“Moses answered the people, Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see what Yahweh will do to save you today: the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. Yahweh will do the fighting for you: you have only to keep still” (Exodus 14:13-14).
The above account is an act of Yahweh to make it clear to the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt, that the yoke of Pharaoh had come to an end with the parting of the Red Sea. Their four-hundred-year bondage was over as they walked on the dry ground of the Red Sea towards the Promised Land. If one looks at the geography of the Sinai Peninsula, there was another easier route that is never spoken of, because Yahweh wanted to show His glory for the Israelites for all future generations, “so shall I win myself glory at the expense of Pharaoh, of all his army, his chariots, his horsemen. And when I have won glory for myself, at the expense of Pharaoh and his chariots and his army, the Egyptians will learn that I am Yahweh” (Ex. 17-18). The freedom from bondage of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea was all show to establish the might and fidelity of Yahweh to His chosen people for all generations. What a show it was with a pillar of smoke by day in the form of a cloud and a fire by night guiding His people, establishing His physical presence among them.
The biblical account is well known about the grumbling, the complaining, and the whining from the people even while Yahweh was doing a great work answering their prayers of freedom.
“Here in the desert the whole assembly of the children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The children of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into the desert to make the whole community die of famine” (Ex. 16:2-3).
The uncertainty of their future was the cause of the fear amongst the Israelites. In just days they had doubted what God had done with the ten plagues to free them. The people were still not operating in faith in spite of what had just happened; being miraculously freed from their four-hundred year bondage in Egypt.
Is it any different today with all the grumbling and the whining about the state of affairs around us? The confusion. The fear. The anxiety. The divisive conversations on so many issues. The command of Yahweh was resolute and strong, Fear not, Stand your ground. The response from Moses is exactly as it is from the Psalmist, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10).
In times of outright fear, and the unknown of living in a desert ahead, Yahweh told the people, “Fear not, I will do the fighting for you, you have only to keep still.” The Israelites had seen the miracles of Moses in Egypt yet still doubted. Is it any different for us today with our constant doubt the Lord is in control, and what lies ahead will be for His glory? For concerns about food, Yahweh sent quail and manna that was to be harvested daily to teach them He would provide daily for their needs. The Hebrew word for manna is, “What is this,” (Ex. 16:15) as food had never fallen from the sky. God provided in a way no man could have ever imagined, yet He did provide. To make provision for the Sabbath, Yahweh told the people to pick from the ground twice the amount of food on the sixth day to have enough for the seventh to honor Him as a day of worship with no manual work. Yahweh was about to etch in stone new laws, the Ten Commandments, to govern His people. All were satisfied from hunger while wandering in the desert by miraculous provision of the quail at night and the manna in the morning.
Today, our concerns are many. No matter where we look there is uncertainty and fear. The anxiety is palpable with conversations among friends. The economy, vaccines along with government intrusion, inflation, political concerns of every kind, health care, race, corrupt government, immigration, the direction of the Church, and many more problems, are at the forefront that disturb us due to a widespread social and moral breakdown. What gives us peace of mind is certainty, and at the moment that is a hard commodity to come by. It was uncertainty to cause the grumbling and whining of the Israelites leaving for an unknown future. It is uncertainty with our social and religious structures crumbling that give us many questions, and thus anxiety as it gave the Israelites at the time of the Exodus. The ease and comfort of the past generation(s) seems to have taken a hard turn towards ensuing chaos that is in our midst.
Moses commanded twelve spies to go to Canaan for forty days to determine the general lay of the land and its agriculture before they proceeded to enter the Promised Land. Ten of the spies said there were giants in the land, and only Joshua and Caleb said the Lord could overcome the obstacles and win victory. They came back and gave their report to Moses and the people,
“At the end of forty days, they came back from the reconnaissance of the land. They sought out Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh…. They told them this story, ‘We went into the land to which you sent us, It does indeed flow with milk and honey, this is its produce. At the same time, its inhabitants are a powerful people; the town are fortified and very big; yes, and we saw the descendants of Anak are there. The Amalekite holds the Negeb area, the Hittite, Amorite and Jebusite the highlands, and the Canaanite the sea coast and the banks of the Jordan. Caleb harangued the people gathered about Moses: ‘We must march in he said, and conquer this land; we are able to do it (Numbers 13:25-30). The ten other spies grumbled and said they could not defeat these giants. Caleb was speaking faith Yahweh was going to give them the land promised by Yahweh through Moses.
At this, the whole community raised their voices and cried aloud, and the people wailed all that night. Then all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole community said, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or at least we had died in the wilderness. Why did Yahweh bring us to this land, only to have us fall by the sword, and our wives and young children seized as booty? Should we not do better to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt (Num. 14: 1-4).
Then Caleb silenced the people of Israel before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Numbers 13:30). Only Joshua and Caleb after wandering for forty years from their generation entered the Promised Land. They spoke faith the Lord was going to do a mighty work even though they didn’t know how. Fear not, and stand your ground.
Joshua son of Nun, and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of those who had reconnoitred the country, tore their garments; and they said to the entire community and the sons of Israel, this land we went to reconnoitre is a good land. If Yahweh is pleased with us, He will lead us into this land and give it to us. It is a land where milk and honey flow. Do not rebel against Yahweh. And do not be afraid of the people of this land; we shall gobble them up…Do not be afraid of them (Num.14: 6-9).
To take the Land of Canaan, Joshua had battles. At Gibeon against the Amorites (one of the tribes of Canaan) Joshua asked Yahweh that the sun and the moon would stand still so he could finish the battle in daylight (Joshua 10). It showed the Israelites again that Yahweh would fight for them and still they grumbled and doubted. In another battle while taking possession of the Promised Land, more Canaanites were killed by huge hailstones than the Israelites actually killed in battle. It is interesting to note on the ancient Chinese calendar there is a day missing exactly as this event took place. Joshua lived in the time of the Bronze Age where a Chinese calendar did exist. Science validates this missing day on the calendar as authentic.
I will be with you as I was with Moses; I will not leave you or desert you. Be strong and stand firm, for you are the man to give this people possession of the land that I swore to their fathers I should give to them. Only be strong and stand firm and be careful to keep all the law which my servant Moses laid on you. Never swerve from this to right or left, and then you will be happy in all you do. Have the book of this law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that carefully you may keep everything that is written in it. Then you will prosper in your dealings, then you will have success. Have I not told you: Be strong and stand firm? Be fearless then, be confident, for go where you will, Yahweh your God is with you.” (Joshua 1:5-9). Notice how often the phrase be strong and stand firm is used above. That is Yahweh’s demand in times of crisis. The same as Saint Faustina, Jesus I Trust in You. If God is with you, who can be against you? God plus one is a majority—all the time.
The greatest stories in the Bible are about faith in action of heroic people in times of crisis. Gideon’s Army, Daniel in the lion’s den, Peter escaping a Roman prison with the preternatural gift of impassability, Esther on the verge of seeing the Jewish people completely exterminated before she took action, Noah building an Ark on faith, Abraham by faith to set out for a new land and offering up Isaac, et.al. Hebrews 11 is the Jewish Hall of Fame, where it speaks about those who operated in faith that altered history due to their actions. The greatest traditions in the Church are acts of faith at a critical point in time where events can go one way or the other, then the Lord steps in. We are at one of these times now to STAND FIRM and not buckle to a godless state promoting such heinous practices as infanticide.
Our Response Today
The question must be asked, how do we respond? Do we raise the white flag of surrender? Do we roll over? Do we concede everything away? Do we draw a line of demarcation and say, this is where I will be pushed no longer? Do we stand firm? Resolute? Fear Not, Hold your ground? Do we lose our peace in the midst of the chaos? The instructions going forward for living in the Promised Land is obedience to what is asked of us. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart is the next major mile marker for the believer. The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart is similar to what Moses and Joshua endured. Strong convictions were no different for Moses or Joshua than us today. Both were and are milestones of seismic change. The old has to be done away with for the new to be introduced. Unless there was a crucifixion, there would not have been redemption with the Resurrection. We have to Trust, knowing what the Lord desires and go with His plan, not ours. My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways” (Isaiah 55:8).
We have to Trust that Heaven has a plan as the culture collapses around us. But, we also need to be obedient to what is being asked of us. Jesus told Saint Faustina, “Fear is useless, what is needed is TRUST.” FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. Before we can enter in the New Era of Peace promised for so long, the old must pass away. The pain we are witnessing at this very moment in the Church will continue as it was painful for the Israelites in the desert before there was a new beginning. We must endure until the end. “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31).
We know the rubrics and fundamentals of the faith, and we must stick to them. The lack of faith, the distrust, and the discouragement need to be eliminated immediately if we are going to emotionally and spiritually prosper going forward. Do we see the giants of big tech, big government, big pharma and the global elite as the giants Joshua and Caleb saw? Do we see the Lord’s work in the chaos around us?
Yahweh will do the fighting for us, we need to be obedient and remain still in spirit, knowing it is Heaven’s hand to play now. This does not mean to sit around and do nothing. It is time to speak up, with the faith of Joshua. It is time to get down on our knees and storm Heaven in prayer like never before. A Red Sea moment awaits us.
Fear Not, and Stand Your Ground.
JESUS I TRUST IN YOU
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