The situation preceding this statement was the period of questions on the efficacy of an action which the nation had taken. They had left the house of bondage and were marching to the state of their deliverance.
They were in the house of servitude, and while there, their hearts desired the house of liberty and they thirsted the waters of freedom. Have you come to that point before?
Pharaoh and his advisers realized after Israel departed that they had made a policy blunder and immediately sought steps to correct the situation. Mean time, Israel had come to master the art of complaining. They rained all sorts of insults on Moses, they just yearned an exchange of good old enslavement with a freedom they could not see. You know the story!
They wished they had just stayed in Egypt rather than undertake this venture which had finally ended them in such and indescribable calamity. They knew for sure that they were going to die under the pursuit by the men on horses and chariots.
After all were they not the same people who washed and shined the chariots after each conquest in Egypt by the King of Egypt and did they not know such immense force which the horses and the chariots wrought? Who would call them coward since their fears were justifiable? So they complained. The point is that they paid little attention to the fact that in reality they had never been free and were actually on the way to freedom the first time ever in their lives as a nation.
All through their lives they have only been as best, servants to the lords of Egypt. So their minds would sway from this not so foreseeable freedom in the promised land, to their known beds of straw in Egypt.
When they thirsted, they yearned for the waters of the Nile and would just reminisce over their past lives. In their vanity they would just say, “ better the devil you know that the angel you do not…” Back and forth. Moses said “Stand firm and see the deliverance which the Lord will bring you today…”
The requirement to stand firm was a prerequisite for the deliverance that the Lord was to bring to them. The Lord desired to set them free from any remaining chains and make them masters in a land they would call their own. But they needed to stand firm!Let us make some extractions here. In our walk with Jesus we have not yet seen the ‘promised land’. Though we are saved, we are still bound by the remnants of the past. It is evident in our own lives and in our children and though we are completely saved we are yet to see real liberty in certain major aspects of our lives.
The bills keep coming and each new month we get deeper and deeper into the centre of this financial mess. The boy no longer can concentrate on his school work because there is no male role model in the house for him to emulate, we are about to lose him. The girl was last seen about two years ago and when she was seen she did not look too well.
Everything seems to be falling apart and the centre can no longer hold.
Stand firm means stop swaying in your thoughts first as the Israelites did and do not make any move. Do not make even so little a move as ’normal’ walking. Stop going on holidays, just for a while, stop doing normal things. For a while steep yourself in fasting devote time to prayer and ask God to take the centre stage and change things.
Give the Lord of your salvation a little while, suspend all normal things and see the deliverance which the Lord will accomplish today. It goes further, it says “...for the Egyptians you see today, you shall see them no more…” and it adds “ ...forever”. I would like to remind you in case you have overlooked it, that deliverance was a part of the salvation package and it is “yours for the asking”. I would like to encourage you to assess the situation and call a fast, and stay off all so called normal things and give serious time to prayer and draw near to God.It may take a year or two or more but at the end of it, your eyes shall see the deliverance the Lord has purposed for you. Try it, seek Spiritual help and Jesus will be ready to help you.
