Monday, the second week of Easter

Exodus 14

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.

We hear a lot about the Red Sea in Eastertide.  The Exodus event, Israel's liberation from slavery in Egypt, is the great foreshadowing in history of the even greater liberation from slavery to sin and death which we have in Jesus Christ.

Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.  We have been spared the destruction which we deserved.  Yet, our former enslavers, sin and death, like Pharaoh before them, still pursue us.  In the Resurrection Christ opens the way of escape for us and leads us through.  We, however, often find ourselves, there on the shore of the sea with our enemies bearing down on us.  Yet, like Israel, the way of escape lies before us in Jesus and the life he offers.  We would see this and embrace it more often if only we did not allow our fears to blind and distract us.

All the fights of our lives are the Lord's if we are His and surrendered to Him.  We need only to be still.  We need only to trust him, all him to reign in our lives and he will triumph gloriously on our behalf.

How often, however, do we, in our fear, try to take over the situation?  How often do we try to plan and scheme our way out of trouble instead of letting God carry us through it?  How often do we allow ourselves to think nostalgically of our days in Egypt and the false security they offered?

The Egyptians we see today, we will never see again.  The Lord will fight for us.  We need only to be still.