You Need Only Be Still
When temptations charge at us, when our sinful nature kicks up its heals, when the devil himself stampedes in our direction, listen to Moses in Exodus 14:10-31, "You Need Only Be Still!" August 3, 2008.
“It was the plumes. The red and yellow plumes. You know, those feathered decorations tied onto a horse’s head between the ears. That’s what I remember more than anything. In fact, I sometimes have nightmares about it some forty years later. I was only twelve years old, but I can still see those plumes, pulled back by the sheer force of the wind, bobbing up and down as those horses came charging at us. And they weren’t pet ponies that calmly walked in a circle around a pole so a four-year-old wouldn’t fall off. They weren’t the kind of horses you can walk up to with a lump of sugar or an apple and have them gently nibble it from you palm. They weren’t slow, sluggish plow horses that plodded through the fields or stood like statues along a barn fence calmly munching grass. They were war horses, bred to charge, bred to gallop in full fury – their nostrils flared, their manes flowing back, their tails straightened like an arrow, their hooves pounding the turf with a steady thunder beat, sweat spraying from their flanks as huge, tensed muscles strained under the harness and hitch attached to gilded chariots. And in those chariots were warriors, experts in handling the reins and hurling their razor-sharp spears with deadly accuracy, and then whipping their swords from side to side, crashing and slashing and leaving behind a trail of severed body parts, blood, carnage, and death. Oh, yes! It was the plumes! I’ll never forget them.
“There we were, as helpless as ants in the path of a charging elephant, two and a half million of us, fleeing from our humble huts and hovels in Goshen after years of mindless menial tasks and senseless slave labor, but now crammed like sardines between rocky hills with the waves of the Red Sea lapping at the ankles and knees of those who had been leading the way and with the Egyptian army charging. We were caught like flies in a spider’s web, caught like three blind mice in the corner of a bare room with a pack of cats pouncing in our direction. We couldn’t help turning to look. With the thundering hooves of those chariot horses approaching and with those red and yellow plumes rising and falling like a wild flow of lava surging at breakneck speed right at us, we knew we were goners. Moses! Why did you lead us here to die? You announced that God had sent you to rescue us. But how is this a rescue? We’ve got no way out. We’re unarmed and defenseless, unless we grab some little lambs by the feet and swing them like some kind of cushioned club to knock the Egyptians out of their chariots. We would have been better off dying of exhaustion building those pyramids. Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? … It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!
“But then we heard Moses say something that stunned us. Nearly everyone heard him over the din of the charging chariots, and those that didn’t got wind of the word within seconds. His message spread like wildfire; You Need Only Be Still.”
Still in fear
“With the Egyptian chariots bearing down on us, my dad and uncles tried to be brave. They called out to Moses, ‘We’re willing to form a human barrier with as many men as possible. We’ll put the women and children inside a semi-circle near the water and hope for the best. Maybe we’ll be able to stack up enough of our bodies either living or dead to protect the ones we love.’ But Moses said, ‘That won’t help. You don’t have time to get organized, and even if you did, the Egyptian chariots are too powerful. They’ll cut through you like a hot knife through butter. You Need Only Be Still.’ And so they were. My dad and uncles just stood still.
“As I said, I was only twelve. But my feelings didn’t come close to what looked like bravery by my dad and uncles. I felt like nearly everyone else. We need only be still? That’s all we can do! Moses, we have never lived in Northern Wisconsin. We have never seen a deer at ten in the evening standing in the middle of a backwoods, black-top road with an SUV barreling straight at it, headlights on high. A deer in the headlights frozen from fear is far removed from us by seven thousand eight hundred miles and three thousand five hundred years, but if we had any clue what that animal would feel like, that’s what we’re feeling now. You say, ‘You Need Only Be Still.’ That’s exactly what we are – still – actually frozen in fear.”
Raise your hand if you have faced a charging army of Egyptian charioteers? None? That’s what I thought. But how many of us have been frozen in fear, or if not frozen at least felt fear’s cold grip grab our insides and start to squeeze? If you have never felt any fear, you’re either fooling yourself, able to erase negative memories, or dead.
What causes the most fear most often for you? Losing stuff you’d just as soon keep but could likely live without? Losing connections with someone near and/or dear to you? Losing income? Losing face? Or maybe fear comes from the outside, from forces beyond our control – an unfair, uncaring boss, storms blasting away on our windows and roof, an unstable economy that affects vacation travel and the price of groceries. Fears can come from many angles, but the Bible says, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”(1 Corinthians 10:12). The Bible says, “Among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people … For this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person … has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ”(Ephesians 5:3,5). If there is one thing that really ought to raise fear in our hearts, it’s the sight of temptations to sin charging at us at break-neck speed. If we think we can fight off temptation on our own without God’s help, or if we think we can control our sinful desires on our own without God’s deliverance, then we’re going to end up like unarmed Israelites trying to defend themselves against charging Egyptians, which can only lead to being frozen in fear from the most horrible disaster of all. Jesus himself warned, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell”(Matthew 10:28). When temptations charge at us, when our sinful nature kicks up its heals, when the devil himself stampedes in our direction, listen to Moses, “You Need Only Be Still!”
Still in faith
“So there we were. Stopped, stuck, still. We could do nothing. But that’s when God went to work. The angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them … Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side … Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea … The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. As memorable as were the charging horses of the Egyptian charioteers, the parting of the Red Sea was even more unforgettable. This was a not a Universal Studio sound stage stunt. This was not a movie back-lot technical trick. This was an answer to God’s promise through Moses, ‘Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; You Need Only Be Still’. You can hardly imagine the jubilation and joy! We did nothing, absolutely nothing. God did it all. God parted the waters. God led us through on dry ground. God drowned his enemies and ours. All we did was watch in amazement as God delivered us from our foes. All we did was watch as those red and yellow plumes floated away. All we did was watch as God changed our fear to faith because that’s basically what faith is – watching God work for us.”
God not only warns us about falling into temptations. The Bible also assures us, “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear”(1 Corinthians 10:13). God not only warns us about the internal pull of our sinful nature. He also assures us, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). So completely has Jesus drowned the army of sin in the red sea of his blood that the heavenly Father considers Jesus’ life to be ours, his battle over sin to be ours, his victory to be ours so that we can state with the apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”(Galatians 2:20). All we do is watch in amazement as Jesus delivered us from our foes. All we do is watch as the red and yellow plumes of guilt float away. All we do is watch as God changes our fear into faith. My friends, the economy may bother you. High gas prices may put a crimp in your travel plans or cause you to lift your eyebrows in horror as the checkout gal rings up the price of yellow peppers, milk, and pork chops. Illness and ouchies may be more than a nuisance. Relationship disappointments may break your heart. But none of those things can rip the results of God’s deliverance from sin out of your heart. You and I are headed to the Promised Land. To make that happen you and I do nothing. We need only be still.
“Forty years ago my parents and the majority of their Israelite generation refused to enter and occupy the promised land in spite of what they had seen God do at the Red Sea just two years earlier. They all died in the wilderness. Now here we are, the next generation, at the Jordan River, wondering what’s on the other side. Fear? Yes! But we watched what the Lord did to the Egyptian army. We witnessed what he did for us during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness as he provided food and water to sustain us. When we cross the Jordan, we know God will lead us. We know he will fight for us. We know he will win and give us the victory. That’s because he’s God, and we’re not. Good thing! So I told my kids exactly what you can tell yourself and your kids when you or they are afraid, ‘You Need Only Be Still.’” Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on August 3, 2008
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