He Will Fight

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 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? 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!”

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. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Ex 14:10-14). 

This Lent I'm struck by some parallels between Jesus facing the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Israelites facing the Red Sea:  both faced an overwhelming challenge.  God did part the Red Sea;  what about the many situations where believers have asked for justice on big issues and small issues and God did not seem to come through? I can relate to the Israelites. When I am in the trenches of trying to make a grade, launch a project or love someone well, how do I know that the Lord will fight for me as I work?

Knowing that his betrayer was coming Jesus said “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matt. 26:24). A friend of mine once said, “Yet Jesus did not have his prayer answered with immediate justice in this life” and continued, “The question that Jesus poses for us is this ‘Will we continue to trust our heavenly Father if he does not answer our prayers immediately, but instead asks us to follow Christ by enduring injustice in this life?’” Will we put one foot in front of the other trusting “the fight” in his hands?

When confronted with a seemingly impossible task the Israelites fell into self-pity with their prayer, “What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?” But they are assured, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm...the Lord will fight for you” and then they walked through a dry seabed between walls of water - a tremendous act of courage and trust; it was a risk.  Similarly, we are called to take action that is risky. In more than one season Rom 8:28 has provided me with the assurance to take the next step: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28a).

I opened with, “How do I know that He will fight for justice?” When it looks like we are losing and when it looks like God is losing and when it looks like all hope is lost, what can we do?

What is your next step? Ponder this truth as you take it:  He did fight for me. He fought for my soul, my purity, my future - and He won. Historically, the most wicked evil that the world has ever known, the killing of the Son of God, was turned on its head through resurrection.  I don’t know how He will resurrect this particular situation for justice, but He is the Lord of history and He died for me, so He knows how to do this and He will do this.

As we set out into the knowns and the unknowns of life this summer we will make plans; some will succeed and others not. When the latter happens we believe that there is always a deeper provision, and a deeper justice at work behind the scenes. He has a relentless commitment to work things out (Rom 8:28). At the cross he did work things out. Know that in the present leg of your journey: “The Lord will fight.”