People like to be independent. We like to chow the world and ourselves that we can do it and don’t need help. We want to show we can “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”’”
Exodus 8:1 (ESV)
But the reality is, we can’t do everything by ourselves – and that’s good!
When you believe you need no one, you believe you are God.
The Israelites had “won.” Pharaoh had let them go and they were on the way to the Promised Land.
Then God told them to turn back just as He was hardening Pharaoh’s heart to pursue them and bring them back.
What?!
The people were understandably upset. Why was Moses leading them back; so they could “die in the wilderness?” They would rather have been left alone, so that they “may serve the Egyptians” instead of God.
What a terrible statement!
But Moses answers that they will see “the salvation of the Lord” today and that “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
What an amazing statement!
We know the story; the Israelites crossed over the sea on dry ground and the Lord destroyed the Pharaoh’s army in that sea.
God saved them!
Sometimes we get the mistaken impression that we must handle everything – including our salvation. We believe that we are the reliable ones in the couple of God and us. But the reality is, God is the only One who is reliable. Always!
This is manifested most fully in our salvation. Jesus fulfilled the Law; we couldn’t. Jesus lived perfectly in love; we wouldn’t. Jesus died; we didn’t.
Rather than bemoan when we realize we need God, we should rejoice; for in faith we see God waiting when we get to the end of ourselves.
It’s time to “stop trying and start trusting” that God’s got us and all our issues. He fights for us and we have only to be silent.
“Thank You, Lord!”
Scripture
- Exodus 14:1-29
- Luke 18:27
- Psalm 46
