Exodus 14 - Why Are You Crying to the LORD?
- Chad Werkhoven
- 23 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Be still and know the LORD will fight for you. Then stop crying and get moving.
SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF: Israel finally departed Egypt, leaving in haste as a redeemed people, marked by covenant obedience and provisioned by the Egyptians. God lead them not by the quickest route, but by the wilderness, teaching them to follow His presence and preparing them for what lies ahead.
But after they left, Pharoah once again hardened his heart and set chase after God's people.
Exodus 14:10–31 (NIV)
10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “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? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
13 Moses answered the people, “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. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”
19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.”
26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
Article 29
As for those who can belong to the church,
we can recognize them by the distinguishing marks of Christians:
namely by faith,
and by their fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness,
once they have received the one and only Savior,
Jesus Christ.
They love the true God and their neighbors,
without turning to the right or left,
and they crucify the flesh and its works.
Though great weakness remains in them,
they fight against it
by the Spirit
all the days of their lives,
appealing constantly
to the blood, suffering, death, and obedience of the Lord Jesus,
in whom they have forgiveness of their sins,
through faith in him.
Summary
What a sight this must have been! A multitude of slaves, set free by their covenant God whom they barely know through a series of cataclysmic events, laden down with food and treasure given to them by their former oppressors, and being chased by the most powerful army in the world. It was all too much for them - they were terrified and cried out to the LORD.
But that's not all they did. They quickly organized hundreds of thousands of voices into a choir that spoke in perfect unison, blurting out a chorus that they as a people would be repeating for the next four decades: "Moses! Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?!? Didn't we say to you to just leave us alone?!?
Moses' reply to the peoples' whining show his leadership skills at their finest. Don't be afraid, he begins. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring... The LORD will fight for you; you only need to be still.
Dig Deeper
It would be so poetically beautiful if immediately after Moses spoke those massively comforting words that the wind would have begun to blow and the sea opened up for God's terrified people to escape into. But that's not how it went down.
Instead, the LORD replied in a surprising way... shocking, even. We might have expected to see God place a majestic rainbow in the sky or give each one of His people a divine hug of some sort. But instead, God seems perturbed that His people were praying! Why are you crying, He asked Moses. He continued, tell the Israelites to move on!!!
Exodus 14 is a fun passage to read, for sure! Out of all the miracles in the Bible, I think I'd like to be able to have witnessed this one the most and see those walls of water up close. And then to see the look on the Israelite faces as those walls crashed in upon an army bent on enslaving them again.
But don't get so caught up in the entertaining logistics and details that you end up missing this huge theological implication. God is certainly the God of all comforts, but He also means business. When He says go, it's time to suck up the tears and go, even when it seems to you He's driving you into the deep sea. When He points the way to salvation, as He did millennia ago in Egypt, and as He's done for you in Christ, it's time to stop crying and start following!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who gained glory through Pharoah and all his army;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Cry out to God for comfort, be still and know that the LORD will fight for you, but also quit crying when God has said to move out;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
