How to See His Salvation...

Exodus 14: 13-18: 
"And Moses said to the people, "'Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.  For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.  The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.'
The Lord said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to me?  Tell the people of Israel to go forward.  Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.  And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.'"


The Israelites have been allowed to leave their slavery in Egypt but Pharaoh is coming to take them back.  His whole army "overtook them encamped at sea (14:9)."


Imagine it.  The sea ahead.  Pharaoh's army with it's chariots and horsemen and men on foot-all of them-behind.  To be one of the wandering and to know the power of the Egyptians and the hardness of Pharaoh's heart and to feel like you have been released only to walk out to death.  


And Moses says, "You have only to be silent."


Really Moses?  That's how we should protect ourselves against this massive force?  Be silent?


Because it is God who fights the battle.  "I will harden...I will get glory...I am the Lord...I have gotten glory..."


I'll read it again in this Old Testament.  Stories of how people need only wait, be silent, be still,  walk around a wall, shout at the top of their lungs, view God's power in action.  See His salvation.  I need to read it again.  And again.  And again.  


But the people also had to move forward.  To look at those Red Sea walls towering to the right and to the left, and walk through them.  All this, and they would see the salvation of the Lord.  What if they never took that step for fear?  Thank you, Lord, that they kept moving. 


We wait.  We listen.  And then we move.  So often I work out of immediate response to something.  My emotions are charged and only doing will calm them.  That's what my mind tells me anyway.


So today Lord, as I walk through motherhood, as I walk as a wife, a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend, teach me to wait.  To listen.  And to move only when You tell me to.  To let You fight the battle and to see Your salvation so You receive glory and our hearts turn to worship...


And day 1 of intentional living-to be a blessing to the teacher I subbed for today.  Leave the room cleaner than when I entered, stick to her plan, and leave an anonymous Fall gift behind...