Exodus 14:1-14 “Stand Still” 3/16/25 a.m.
I think there comes a time in all of our lives when we just need to STOP. STOP TALKING. STOP WALKING. STOP WORKING. STOP GRASPING. STOP TRYING. JUST STOP.
I have a really hard time doing that sometimes. I want to FIX THINGS. And sometimes I just need to STOP.
I mentioned last week that my cousin needs prayer. He’s not a follower of Jesus and he’s dying of cancer. The doctors are giving NO HOPE. Hospice has been called in. I went to see him this Monday. He was very welcoming and we had a good visit. While I was there the Lord gave me an opportunity to talk to him about his need for salvation. Where he will go when he dies. And I was pretty straight forward with him and he didn’t seem to get mad at me and he did let me pray for him.
I went back Thursday and we had another good visit. But before I went I felt the Lord speak to me and tell me NOT to press him about salvation anymore. He KNOWS the way. He KNOWS what he needs to do. And you know what? I can’t fix it. As much as I would like to CRAM SALVATION DOWN HIS THROAT, that’s NOT the way it works. And so until the Lord tells me to, I’m gonna keep visiting, keep praying, and keep waiting for him to decide for himself that he needs JESUS.
This morning I want to read out of Exodus 14. In this passage we see the Children of Israel is in a BAD SPOT. The Egyptians are coming after them.
They have NO WEAPONS to fight with.
No way to DEFEND themselves.
The people are scared that it’s gonna be a BLOOD BATH!!!
But hold on a HOT MINUTE. God has other plans.
So let’s go ahead and turn to the Book of Exodus.
Chapter 14. We’ll begin reading at Verse 1 and read down through Verse 13.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.
3 For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
4 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so.
5 And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
6 And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him:
7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand.
9 But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.
10 And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.
11 And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
12 Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
14 The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
This morning I want to bring a message NOT just to you but to myself. I NEED THIS!!!
When we’re at a place where we don’t know what to do. When things get really hard. When we’re between a ROCK and a HARD PLACE. We’re between the SEA and the EGYPTIAN ARMY. We need to do, EXACTLY, the same three things that Moses told the people to do there in Verse 13. FEAR YE NOT. STAND STILL. SEE the SALVATION of the LORD.
First let’s Pray. Brother ______, would you lead us?
I want to say something before I get into my three points.
In Verse 5, the Egyptians and possibly Pharaoh himself asked, what I think is, a REALLY SILLY QUESTION. “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
“What were we thinking that we would let OUR FREE LABOR escape. Why would we let our SLAVES ESCAPE?”
And my response would be, “Hey dummy, have you forgotten the FROGS?” FROGS EVERYWHERE!!! Frogs in your BED. Frogs in your FOOD. Now listen, I kind of like FROG LEGS but I think I would get tired of FROGS.
I’d ask them, “Did you enjoy your time with the FLIES? BITING you and BUZZING all around you. Did you like that?”
“Hey, what about all of the water in the river turning to BLOOD? Did you like that one? The STINK of DEATH all around you everywhere you go.”
“And what about your firstborn son DYING in the middle of the night? That’s HEARTBREAKING.”
THAT’S THE REASON that PHAROH let the people go!!!
I know sometimes our journey gets hard. I’ve felt led to talk about it the last TWO SUNDAYS. Maybe God’s preparing one of us or all of us for hard times ahead. I don’t know. But I do know we need to remember what life was like BEFORE we surrendered to God. I remember laying awake at night KNOWING I wasn’t in God’s will. I remember being scared to fly somewhere because I was RUNNING from what God wanted me to do. I REMEMBER the LACK of PEACE in my heart when I wasn’t doing right. And I don’t want to go back to that. Do you? That’s why I gave my life to the Lord. That’s why I left doing things MY WAY behind. I NEEDED SOME RELIEF. And I want to just say this today before I get into the rest of my message. If you’re here today and you don’t have that PEACE. If you’re RUNNING from what you know is RIGHT. There is a REMEDY today. His name is Jesus and He is waiting for you to SURRENDER to HIM.
And so let’s go on with the message today. We see that the Nation of Israel had done just what God had told them to do. In Verses 1 and 2, God had spoken to Moses and told him to tell the Children of Israel to CAMP right between the Red Sea and Migdol. Now it’s interesting because this would be the worst place to camp if you were being chased down by an army.
If you look on a map Migdol is kind of at the bottom of a U SHAPED indention into the Red Sea. But according to Verse 9, Moses and the people OBEYED GOD and set up camp right there.
And here comes the Egyptian Army. 600 Chosen Chariots. Now the CHARIOT had been developed by the Egyptians about 150 years before the Children of Israel left Egypt. It was the most sophisticated piece of military equipment known to man. It was fast and deadly. Each chariot had a driver with a BOW and ARROW along with another soldier with a BOW and ARROW. And here they come CHARGING towards the Children of Israel TRAPPED against the Red Sea. And they were AFRAID. And so in Verse 13, Moses speaks to the people and the first thing he said was …
I. “FEAR YE NOT”
I would imagine the Children of Israel first saw a HUGE cloud of dust off in the distance. “Is that a DUST STORM? What is it? What’s causing ALL of the DUST?” And I’m sure it wasn’t long until it spread through the camp like a wildfire. “The Egyptian Army is coming. They are pursuing us. What are we gonna do?”
And Moses speaks to the people. “FEAR … YE … NOT!!!” Why? Because it was all part of God’s Plan. Verses 3 and 4.
“For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
4 And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so.”
This was ALL GOD’S PLAN. It was a TRAP NOT for the Children of Israel but for the Egyptians. God was gonna bring DELIVERANCE and EVERYONE would know it was GOD!!!
Now the people there may have had a hard time understanding this. It tells us in Verse 11 that they got kind of SMART MOUTHED with Moses. “Why did you bring us out here to die, was there not enough graves in Egypt for us?”
But Moses said “FEAR YE NOT”.
And I can stand here today and tell you “FEAR YE NOT”. How can I say that? Because I KNOW WHOSE IN CONTROL and I KNOW HE HAS A PLAN.
ILLUS: My cousin who is SO SICK and really has NO HOPE, CAN HAVE HOPE. I was thinking about this.
He’s going to leave everything that he owns in this world behind. He was telling me about his new Chevy Silverado truck. Everything that he VALUES he will leave behind.
Every loved one he will leave behind. His wife, his mother, his kids. He works as a maintenance man at a Senior Living Center and he LOVES those people. He’s gonna leave them behind. HOW SAD and HOW DEPRESSING that is.
But listen, ALL OF THAT CAN BE TURNED around and he can have HOPE.
I don’t want to embarrass Brother Clarence but I’ve got to say this. Clarence is battling cancer too. And he hasn’t been given a good prognosis either. They’re going to do surgery again on the 26th so keep him in your prayers. But I know Clarence and he is NOT WITHOUT HOPE. He has a BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD. We’re gonna all eventually say “GOODBYE” down here but we’ll get to say “HELLO” up there. Why is that possible? Because we serve a God who is IN CONTROL and He has a PLAN. “FEAR YE NOT”
Instead of DREADING what’s ahead we can look forward to it.
Instead of FEARING DEATH we can STARE IT DOWN knowing that JESUS has done DEFEATED IT!!!
God has a plan and He has had it from the beginning of time. God has known all along how this was going to play out but I don’t think Satan did. I may be wrong here and this is just my opinion but I really believe Satan may have thought he WON the BATTLE when Jesus died on the CROSS of CALVARY. But it was a TRAP. Satan didn’t see it coming. JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD and because of that you and I can have eternal life. FEAR YE NOT!!! Gos is in control and He has a PLAN.
II. FEAR YE NOT and STAND STILL.
I said at the beginning of my message that sometimes the hardest thing to do is to NOT DO ANYTHING. Listen, some of them fellows may have been trying to come up with a way to defend themselves.
They may have been thinking up ways to build some kind of barriers. Like in the old westerns where they would turn the wagons over in the middle of the street to defend the town.
Or maybe they planned on moving all of the women and children to the back. Next to the water. They put all of the men up front. I don’t know this, the Bible doesn’t say it, but that’s what I would do. But NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. WHY?
Because Moses said to STAND STILL. DON’T DO ANYTHING!!! Man I would have been ANTSY. I would have been WRINGING MY HANDS. I would have been a NERVOUS WRECK trying to figure out what to do. But what they needed to do was JUST STAND STILL. It tells us in Verse 9 that the Egyptian Army overtook them. I would imagine the Pharaoh gave the instructions to FAN OUT. Don’t let anyone escape. They are gonna pay the price for REBELLING AGAINST ME.
So what did Moses tell the people to do? STAND STILL.
Can I say this? If you’re here and you’re battling addiction I can’t help you. If you’re a drunk I can’t help you.
If you’re here and you are SICK like my cousin, I can’t help you. I’d like to. I wish I had a cure. But I don’t, so I can’t.
If you’re having Marital problems I can’t help that either.
If you’re here and you don’t know Jesus, when you DIE and you will, we all will, you will split Hell wide open and I can’t help that. I’m sorry, I’d like to but I can’t.
Why? Because I’m just a MERE HUMAN and I’m HELPLESS. I don’t have a CURE. I don’t have a PLAN. I don’t have any ABILITY. I don’t know the FUTURE. I AM NOTHING!!!
So you might be saying, then what am I doing here? This is just a waste of time. But here’s the GOOD NEWS. I know someone who can help you.
I know someone who CAN and WILL help the ADDICT and the DRUNK.
I know someone who can and will help the SICK. In fact, He is going to HEAL ALL of our SICKNESSES. If not here, over there.
I know someone who can and will heal broken marriages, broken lives, and broken hearts.
I know someone who can take SIN SICK SOULS and set them on the Road to Heaven.
I know someone who can do ALL of these things and a whole lot more. His name is Jesus and He loves you today.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
There will be times in all of our lives when all we can do is just stand there and watch. And that’s enough.
III. Because Moses said, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”
I like that. He said, I’m gonna paraphrase here, “Just watch MY GOD in ACTION. JUST WATCH WHAT MY GOD IS GOING TO DO FOR YOU. JUST WATCH HOW MY GOD IS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF THE EGYPTIANS. I want you to SEE the SALVATION of the LORD.”
You all know the rest of the story. Moses went up to the Red Sea and he stretched his hand and rod out over the water. And the water parted. Now the Red Sea is not flowing so God had to hold back BOTH SIDES. It’s kind of like God stuck His mighty hands down into that water and PUSHED it BACK. And a MIGHTY STRONG WIND began to blow, kind of like Friday, and the ground dried up. And the people walked across on DRY GROUND right where the water once stood.
Do you know what the people saw that day? They SAW the SALVATION of the LORD!!!
If there’s ONE THING that I want more than anything else, it’s to SEE the SALVATION of the Lord in your life today.
If you’re here and you feel that GRIP of FEAR today, that’s a GOOD THING. If you’re NOT in GOD’S WILL, and you KNOW IT, that’s a GOOD THING. If you’re just not sure where you stand with God, you feel the HOLY SPIRIT WORKING in your HEART, that’s a GOOD THING.
Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."
Proverbs 14:27, “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death."
Psalm 34:9-11, “O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him... Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord."
Proverbs 14:26, “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge."
Proverbs 22:4, “By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life."
It’s a GOOD THING to FEAR GOD. But when we come to the place where we FEAR GOD we better realize that we can’t SAVE OURSELVES. There’s nothing we can do on our own for salvation. We’ll never be GOOD ENOUGH. We’ll never be SMART ENOUGH. And we can never EARN our way to Heaven. We’re gonna have to just STAND STILL and give everything over to HIM. LET HIM have His way in our lives.
And then we’ll SEE the SALVATION of the LORD.
Listen, you and I won’t ever be trapped with the Red Sea on one side and the Egyptian Army on the other.
But there will be TIMES when we won’t know what to do. TIMES when we feel DESPERATE. TIMES of DESPAIR. TIMES of HOPELESSNESS. TIMES of GRIEF and SADNESS.
But if we’ll put our TRUST in God WE WILL SEE the SALVATION of the LORD. You and I will see God move on situations that seemed HOPELESS.
And someday there will be NO MORE WORRIES. I love the last part of Verse 13,
“for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.”
The Egyptians followed them across and as soon as the last person from the Children of Israel was over the Lord CLOSED up the water. The Egyptians never troubled them again.
And that’s what Heaven is gonna be like. As we cross over, all of the TROUBLES and WORRIES of this life will be over. Now THAT is something we can look forward to and THAT will be the Day that we truly see the Salvation of the Lord.
Let’s Pray
