Jehovah will fight for you, and ye shall be still.
Israel stood trapped between the sea and Pharaoh's army, and Moses told them the fighting would not be theirs. So when is doing nothing the right response, and what is God promising to do instead?
The Position God Chose
Israel had left Egypt, but Egypt had not let go. The old enemy was still chasing them.
Shut in between the desert and the sea, with Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen in full pursuit, their cry is a cry of despair. God Himself must take up the question between them and their old enemy again, and settle it for good. God fights for them; and they do nothing but "stand still and see the salvation of the LORD."
Whose Battle It Is
The promise names who does the fighting. That changes who the enemy now faces.
If God delivers and redeems us, He is for us and not against us. It says: "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." … At the Red Sea God steps in as Saviour for His people. They have nothing to do but look on at their own deliverance. In redemption God acts, so to speak, as if the enemies we could never beat had become His own enemies.
Why Standing Still Is So Hard
Standing still is the part human nature cannot manage. Restless activity feels like faith, but it is not.
Nature must be doing something. It will rush here and there. It would gladly have some hand in the matter. It may even excuse its worthless doings with the fine, popular title of "a legitimate use of means." But they are still the plain fruits of unbelief. Unbelief always shuts God out, and sees nothing except the dark cloud of its own making. Unbelief creates difficulties, or makes them look bigger. Then it sets us to removing them by our own busy, fruitless efforts. All they really do is raise a dust around us that hides God's salvation.
Silence on a National Scale
The scale of the command is easy to miss. God told a whole nation to make no move.
Six hundred thousand men were to stand still, moving neither foot nor finger! Deep silence suited them, for God was about to act out a drama like no other. How well that cheering word was suited to draw Israel's trembling heart away from its own deadly crisis, and on to faith in the LORD of hosts!
The Salvation They Were Shown
The command pointed them to God's salvation. One writer asks what that salvation is.
What is God's salvation? It is that Christ went down under the waves of divine judgment for His people. He bore their sins and took the judgment they deserved. Then He rose again in the power of a finished work, an atonement that glorified God. And what is the result? God has destroyed the enemy's power, and He calls us to gaze on a risen Saviour and an empty tomb.
Still, Then Forward
A verse or two later, God tells the same people to move. Both orders belong together.
There is nothing inconsistent between the command to "Stand still" and "Go forward." One action is passive, the other active. One is inward, the other outward. But both need faith to take hold of God's resources, which never fail.
A Different Kind of Battle
Three chapters later Israel meets Amalek, a desert people who attacked them, and this time they must fight. One writer marks the contrast.
God did not put Amalek out of Israel's way — they had to fight him, and it is the same for us… This is very different from what we get in chapter 14: "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."
Summary
- Shut in — the sea ahead and the army behind left no way out. God chose that dead end as the setting for their rescue.
- Shifted — the fight moved off Israel's shoulders onto God's. He acts as though the enemies too strong for us were His own.
- Still — standing still takes faith, not idleness. Restless self-effort only raises dust that hides God's salvation.
- Shown — the salvation they watched pictures Christ going down under judgment and rising again, with the enemy's power broken.
- Sent — the same faith that stands still then goes forward, and later fights Amalek. Silence here is not a rule for every battle.