Exodus 14:14

As a Christian, one of the most important aspects of growing my faith is digging into my bible daily. Not long ago I started my way through the Old Testament. I have read many books of the OT and I have taken classes on studying the OT, however I have yet to actually read every book of the OT. So it's about time, eh?

If you are anything like me, when you first became a Christian (if you have made that decision), you probably started reading the bible in the first book, Genesis. *Raises Hand* I sure did! This is not a bad thing necessarily; every book of the bible is awesome, and full of history, wisdom, attention grabbing stories, and spiritual guidance. However, Genesis, along with most of the Old Testament, can be difficult to read due to the lack of present life application. (How old was that guy? He had how many wives?) That is why I have never committed to making my whole way through the OT up until this point, and that is why I have to share some "present life application" that smacked me in the face & said "I told you so!"

I am reading my way through the book of Exodus right now. This is the book where we meet this Moses guy that nearly all of us have heard of at some point in our lives. God uses the stuttering mouth of Moses to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and the Israelites make an exodus (get it?) to a new land. Not long after, Pharoah realized that he had made a mistake in letting his slaves go. The Israelites were panicing that the Eqytians were going to catch them and bring them back to their prison, and they took it out on Moses, saying that he brought them out to the wilderness just to die. The next part is what made me think I've been really missing out on what the bible really has to offer.

So the Israelites are like "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.” (Exodus 14:12). And Moses says "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again." (Exodus 14:13).

And then this is my favorite part: "The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." (Exodus 14:14).

And then I cried. (Which is actually pretty common for me).

What a relief, huh? Just be quiet (another version says be still) & let God fight for you. He wants to, and He can, and we should let Him fight our battles.

So what did this story teach us? That we should really be reading more of the Old Testament.

What has the OT taught you lately?

More on that later,

xo|Austin