With their backs against the Red Sea and their enemy (the Egyptian’s) quickly closing in on them, the newly delivered children of Israel began to panic.  If God didn’t come through…they were through.

Can you identify?  I can, therefore I would like to share with you something the Lord encouraged me with.  The children of Israel were getting fearful because although they had seen some miracles…they didn’t personally know this God they were being delivered to serve.  Sure, they might have heard the accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they didn’t have an encounter with the living God.  All they had was 400 +/- years of bitterness and bondage feeling like God forgot them and turned a cold ear to their cries.  How could they trust Him now?  How can you trust someone/something you don’t know?

Beloved, spending time with Him and learning of His personality is how we will know God and as we know what He’s all about we will trust Him more and more.  Walking with Him and talking with Him on a daily basis is how we build this trust. 

Moses had an opportunity to get to know God at the burning bush.  He really talked some stuff that was on his heart out with God.  Moses asked God some personal questions (what’s Your name/), he revealed some of his insecurities to God (I am not eloquent of speech), and some of his great fears (they won’t listen to me). 

In this time together, God worked it out with Moses and because of this encounter Moses was trying calm the children of Israel’s fears with the peace and trust in God that he had come to know. 

We listen to people we trust…they trusted Moses.  He told them to “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” and that the Lord would fight FOR them and that they would “hold their peace.”  (see Exodus 14:13-14) 

However, holding your peace is easier said than done.  When the soul is encountering fear two primary instincts rise up:  to flee/run away, or to fight.  However, if we run away in panic verses become still and seeing what God is going to do in the situation we find ourselves in we will never witness the Red Sea parting. 

It’s the Red Sea parting that produces the faith that we need to calm our fear and build our trust in God.  It is written, “So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.”  (Exodus 14:30-31)

This wasn’t the only miracle they were going to witness; they still had a great wilderness and another body of water to cross (The Jordan) before they would enter into the Promised Land.  Over and over again throughout their journey the Lord proved Himself able and faithful over and over again and one day they came face to face with water again.

The last time they faced water they followed Moses, but Moses was gone now.  This time they followed Joshua.  He told them that when the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant came to the edge of the water, the water from the Jordan would stand still. 

As you know…it did and they all crossed over on dry ground (Joshua 3:17).  This too was to be a sign for the children of Israel of God’s faithfulness.  Therefore, when they crossed the Lord commanded that they take stones from the sea as a memorial, as a sign testifying to the children of Israel FOREVER.

Why would God tell them to do that and what are we to learn from it?  Could it be that God understands that we will have moments of fear and that He is helping us prepare for it by girding up our faith and creating a memory?  I would have to say yes.  God wants us to remember our victories in Him so that when we are faced again with an obstacle that seems impossible to cross we will remember.  Because the reality is that even when our faith meter is running on empty and we’re trembling inside, God is faithful. 

Beloved, we all have a wilderness to cross before we enter into the Promises of God.  No matter what crisis we might find ourselves currently in, when we remember the last victory and God’s faithfulness our strength will be renewed.   

“Be still and know that I am God.”  (Psalm 46:16)  For in the stillness we will see our Salvation and be once again full of faith.  Amen and Amen.