"The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent."
A great verse and a great reminder. I have offered this verse to my friends and family when life's situations have warranted such a reminder.The context of this verse is that the Hebrews have just left Egypt and are now being pursued by Pharaoh, who wants his slaves back. But the Israelites find them blocked by an Egyptian sea, with seemingly no where to go. So Moses speaks those previous powerful words.
And yet, just the other day I read verse 15.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward."
In other words, don't just stand there crying...get a move on it! I had to smile when I read this verse because it reminds me of my own parents. For example, if I ever had a headache or felt ill and mentioned that to my mom, the response would be "go take some medicine!" and not the coddling I was looking for! And this is what I feel God is doing to Israel, in a way.
Silence does not mean do nothing! The silence I believe that is mentioned in verse 14 has to do with being silent and quiet in your heart and thoughts because you have faith that God is present and working and greater than ANY difficulty you face. But God's command to the Israelites is to keep moving. Yes, for them that meant walking towards the sea and maybe that appeared to them as a "certain death." But if they stood around and were "silent" with inactivity, then the ONLY option would have been death or slavery. So God said to move forward...not back towards Egypt, because He wants to give us freedom from our bondage. And it was at the water's edge (I would guess that likely the Israelite's minds were full of confusion, fear, and insecurities) that God showed them the way to freedom, by parting the waters!
You see, God had freed the Hebrews from their Egyptian masters. And once again God was providing freedom and life to the Israelites. Our God is a God of freedom...just like with the Israelites, God wants to continually bring you life and a future filled with freedom from the bondages that had previously tied you down. This doesn't mean that there won't be difficulties...you too may face an "impossible" situation with your enemies pressing down on you and your back against a sea but know that God wants you to keep moving forward and HE will provide your freedom. Just trust him and wait to be amazed!
