Last week I briefly touched on the “Instagram worthy” Scripture quotes, and this week I’m going to take a hard look at another that I’ve seen cropping up more and more often over the last couple years. You’ve probably seen it too, and I will freely confess that it sounds great: “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Exodus 14:14. Who wouldn’t like to be told that they need do nothing; the Lord will accomplish all? Sign me up. The astute reader may even draw some parallels with Psalm 46:10, which says, near the end of a passage filled with descriptions of battle and warfare, “Be still, and know that I am God.” It sounds great. However, it’s not a universally-applicable principle, and I’m not sure it should be quoted and applied to personal lives as often as it seems to be. In fact, I’m quite certain it shouldn’t be.
Context is both king and key, and so we should take a look at the context surrounding Exodus 14. The name of the book itself is a big clue: Exodus, in which we find the account of the Israelites leaving Egypt, having been set free from slavery through the Lord’s humiliation and destruction of the Egyptians through the 10 plagues. After the Israelites had departed, the Egyptians thought better of their decision to let them go, and chased after them. Caught between the Red Sea in front of them and the approaching Egyptian army behind them, the Israelites cried out in fear to the Lord, and He provided a way of escape for them – a miraculous escape, in which the Israelites themselves played no part. All they did was walk through the midst of the sea on dry land.
That’s not the only account either in which the Lord acts supernaturally to deliver His people with little to no effort from the people themselves. In 2 Kings 7, we’re told of how the Lord created the sound of a mighty army, and the besieging Assyrians fled overnight. The siege was lifted without the Israelites going out into battle. 2 Chronicles 20 likewise relates an account of the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir coming together against Judah, and destroying each other without the people of Judah being involved. Sometimes we see the Lord act in response to prayer, as in 2 Kings 6, where we read of the Lord striking the Syrian army with blindness after Elisha prayed.
We also have acknowledgements that unless the Lord is involved, the undertaking, whatever it is, will not succeed (Psalm 127) as well as recognition that the purposes of the Lord will not be thwarted and his plans will come to fruition. (Isaiah 46:10, Psalm 33:11, Proverbs 19:21, to name a few). However, this doesn’t absolve us of personal responsibility. There’s nearly always a measure of obligation to act; the Lord chooses most of the time – not always, but usually – through His people, not separately from them. We see that in Exodus 17, when the Israelites fought against the Amalekites and the battle went in the Israelites as long as Moses held up his hands. We see it all throughout Joshua, Judges, and 1 Samuel, when the Lord gave His people victory over their enemies, but they still had to fight. It’s laid out clearly in 2 Samuel 5, when the Lord said that He would go out before the Israelites to fight the Philistines. The Lord went out, but the Israelites still fought. The involvement of the Lord does not absolve us from action.
It’s not just accounts from the Old Testament either. We have a myriad of examples, on both sides, from the New Testament. Peter was released from jail completely of the Lord (Acts 12), Paul and Silas were freed from their chains in the Philippian jail (Acts 16), and Philip was carried away to Azotus from the road between Jerusalem and Gaza by the Spirit in Acts 8. But also, they were sent, and did the work, and traveled, and preached. There was human effort involved all along the way.
Further, if it was intended for the “norm” to be that the people of God sit on their hands and wait for Him to supernaturally work outside of human effort, I doubt we would have such passages as Ephesians 6:10-18, or 2 Corinthians 10:4, specifying the armor of God that strengthens us for spiritual warfare, or that the weapons of our warfare are not like the weapons of the world.
When all is said and done, and I do believe I’ve said likely quite enough on this topic, this isn’t meant to discourage turning to Scripture for strength, fortitude, or encouragement. It’s intended to be a call for discernment, to look at the passages to which we’re turning and really consider whether they’re applicable for us today. We’re called to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15); let’s live up to that calling.