But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.”

—Exodus 14:13-14

Anyone else ever look at some of God’s battle plans in the Old Testament and think they were just a little…odd? Using 300 men to defeat over a hundred thousand. Making the outcome of a battle dependent on an old man holding his arms up. Putting a kid with a slingshot up against a giant. Walking around a city for a week. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget, be still and hush.

I wonder if some of the Israelites were standing there (dutifully carrying out their orders) wondering if the next strategy for achieving victory involved running away from the battle. None of these strategies make any sense if we are judging by earthly wisdom. None of them offer a tactical advantage.

But they do all have something in common—they clearly demonstrate Israel’s desperate need for God.

God was the only reason the Israelites experienced victory. He was the one who threw their enemies into confusion. He was the one that made the city walls fall down at a shout. He was the one who parted the Red Sea. 

That’s the way it is with all the battles that take place in the Old Testament. If God is with them, regardless of what weird, silly, utterly confounding, or potentially embarrassing strategy God prescribed for the battle, they were victorious. If God did not go into battle with them, it didn’t matter how brilliant their tacticians were. They were going down.

By the time we meet the children of Israel in Exodus 14, they’d just left their front-row seats where they’d watched the plagues God sent to convince Pharaoh to let them go. They had seen His power up close and personal, so it’s no wonder they walked out of Egypt with heads held high. Verse 8 records that the sons of Israel walked out of Egypt “boldly.” The original word used there means to be high or exalted, or even to stand a little taller. 

In verse 8, they’re enjoying their victory. By verse 10, they’re telling Moses he never should have brought them out of Egypt because turned around (away from the divine pillar of cloud guiding them) and saw the Egyptians coming for them. It’s a quick shift. An absolute miracle they didn’t suffer whiplash. But just as quick, Moses delivers God’s winning battle strategy—stand still and be quiet.

As a teacher who has experienced the whining of a room full of teenagers who don’t understand why they need to do what they’ve just been asked to do, I can relate to the “be quiet” part of God’s instructions. All the people who were bellyaching and complaining about being taken out of Egypt to die in the desert were missing the point—God was about to do something, and they would miss it if they didn’t stop complaining.

To be fair though, based on earthly logic, it seems like the people of Israel were just making themselves easier, more compliant targets for their enemies, but there’s more to God’s instructions than meets the eye. God’s not just telling His people to accept a horrible, gruesome end in silence—He’s telling them to have faith.

The original word for the command to stand doesn’t refer to just standing around aimlessly or standing still because someone is frozen in fear. It’s more accurately translated as “take your stand.” It’s an intentional act of preparation for something that is expected. 

It reminds me of those stunt performers who sometimes compete on America’s Got Talent. One performer picks up a dangerous weapon of some kind—a knife, or a bow and arrow perhaps—while the other takes their stand in front of a target. It’s an act of faith, an intentional choice to stand still, trusting in their partner’s skill and the hard work they’ve put into rehearsal. 

That’s exactly what God was asking the Israelites to do—to stand still and trust in the power and love of their God, ready to receive further instructions.

I see this as both a challenge and a comfort. For those of us who struggle with stillness and silence, it can be a great challenge to pause and wait on the Lord. If there’s a battle to be fought, we feel like we need to take care of it. If there’s a job to be done, we feel like we need to get up and do it, but there is value in having the faith to be still, trusting the Lord that He will provide the time and the means to take care of everything that needs to be done when we get back to work.

For those of us who have been fighting the everyday life battles we find ourselves in for so long, that it feels like there is nothing left, there is comfort here. Because we have a God to whom we can go when all we have the strength for is to stand and wait on Him. He is powerful and faithful to fight on behalf of His children when we have faith in Him. 

Regardless of which side you’re leaning toward this week, I hope you’ll embrace the stillness and silence this week in your quiet time or before bed just to seek God’s presence. If the Old Testament is any indicator, there is so much to be gained by demonstrating our faith in this way.