them, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today” (Exodus 14:13).
God has been faithful to the Israelites the 430 years they were in captivity and He has been faithful to us through our lifetime. He is the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow. We are not to lose faith. If the Israelites had continued to trust God they would have been spared much worry and grief. The same applies to us today.
Moses kept a positive attitude because of his faith in God and we, too, need to remain positive in our attitude toward God. The Israelites appeared to be in a dead-end situation, but God’s plan was to get them to the other side of the sea. Moses prayed to God and God said, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:15-16).
Praying is wonderful and good, but God expects us to listen and then move according to his instructions. We can pray for hours, but if we do not listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us, we will think our prayers are not heard.
On the other hand, we may hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, but the voice may not be telling us what we want to hear so we will continue to pray hoping to get the answer we are seeking.
When Moses followed God’s instructions, “The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left” (Exodus 14:21:22). God caused the strong east wind to part the waters; thus, the Israelites were able to cross to the other side of the sea.
Once they reached the other side, Moses was instructed to raise his staff again, which he did, and the waters closed drowning all the Egyptians.
The Israelites did not have to fight their own battle and we do not have to fight our own battles if we continue to keep our faith in God, trust His guidance and stand firm on His Word,
“The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…” (Hebrews 4:12). His Word will deliver us from any situation or circumstance Satan places before us.
Moses stood firm and encouraged the Israelites to do the same. They did so and thus saw with their own eyes how God delivered them.
God will do the same for us. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
God does not change. He is the same today as He was yesterday as He will be tomorrow. His promises have never been broken.
The old hymn says:
Standing on the promises that cannot fail
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail;
By the living word of God I shall prevail
Standing on the promises of God.
Amen.
