Stand Still and Walk! – Part 2
But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” [Exodus 14:13-14]
In the text we quoted to start this study, the Israelites were standing on the shore of the Red Sea. The sea was in front of them to bar their advancement, and Pharaoh and his army were behind them to bar their retreat. The Israelites were in a state of discombobulation, fearing for their lives and panic-stricken.
Moses alone stood resolute because his eyes were on the Lord, while the other Israelites focused on the sea and the enemy soldiers. By faith Moses exhorted his compatriots, Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today.
Following today’s approach, Aaron should’ve run off to seclusion and written a fad book titled, “How To Escape All Your Troubles!” He could write down the account of how the Lord delivered the Israelites at the Red Sea. All of Egypt’s enemies would be sure to make a mad dash for the bookstores and get their copy. Then they could lure Pharaoh to the Red Sea and win the war the way the Israelites did!
Dear friends, on this occasion the Lord instructed the Israelites to stand still and watch Him deliver them from Pharaoh’s clutches. While they watched the Lord parted the waters of the Red Sea and sent the Israelites across it on dry ground. Of course the Israelites had to do their part, viz., to stand still and trust Him while the waters were parted, and then to get a-marching across the dry seabed.
But the Lord didn’t repeat this approach any other time, except forty years later when He also stopped the waters of the flooding Jordan River to allow Israel to cross on dry ground. The repetition of this approach was for reasons of typology.
On many occasions the Lord instructed the Israelites to take up arms and do the fighting themselves. He did defeat the enemy for them, to be sure, but they had to participate by actually fighting. So at the Red Sea the Lord forbade the Israelites to do the fighting, while against the Amalekites (as one example, cf., Exodus 17) He insisted they do the fighting.
Isn’t it clear that fad books about how to grow the church are only worldly ways? We have many a missions program which apes this approach. Such programs think bigger is better, rather than Biblical is spiritual. They wind up sending out family units on their own to do the work of the ministry, like isolated participants in guerrilla warfare.
What they should be doing is involving the entire Body of Christ in spiritual warfare. After all, every Christian is a prayer warrior in the Christian military. But Christians cannot effectively conduct spiritual warfare without personal involvement in the ministry. We need to know the missionaries and be kept up-to-date on their needs and goals, so we can offer up very specific prayers to the Lord.
In ministry the Lord has His part to do and we have ours. Those parts vary from ministry to ministry and sometimes from moment to moment. We need to maintain our relationship with the Lord daily and be in prayer about what He wants from us each day. That is how to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Isn’t this what you want for yourself? I know I do.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
In the text we quoted to start this study, the Israelites were standing on the shore of the Red Sea. The sea was in front of them to bar their advancement, and Pharaoh and his army were behind them to bar their retreat. The Israelites were in a state of discombobulation, fearing for their lives and panic-stricken.
Moses alone stood resolute because his eyes were on the Lord, while the other Israelites focused on the sea and the enemy soldiers. By faith Moses exhorted his compatriots, Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today.
Following today’s approach, Aaron should’ve run off to seclusion and written a fad book titled, “How To Escape All Your Troubles!” He could write down the account of how the Lord delivered the Israelites at the Red Sea. All of Egypt’s enemies would be sure to make a mad dash for the bookstores and get their copy. Then they could lure Pharaoh to the Red Sea and win the war the way the Israelites did!
Dear friends, on this occasion the Lord instructed the Israelites to stand still and watch Him deliver them from Pharaoh’s clutches. While they watched the Lord parted the waters of the Red Sea and sent the Israelites across it on dry ground. Of course the Israelites had to do their part, viz., to stand still and trust Him while the waters were parted, and then to get a-marching across the dry seabed.
But the Lord didn’t repeat this approach any other time, except forty years later when He also stopped the waters of the flooding Jordan River to allow Israel to cross on dry ground. The repetition of this approach was for reasons of typology.
On many occasions the Lord instructed the Israelites to take up arms and do the fighting themselves. He did defeat the enemy for them, to be sure, but they had to participate by actually fighting. So at the Red Sea the Lord forbade the Israelites to do the fighting, while against the Amalekites (as one example, cf., Exodus 17) He insisted they do the fighting.
Isn’t it clear that fad books about how to grow the church are only worldly ways? We have many a missions program which apes this approach. Such programs think bigger is better, rather than Biblical is spiritual. They wind up sending out family units on their own to do the work of the ministry, like isolated participants in guerrilla warfare.
What they should be doing is involving the entire Body of Christ in spiritual warfare. After all, every Christian is a prayer warrior in the Christian military. But Christians cannot effectively conduct spiritual warfare without personal involvement in the ministry. We need to know the missionaries and be kept up-to-date on their needs and goals, so we can offer up very specific prayers to the Lord.
In ministry the Lord has His part to do and we have ours. Those parts vary from ministry to ministry and sometimes from moment to moment. We need to maintain our relationship with the Lord daily and be in prayer about what He wants from us each day. That is how to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Isn’t this what you want for yourself? I know I do.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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