Ex 14:14, The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." In our reading this morning, we have this tremendous reality proclaimed to the Children of Israel. They were in a very difficult, seemingly impossible and dire situation which was far beyond their every hope of handling. Before them was the Red Sea. Behind them was the army of Pharaoh. In the midst of them was despair and despondency. 
They were desperate and without any options. In their extreme anxiety and panic, they cried out to Moses what is recorded in verses 11+12. Then they said to Moses, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? "Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, '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." 
How quickly they had forgotten how the Lord just manifested Himself in victory over their Egyptian captors, gaining their release from slavery and giving them the treasures of Egypt! How miniscule was their sense of the power and the delivering might of Yahweh, The I Am, The Lord God Almighty! No sooner were they in difficulty than they cried out that slavery was better than seeing the strength of God in action. 
We will see this time after time as we trace the recorded history of their wandering in the wilderness for those 40 years. This lack of faith and rejection of their reliance upon God to be their Savior will evidence its ugly head over and over and over again. They will consistently decry ever having left their detestable suffering at the hands of the Egyptians as they gave into their fear and anxiety under the leadership and provision of God. 
Lest we place blame on their faithlessness and their doubt and their lack of steadfastness unto the Lord, let us ever remember that as they were, so are we in this time of our walk on this earth. We dare not throw rocks of ridicule and blame at them, as we often mimic their every action and thought with our own abject failure to know the truth of this morning’s passage. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.
This is a wonderful and comforting promise of the Omnipotence and the Omniscience and the Omnipresence of God that we often set aside when we are in those direst of situations. How many of us, and I fully and absolutely include myself, find ourselves frustrating and searching for ways in which we can get ourselves out of those trials and tribulations over which we lose sleep and become sullen and angry and anxious and struggle and fight and panic? We will turn this way and that way in order to try to climb out of the deepening pit of our despair. We will yell and cry and strike out at anything and anyone who we think might be the cause of our dread and terror. We will accept all kinds of foolish and crazy notions and opinions in our extreme efforts to save ourselves, all the while failing to just wait on the Lord to see His hand of deliverance in operation. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.
This silence is the silence of our heart in the calm and peace-filled assurance that God will make a way for us in such a salvation as we could never have even imagined. Please open in your Bibles to Ps 85:8-13. Mark this passage and even read it into our hearts and minds again and again for those times of our needless desperation and agony. Ps 85:8-13, I will hear what God the Lord will say; For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones; But let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth; And righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed, the Lord will give what is good; And our land will yield its produce. Righteousness will go before Him, And will make His footsteps into a way. 
We are encouraged not to seek after those things which are folly, but to look to the Lord and to count on Him to make Himself and His lovingkindness and His truth and His righteousness and His salvation very real and very near and very dear to us. It is as we rely on Him and count on Him and seek Him and His way that we will find that He leads us on those paths of righteousness and peace and security and salvation all the days of our lives. 
Please know for a certainty that we were never intended to be able to deal with the course of this walk on this earth by ourselves! That is the lie which this world expounds with its focus and deception of self-reliance and self-worth. God designed us for a living relationship with Him in which we would count on Him and seek Him and trust completely in Him to meet our every need. It is when we try to usurp that place of God in our lives, trying to make it on our own without any help or without any seeming need to rely on Him that we will find ourselves so trapped between the Red Sea and the armies of our foes. He will provide and He will manifest Himself in glorious truth and reality when we become silent before Him. It will be as we watch with patience and peace that He will prove Himself mighty over all the forces of this realm. 
Please turn to 2 Chron 20:17-24. We want to see how this truth was manifested to King Jehoshaphat and the inhabitants of Jerusalem as they were being besieged on all sides. In 2 Chron 20:17-24, Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, proclaimed the following words of encouragement and truth to Jehoshaphat as he was in fear for the safety of the city and his people. 'You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.' Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the Lord is with you." And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites, from the sons of the Kohathites and of the sons of the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel, with a very loud voice. And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed." And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, "Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting." And when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroying them completely, and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and behold, they were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped. 
	Please notice how the Lord reinforced His power and His might and His sovereignty in that the people, so besieged and so frightened and so powerless were not without a Savior. The Lord was the One Who went before them and fought and conquered all that were arrayed against His people. He was the One in Whom the victory was wrought. It was His saving power and grace and mercy and glory that was manifested as the people counted on Him and worshipped Him and rejoiced in His majesty and might. All that was required of the people of Jerusalem was to praise the Lord with songs and worship and trust that He would do all that was necessary for their salvation. 
	The Psalmist continues with this encouragement to trust in and to honor and to count on the Lord to be our Savior and our rest during every time of trial and stress as we read in Ps 4:4-8. Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the Lord. Many are saying, "Who will show us any good?" Lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us, O Lord! Thou hast put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety. 
	Please note the overriding attitude of the heart of the Psalmist as he so proclaims the manner in which we are to regard the Lord in truth and in reality. Tremble, and do not sin; Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still…Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And trust in the Lord…Thou hast put gladness in my heart…In peace I will both lie down and sleep, For Thou alone, O Lord, dost make me to dwell in safety. How many of us can truly state that we know the Lord in this certainty? How many are those among us who find that sleep is not unsettled with trials and tribulations because our rest and our security is constantly in place in our hearts before the Lord? 
	The next encouragement from the Psalmist is one that has had a huge impact on my life. It has been with me ever since a Wednesday Night Bible study at the Meier’s home when I was in bitter tribulation and struggle within myself and my ways and my heart of anger and frustration and seeking to become my own man. I was fuming and anxious and restless and trying to get my life in order, not paying attention to the lesson presented and resenting the fact that I was even in that living room when I read this passage on a plaque on their wall. I read it and re-read it and read it again and again, almost every time I went over to their house. Ps 46:10+11, "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. 
	I will not tell you that this is completely finished in my life and in my heart because there are those times when I tend to forget the truth of what this scripture states. However, it hit me then, like a ton of bricks and it still has an incredible effect within me each time I read it and ponder it. Be still and know that I am God. That is the core message of this morning’s passage as relayed to the Children of Israel and it is the core message that is before you and me. Be still and know that I am God.
	Set aside all those things that we think we need to do to make our lives better. Rather, focus on the fact that the Lord, He is God. He will be exalted in all the earth. The truth is that that means that He will be exalted in our lives as we live them each moment of each day. He will be exalted in each member of this fellowship. He will be exalted in each marriage represented in this room. He will be exalted in each family gathered together in His glorious and wondrous and awesome name. He will be exalted in each local church gathered to worship and to adore Him. He will be exalted in the Church Universal and Triumphant! He will be exalted in all the earth and in all of His creation!
	Again, listen to the Psalmist in Ps 76:7-9 as he recounts how all the earth will be still as the Lord arises to judgment for the sake of those who love and trust in Him. Thou, even Thou, art to be feared; And who may stand in Thy presence when once Thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; The earth feared, and was still, When God arose to judgment, To save all the humble of the earth. Selah. 
All of nature quietly waits in expectation for the working might of God to be evidenced. There is a natural process in place in terms of how this creation knows that when God is at work, there is to be a peace and a reverent expectation of His Hand in operation. As we read in James 5:7-10, Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 
 	There is a patient endurance required from those who love the Lord and wait for Him to make Himself known in life and in the fruition of our fellowship together in Christ Jesus. As Brother James so encourages us, we will look to the prophets next time, Lord willing, as they expound upon the truth that we are to be silent before the Lord in our trials and tribulations. We are not to be overcome by panic and anxiety, but watching to see the Lord reveal His truth and His salvation as the course of how to live our lives on this earth. The prophets were ill treated and disregarded and abused and neglected and ignored, but they still held true to the Lord and to the power of His might in action. They offer us great hope in their examples of those who will not seek to make their own way in this world but who will hold to the testimony of the Lord and His righteousness in quietness and confidence. So be it.
The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent." Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Rom 15:13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.