Fear and Faith (Part One)
We will begin in Exodus 14:14. Moses exhorts the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea as Pharaoh and his army bore down on them, "The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." In English, it is a perfectly balanced sentence: six words, a comma, and six more words. In the original Hebrew, it is only four words.
The Hebrew word translated as hold literally means "be quiet." We can thus read this verse as, "The LORD will fight for you, and you shall be quiet." It begins to take on a more strident, more forceful tone.
The Revised Standard Version translates this verse as, "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still." This rendering is like the New King James' translation, able to be read several ways depending on where the emphasis falls.
The Common English Bible expresses the thought as, "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still," which adds a bit more force. The Complete Jewish Bible ratchets up the emotion: "Adonai will do battle for you. Just calm yourselves down!" God's Word Translation puts it even more forcefully: "The LORD is fighting for you! So be still!" Finally, The Message Bible gets the message across: "GOD will fight the battle for you. And you? You keep your mouths shut!"
These alternative translations cast this verse in a different light! It has the feel of what it was like to be called into the principal's office back in the day, and the student began to make excuses. The principal would cut him off and snarl, "Sit down and shut up!"—not that I have any firsthand knowledge of that kind of thing, but I've heard stories. He is really saying, "Shut up with your complaining!"
As mentioned earlier, Exodus 14 is the story of the Red Sea crossing. In verse 2, God led these millions of people into a dead-end situation. They were hemmed in on all sides. God had deliberately turned them away from the Promised Land, southward and eastward, so that Pharaoh's army would follow them (verses 3-4). He led them into a trap so that, as God says in verse 4, "the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD." So, the army of Egypt pursued their former slaves.
"And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD" (verse 10). The Israelites had left Egypt with a "high hand" (Numbers 33:3) on a grand adventure to the Promised Land, only to have it all crash down around their ears just a few days later! Or so it seemed.
They reacted in a very human way: They cried out in fear. Even after seeing the miracles of the ten plagues, being passed over by the Death Angel, gathering their back wages with interest (Exodus 12:36), and following the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they had no faith. They, of course, lacked God's Holy Spirit and so could not see God in a spiritual sense.
To prove to Egypt and all posterity that He was God, He led the people into a box canyon. Did Moses know how God planned to get them out? Did he look at the waves of the Red Sea and think, "Yeah, it's perfect. We'll cross here!" Maybe not. How many times has God delivered us from a trial from a direction we never expected? Moses was probably ignorant of how God would save them, but he had the faith that He would save them, however He would do it! He had seen the same miracles as the people, but he saw God in them. Notice his confident words in Exodus 14:13:
God then reveals His plan in verse 15: "And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to Me? [Why are you calling on Me for help? Why are you complaining?] Tell the children of Israel to go forward.'"
Wait, what? "Go forward"? Walk right into the sea? Talk about stepping out in faith! We are not told the specifics of Moses' prayer in this situation, but he was undoubtedly in constant prayer to God. But it seems as if God was just a bit frustrated with him. "Go forward!" He commands His servant. It is easy to sympathize with Moses here because he felt pressure from all sides.
The Jamison, Faucett, and Brown Commentary says this about Moses: "[His] meek, unruffled, magnanimous composure presents one of the sublimest examples of moral courage to be found in history." Adam Clarke writes about these verses:
In our spiritual warfare, God sometimes requires us to act in faith, and at other times, God goes on ahead and clears the way. The older I get, the more I can look back on episodes in my life and recognize that God opened doors, solved problems, inspired solutions, or from time to time, came from a completely unexpected direction to rescue me out of a crisis—just as He did for Moses and the children of Israel.
We will examine two other situations that occurred on Israel's wilderness trek next time.
However, Numbers 13:1-2 makes it sound like it was God's idea: "And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan . . ..'" Is Moses' memory faulty? After all, he is 120 years old, and 38 years have passed since the event. No, commentators feel that the idea came from the people, and God endorsed it as both a trial and a punishment.
As we know, the spies came back with a discouraging report of strong fortifications and great warriors. Moses relates the Israelites' reaction in Deuteronomy 1:26-27, 29-30: "Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled . . .; and you complained in your tents . . .. Then I [Moses] said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them [the Canaanites]. The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you." Some ancient texts translate verse 30 as, "the Word of the LORD shall fight for you"—the One who became Jesus Christ, our Intercessor, Elder Brother, and Trailblazer will go before His people and fight for them!
"[Y]ou saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place" (verse 31). When my family lived near Stone Mountain, Georgia, we would often hike the mile-long trail up the side of the mountain and back down. Down is not so bad, but going up, it gets a bit steep near the top. When my son, Cody, was small, I would put him on my shoulders when he got tired. How many times has God carried us in a similar way? Do we even realize He is doing so when it happens?
Verse 32 concludes, "Yet, for all that [all God did for them], you did not believe the LORD your God." According to tradition, the spies returned with their report on the eighth of Av, and that night, as the ninth of Av began, the people murmured in their tents. So began a long list of calamities to befall Israel on this date, most especially to the Jews, who are something of the "face" of Israel to the world. Both the First and the Second Temples suffered destruction on the ninth of Av. After the Second Temple fell, the Jews declared that the ninth of Av would be a perpetual fast day. Later, in AD 135, the Battle of Betar was lost on this day. In its aftermath, the Roman Emperor Hadrian massacred so many Jews that the Talmud says, with some hyperbole, that the horses were submerged in blood up to their nostrils!
The Jews were expelled from England (July 18, 1290) and from Spain (July 31, 1492) on the ninth of Av, and to them, both World Wars began on it (August 1, 1914, and August 2, 1941). The latter date may require explanation: August 2, 1941, is the day when Heinrich Himmler received approval for the "Final Solution," the Holocaust in which one-third of the world's Jews were exterminated. So, Jews consider August 2, 1941, the true starting date of that war.
Is it a coincidence that all these tragedies fell on the anniversary of the Israelites' total breakdown in faith? It makes one think!
Here again, we have a situation in which the Israelites reacted with fear rather than with faith. God could not have been more encouraging to them, offering to go before them into the land of Canaan and fight their battles for them. "The sons of the Anakim" (Deuteronomy 1:28) could not stand before Him! He also pointed out all the times He had "carried" them over rough spots in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet they would not believe that He would get them over the obstacle before them, which, to God, was no more difficult than the others they had faced.
But they refused God's command to take the land, so He condemned them to wander another 38 years through the wilderness until all the adults of that generation were dead (Deuteronomy 1:34-40). Only Caleb and Joshua, who had given faithful reports, were spared.
Too often, we react like Israel when significant trials arise before us. This trial always seems bigger and more dangerous than the ones in our rearview mirror. So, we react with fear rather than with a faith that is supported by perhaps years or decades of experience of God helping us overcome similar huge, crushing trials. Our study of Israel's fearful reactions should clue us in that reacting in fear does not end well.
Next time, we will consider a final example of Israel's fear-or-faith opportunities.
The Hebrew word translated as hold literally means "be quiet." We can thus read this verse as, "The LORD will fight for you, and you shall be quiet." It begins to take on a more strident, more forceful tone.
The Revised Standard Version translates this verse as, "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still." This rendering is like the New King James' translation, able to be read several ways depending on where the emphasis falls.
The Common English Bible expresses the thought as, "The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still," which adds a bit more force. The Complete Jewish Bible ratchets up the emotion: "Adonai will do battle for you. Just calm yourselves down!" God's Word Translation puts it even more forcefully: "The LORD is fighting for you! So be still!" Finally, The Message Bible gets the message across: "GOD will fight the battle for you. And you? You keep your mouths shut!"
These alternative translations cast this verse in a different light! It has the feel of what it was like to be called into the principal's office back in the day, and the student began to make excuses. The principal would cut him off and snarl, "Sit down and shut up!"—not that I have any firsthand knowledge of that kind of thing, but I've heard stories. He is really saying, "Shut up with your complaining!"
As mentioned earlier, Exodus 14 is the story of the Red Sea crossing. In verse 2, God led these millions of people into a dead-end situation. They were hemmed in on all sides. God had deliberately turned them away from the Promised Land, southward and eastward, so that Pharaoh's army would follow them (verses 3-4). He led them into a trap so that, as God says in verse 4, "the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD." So, the army of Egypt pursued their former slaves.
"And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD" (verse 10). The Israelites had left Egypt with a "high hand" (Numbers 33:3) on a grand adventure to the Promised Land, only to have it all crash down around their ears just a few days later! Or so it seemed.
They reacted in a very human way: They cried out in fear. Even after seeing the miracles of the ten plagues, being passed over by the Death Angel, gathering their back wages with interest (Exodus 12:36), and following the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they had no faith. They, of course, lacked God's Holy Spirit and so could not see God in a spiritual sense.
To prove to Egypt and all posterity that He was God, He led the people into a box canyon. Did Moses know how God planned to get them out? Did he look at the waves of the Red Sea and think, "Yeah, it's perfect. We'll cross here!" Maybe not. How many times has God delivered us from a trial from a direction we never expected? Moses was probably ignorant of how God would save them, but he had the faith that He would save them, however He would do it! He had seen the same miracles as the people, but he saw God in them. Notice his confident words in Exodus 14:13:
Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever."Then, paraphrasing verse 14, he says, "Shut up and watch what God is going to do."
God then reveals His plan in verse 15: "And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to Me? [Why are you calling on Me for help? Why are you complaining?] Tell the children of Israel to go forward.'"
Wait, what? "Go forward"? Walk right into the sea? Talk about stepping out in faith! We are not told the specifics of Moses' prayer in this situation, but he was undoubtedly in constant prayer to God. But it seems as if God was just a bit frustrated with him. "Go forward!" He commands His servant. It is easy to sympathize with Moses here because he felt pressure from all sides.
The Jamison, Faucett, and Brown Commentary says this about Moses: "[His] meek, unruffled, magnanimous composure presents one of the sublimest examples of moral courage to be found in history." Adam Clarke writes about these verses:
Moses said—Fear ye not] This exhortation was not given to excite them to resist, for of that there was no hope; they were unarmed, they had no courage, and their minds were deplorably degraded.
Stand still] Ye shall not be even workers together with God; only be quiet, and do not render yourselves wretched by your fears and your confusion.
See the salvation of the Lord] Behold the deliverance which God will work, independently of all human help and means.
Ye shall see them again no more] Here was strong faith, but this was accompanied by the spirit of prophecy. God showed Moses what [H]e would do, he believed, and therefore he spoke in [this] encouraging manner . . ..We tend to lose sight of this encouraging principle from time to time. In the pressures of daily life—working, paying the bills, raising children, just living in this present, evil age—we often forget that God promises to fight our battles. We should not forget this promise for long! John Ritenbaugh's oft-repeated question, "Do You See God?" should never be far from our minds.
In our spiritual warfare, God sometimes requires us to act in faith, and at other times, God goes on ahead and clears the way. The older I get, the more I can look back on episodes in my life and recognize that God opened doors, solved problems, inspired solutions, or from time to time, came from a completely unexpected direction to rescue me out of a crisis—just as He did for Moses and the children of Israel.
We will examine two other situations that occurred on Israel's wilderness trek next time.
"Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged." And every one of you came near to me and said, "Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come." (Emphasis ours throughout.)God had promised them the land, and they had seen miracles daily, but when the time came to move in, they could not do it. They put it off with a suggestion to send in spies. Moses admits, in verse 23, that the plan to send the spies "pleased" him. Did he later regret sending them? He says every one of them came to him suggesting this, and he liked it.
However, Numbers 13:1-2 makes it sound like it was God's idea: "And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan . . ..'" Is Moses' memory faulty? After all, he is 120 years old, and 38 years have passed since the event. No, commentators feel that the idea came from the people, and God endorsed it as both a trial and a punishment.
As we know, the spies came back with a discouraging report of strong fortifications and great warriors. Moses relates the Israelites' reaction in Deuteronomy 1:26-27, 29-30: "Nevertheless, you would not go up, but rebelled . . .; and you complained in your tents . . .. Then I [Moses] said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, or afraid of them [the Canaanites]. The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you." Some ancient texts translate verse 30 as, "the Word of the LORD shall fight for you"—the One who became Jesus Christ, our Intercessor, Elder Brother, and Trailblazer will go before His people and fight for them!
"[Y]ou saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this place" (verse 31). When my family lived near Stone Mountain, Georgia, we would often hike the mile-long trail up the side of the mountain and back down. Down is not so bad, but going up, it gets a bit steep near the top. When my son, Cody, was small, I would put him on my shoulders when he got tired. How many times has God carried us in a similar way? Do we even realize He is doing so when it happens?
Verse 32 concludes, "Yet, for all that [all God did for them], you did not believe the LORD your God." According to tradition, the spies returned with their report on the eighth of Av, and that night, as the ninth of Av began, the people murmured in their tents. So began a long list of calamities to befall Israel on this date, most especially to the Jews, who are something of the "face" of Israel to the world. Both the First and the Second Temples suffered destruction on the ninth of Av. After the Second Temple fell, the Jews declared that the ninth of Av would be a perpetual fast day. Later, in AD 135, the Battle of Betar was lost on this day. In its aftermath, the Roman Emperor Hadrian massacred so many Jews that the Talmud says, with some hyperbole, that the horses were submerged in blood up to their nostrils!
The Jews were expelled from England (July 18, 1290) and from Spain (July 31, 1492) on the ninth of Av, and to them, both World Wars began on it (August 1, 1914, and August 2, 1941). The latter date may require explanation: August 2, 1941, is the day when Heinrich Himmler received approval for the "Final Solution," the Holocaust in which one-third of the world's Jews were exterminated. So, Jews consider August 2, 1941, the true starting date of that war.
Is it a coincidence that all these tragedies fell on the anniversary of the Israelites' total breakdown in faith? It makes one think!
Here again, we have a situation in which the Israelites reacted with fear rather than with faith. God could not have been more encouraging to them, offering to go before them into the land of Canaan and fight their battles for them. "The sons of the Anakim" (Deuteronomy 1:28) could not stand before Him! He also pointed out all the times He had "carried" them over rough spots in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet they would not believe that He would get them over the obstacle before them, which, to God, was no more difficult than the others they had faced.
But they refused God's command to take the land, so He condemned them to wander another 38 years through the wilderness until all the adults of that generation were dead (Deuteronomy 1:34-40). Only Caleb and Joshua, who had given faithful reports, were spared.
Too often, we react like Israel when significant trials arise before us. This trial always seems bigger and more dangerous than the ones in our rearview mirror. So, we react with fear rather than with a faith that is supported by perhaps years or decades of experience of God helping us overcome similar huge, crushing trials. Our study of Israel's fearful reactions should clue us in that reacting in fear does not end well.
Next time, we will consider a final example of Israel's fear-or-faith opportunities.
- Mike Ford
Fear and Faith (Part Three)
As we close this series on the choice between faith and fear, we need to consider one more example from the events of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. Moses sets the scene for us in Exodus 17:1:
Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.
Rephidim lay about a day's march from Mount Sinai at the entrance to the Horeb district. They had walked through a barren desert into a valley with no shelter, only sparse vegetation, and no water. Pictures of this area have been posted online, and it does not look at all hospitable. This event would have occurred sometime in May, and in a desert environment, temperatures would be rising. The latitude of Rephidim is roughly the same as St. Augustine, Florida, if that helps.
As an aside, most Bible commentators feel that Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are just different names for the same mountain. A smaller group feels that they are separate mountains, or possibly, different peaks in the same range. There is no reason for us to get into the weeds on this controversy. What we do know is that Exodus 17:1 says that they camped in Rephidim, where this event took place. In Exodus 19:1-2, they departed from Rephidim and went to the Desert of Sinai. Exodus 17:2-3:
Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, "Give us water, that we may drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the LORD?" And the people thirsted there for water . . ..
In a hot and dry environment, an adult can lose three pints of sweat in an hour. A child left in a hot car can dehydrate, overheat, and die in only a few hours. Once a person's water levels dip below a healthy amount, along with the obvious thirst, he or she also develops dry skin, fatigue, light-headedness, dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse and breathing, and other symptoms. Dehydrated children cry without tears. Without water, a general malaise sets in. As water leaches out of the brain cells, the brain contracts, and blood vessels in the head may burst.
How endangered were the Israelites at this point? The biblical text reads, "And the people thirsted there." To what degree did they thirst? The word translated as "thirst" can mean "suffer thirst." The Good News Bible interprets the text to say they were "very thirsty," which is likely.
Not only did most of them not have God's Holy Spirit, but the Israelites were starting to become dehydrated, which alters a person's thinking. I have experienced situations without water, and it does strange things with one's mind. Hiking in a canyon in the backcountry of Utah, my wife Phyllis and I ran out of water. I had to restrain Phyllis almost forcefully from drinking from a stream that we had been warned had cattle runoff in it. She was beginning to get a little loopy. She would have become extremely sick had she drunk from that stream. We should have been carrying a portable water purifier, but that is a lesson for another day.
The story continues in verse 4: "So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!" It appears that the Israelites had become dehydrated enough that they were not thinking straight.
In verse 6, God instructs Moses, "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it." Again, pictures of what is presumed to be the "rock in Horeb" can be seen in numerous photos online. They show a huge rock at the top of what is currently identified as Mount Horeb, and the rock features a split right down the middle.
Consider this. In the center of this rocky, dry, and barren area, at the highest point around, stands a large rock with an almost perfect vertical split down the middle. No one can say for sure that this is the very rock Moses struck, but it is certainly possible.
With this image in mind, we should picture a huge cascade of water gushing out of the split in the rock—enough water for millions of thirsty people and their animals. How long would it have to flow to rehydrate them all? Days, perhaps?
So, in verse 7, Moses named this place Massah and Meribah, meaning "testing" and "contention" or "quarreling," respectively, "because they tempted [tested] the LORD, saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?'" They had witnessed daily miracles in the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night, and manna on the ground each morning, and they dare to ask, "Is the LORD with us or not?"
Despite their complaints, He obviously was with them. He was among them, just as He is among us. Consider that Moses was thirsty too! But he was faithful. He saw God leading them, and he trusted Him to lead them where He wanted them to go. He knew God would handle the situation in His own time because He had not brought them this far into the wilderness just to let them die.
As we experience our daily battles and are tempted to complain as they become more severe, remember that we can react in fear or faith. The examples we have seen all show that it is far better to respond with faith. We can be confident that God will help us. So, keep in mind Exodus 14:14, where we began: "The LORD will fight for you, and you just keep quiet."
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