Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 14:10–14
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.”
CONSIDER THIS
Today’s text unfolds the worst-case-possible doomsday scenario. The newly freed Israelite former slaves stared down the barrel of the most powerful army in the world. Red Sea on one side, Pharaoh’s army on the other. These are the moments that expose our deepest dispositions. Will we find fear or faith? Two people can face the very same reality and have diametrically opposite responses. We see it here on full display.
I want us to examine the conversation between Moses and the Israelites and the story it tells. The Israelites asked three questions and made a declaration. Moses offered three responses and made a proclamation. Note how they intertwine and correspond as follows:
Question #1: Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?
Response #1: Do not be afraid.
Question #2: What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
Response #2: Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.
Question #3: Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians”?
Response #3: The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
Declaration of fear: It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!
Declaration of faith: The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
Fear is a given. The question is faith. Here’s the interesting calculus of faith . . . think of a spectrum of 0 to 100 percent. What part of the spectrum will be taken up by fear? In this case, the Israelites were at 100 percent fear on the spectrum. There was no room for faith in their response. Fear and faith are a zero-sum game.
Moses, however, spoke to them of the power of God. Moses knew all he needed was a movement of 1 percent to win the day. If he could push their fear back from 100 to 99 percent, it would leave room for a 1-percent faith response. Moses knew 1 percent was all he needed. So did Jesus:
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt. 17:20)
The issue is not the size of one’s faith but the strength of their God. It’s why when we want to see faith rise up—we don’t try to talk people into having more faith. Nor are we likely to be successful in trying to talk them out of their fear. We win when we witness to them about the nature, character, and power of God. One percent is all it takes.
In another sense, Moses was the 1 percent:
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.”
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
Thank you for the way you are showing me exodus is tied to my vision of you.
I confess how I can put the emphasis on fear and what I am afraid of. Then, I try to shift my focus to my faith or lack thereof and miss the point of who my faith is in.
I receive your deliverance from fear and even from faith in faith. I receive my sight to behold you in all your love, and might, and delivering power. Now, let faith arise from the vision of you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end, Amen. Amen.
