“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Psalm 46:10

When the Egyptians at the Red Sea trapped the ancient Israelites, the people of Israel complained loudly to Moses. But Moses’ reply in Exodus 14:13-14 was, “Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today… The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” We know from reading the whole chapter that God did defeat the army of Pharaoh that day, and God says in verse eighteen, “Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord…”

The Israelites learned the value of being still and trusting in God that day, but what battles do we have that God fights for us? Certainly, we think of all our worldly problems of wars, disease, crime, or whatever we see as bad.

The main battle that Martin Luther talked frequently about is against sin, death, and the power of the devil. We know that Jesus defeated all these three. He beat sin because He has no sin, death because He rose from the dead, and the devil because He beat the first two.

We share in Jesus’ victory over all this because of our baptism (see the apostle Paul’s comments in Romans 6). Now we can have quiet rest because Jesus has fought and won the hardest battle of all just for us! God also has a plan for all that other evil stuff that goes on in the world. “The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The Lord alone will be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:17).

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we pray in Jesus’ name that we can always remember that You are in charge and that we can have quiet rest because of what Jesus has done for us.

Daily Reading: Psalm 4

– Contributed by Paul Obermann