What Do You Do When You Have Done All You Can

WHAT DO YOU DO, WHEN YOU HAVE DONE ALL YOU CAN

Exodus 14:10-13 Text: (v.13)

Intended for Reading on the Lord’s Day July 11, 2010

Delivered By Rev. Kelvin L. Parks

At Shiloh Baptist Church of Waukegan, Waukegan, Illinois

Good Morning ... and too, God be the Glory!

I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. I would like to thank Pastor Francis for this opportunity to stand behind this desk in proxy for him to preach God’s Word (thank you kind sir) ... and there is a Word from the LORD...

So let us turn our hearts and our Bibles to Exodus 14:10-13

(v.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.

(v.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?

(v.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.

(v.13) And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, standstill, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.

(v.14) The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace

Turn to your neighbor and say... Neighbor, I have a question: What do you do, when you have done all you can?

You may be seated...

What do you do, when you have done all you can...

(v.13) And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, standstill, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever.

(v.14) The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace

INTRODUCTION

We are all, in one way or another, familiar with this morning’s text. Partly because many of us have been reared in church and are thus familiar with the stories from the Bible, or perhaps because most of us have seen the movie The Ten Commandments, which stared Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Rameses.

However, the historical recounting before us this morning is more than just the stuff of Hollywood.

Well ... our background opens with Moses and the children of Israel, probably about two million in strength, heading out of Egypt on their way to the Promised Land.

And our text picks up with Moses and the children of Israel, free from slavery but surrounded. Surrounded

- On the north by desert;

- on the south by desert;

- on the west by Pharaoh’s fast approaching Army;

- and on the east by the Red Sea

My, my, my ... this picture alone is enough to fill the heart of the strongest in faith with despair

Yet, Moses gives us two commands and two promise of deliverance that we could use to answer the question:

- What do you do when you all that you can; in other words

- What do you do when you are surrounded by the desert of despair on the north

- Surrounded by the desolation and dismay on south

- Anxiety and apprehension on the east

- And enemy of your situation is fast approaching on the west

WHAT DO YOU DO...

Well, the first command Moses tells us is...

#1. (v.13) Fear Ye Not.

Well, we all know that in the Bible words have different meanings. In fact this word fear yārēʾ(yaw-ray) has five general meanings.

Now, I don’t have time to go in detail but...

(1) the emotion of fear

(2) the intellectual anticipation of evil

a. David’s recognition while in Achish’s court that his reputation was a danger to him (1 Samuel 21:13) is an example along with Jacob’s anticipation that his family might be taken from him (Genesis 31:31).

(3) reverence or awe

a.Such reverence is due to one’s parents (Leviticus 19:3), holy places (Leviticus 26:2), God (Proverbs 1:7), and God’s name (Psalm 86:11).

(4) righteous behavior or piety

a. the motivation, which produced righteous living. This practical, active fear is the kind of fear for which God rewarded the Egyptian midwives (Exodus 1:17, 21).

(5) formal religious worship

a. The clearest example of "fearing" as formal religious worship occurs in describing the religious syncretists (syn-cre-tist) of the northern kingdom who "feared" the Lord in respect to cultic worship (2 Kings 17:32-34), while at the same time not "fearing" the Lord in respect to righteous obedience to His law.