Sermon - Lent Midweek 3 2019 - Exodus 14:10-15:1

“The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Silence. Silence really is a difficult thing to accomplish. Tell a group of 12 year olds to be silent, to play the quiet game, and suddenly even the shiest and most reserved child is struggling to say nothing. But sometimes it’s all too easy and even tempting to remain silent. Rather than confessing your guilt, it’s easier to keep your mouth shut. It’s not uncommon that when people in a city witness someone being brutally beaten, instead of calling the cops they close their blinds and keep silent. 

But why does Moses instruct the Israelites to be silent in this situation? Doesn’t our Lord command His people to cry out to the Lord in their time of need? Doesn’t God expect us to pray? The Psalmist admits, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long… therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.” If we’re supposed to pray, why does God tell the Israelites to be silent?

It’s not that God doesn’t want His people to cry out to Him, but that He doesn’t want them to fill their lips with grumbling and doubting. Let’s get a little more of the context before go any further and then this will be a lot clearer, so that you will see that God doesn’t want us to stop praying, but to stop doubting.

The book of Exodus picks up where Genesis left off. You know the story, Joseph was sold into slavery to the Egyptians by his brothers; Joseph, through the hand of the Lord, became second in command of Egypt next to the king. Well, after Joseph and his brothers, and the king of of Egypt all died, a new king rose to power and enslaved the Israelites, making their lives bitter with hard work and seeking to kill all of the male Israelite newborn babies. Within this context Moses was born and the Lord heard the cry of the Israelites. 

The Lord called Moses to be His spokesman before the Israelites and the Egyptians, to set the people of Israel free from their slavery. At this news the Israelites rejoiced! But upon Moses confronting Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he made the Israelites’ labor even more difficult. In response to this, the Israelites grumbled and turned against Moses. But the Lord promised deliverance to His people.

In order to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, the Lord worked 10 plagues upon Egypt. When finally after the tenth plague, when the firstborn male of every Egyptian household died, the Lord led the Israelites away from the Egyptians and they went on a great exodus. Instead of leading them around the Red Sea, the Lord directed the Israelites to go right to the Red Sea.

 Once they reached the sea they encamped there, at which point the Egyptians had changed their mind about letting the Israelites go. So Pharaoh took with him 600 of the fastest chariots and fiercest warriors. When the Israelites saw that the Egyptians were so near and poised to attack, they panicked! They grumbled to Moses and they doubted once again, saying, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

So when Moses lifts up his voice and addresses the Israelites, he’s not telling them to cease their praying, but to cease their doubting! “Fear not, stand firm,” Moses commanded! “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” It’s as if Moses were saying, the Lord is going to rescue you from this disaster, only do not doubt, do not lose faith in Him, but remain steadfast and resolute. Trust in God. Don’t fill your lips with doubt but let them be filled with praise! 

So too our Lord speaks with us this day. When your greatest enemies surround you, the swiftest chariots, the greatest archers, and strongest swordsmen, don’t let your heart waver. When Satan stands against you, enslaving you and beating you down with your sins; do not fear! When he shoots his flaming darts at your heart, such that you may be led to despair; take courage! When death is standing near and ready to take your life; stand firm! 

The temptation when Satan attacks is to doubt God’s strength and intentions; to grumble and complain, to think that it would be better to be under Satan’s power, to long to be back in the Devil’s camp. But when those doubts begin to overtake you, and you feel like forsaking all trust in God: shut your lips and only be silent, because the Lord will fight for you. “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” 

For indeed the Lord does fight for you! He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and his rider, your greatest foes, your sickness, your sin, your depression, your anxiety, your death, and even the devil have all been cast into the sea! In the red sea that flowed from the side of Jesus on the cross your sins have been drowned. The devil’s corpse is lying dead on the seashore in hell. Your death has been swallowed up in the death of Jesus. 

So let our doubting lips be silent, but let us fill our tongues with shouts of praise! “The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my Father’s God, and I will exalt in Him.” Be unafraid to sing forth the praises of the Lord! Moses, who was a man of unclean lips, who wasn’t eloquent, who was slow of speech and of tongue, together with all of Israel let His lips burst forth in song. 

If you think that you cannot speak the praises of God or sing forth His glories, then listen to what God would say! “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” If you’re like Moses or me or most other people and frightened to speak, too terrified to sing, then listen to the Lord! He is the one who makes your mouth! He’s made it to sing, He’s made it to pray, he’s made it to proclaim His good news of Jesus Christ. Let our doubting hearts be silent, but let our praising tongues never cease to sing the mighty works of God.