March 9/D68: The Battle Of Silence (Ex. 14-18)

in the 11th hour God parted the sea. All he needed them to do was to walk in silence.

Welcome to Rinse Reflect Repeat, the daily podcast inspired by my action-driven devotional

and guide to reading the Bible through in a year alphabetically. I'm Anita Cordell,

and each day we'll walk through the Bible discovering how even books like Leviticus and numbers

speak to our daily lives. These short devotional are here to cleanse our hearts and transform

our perspectives. So, grab your Bible, open your heart, and let's journey through the living

water together. It's time to rinse, reflect, and repeat.

Well, we are walking through Exodus and going through the story of Moses and the title

for today's devotion is the Battle of Silence. We're on day 68 and we're on March 9th if you're

following the date. And so today's morning rinse is a little longer. You actually have to read

five chapters, but they're not super long, but read Exodus 14 through 18, and then come on back

and let's talk about this title. So the featured verse is Exodus 14, 14. The Lord will fight for you

while you keep silent. Moses' life was so full of cliffhangers. You know, I mean,

leading hundreds of thousands of people through the wilderness was no small task. And by the time you

get here to this moment, he has freed the Israelites and are on their way into the wilderness.

But not only was Moses called to rescue the people, but he was called to move them to the promised

land. I mean, there's two parts to that. He was called to rescue them, and he was called to

get them to the promised land, like leading them through battles, teaching them along the way

about faith, going to God on their behalf, and dealing with conflicts even within the people,

and ultimately completing his mission. And scholars will say that it was not supposed to take 40 years,

but it did, because they were complaining. And it's amazing how that so much can be learned from

this story. During the battles that the Israelites faced, there is a message that is often overlooked

though. You know, because while they were out there in the wilderness, they faced a ton of these

battles. You know, they got freed and rescued from the Egyptians. But when you enter into a whole new

land and they're trying to cross, there's other people that are defending their areas, their

territories. And so they faced battles. And there's a message that I want to share with you.

The first battle in today's morning rinse that we read was when the Egyptians chased them down,

and they were about to overtake them again. You know, they were faced with, oh my goodness,

all these people are behind me. And there's a sea in front of me, and I'm trapped by this sea on

one side and the Egyptian shoulders on the other side. And how scary this moment had to have

been for them. I mean, can you imagine, you know, hundreds of thousands of Israelites freaking out

and probably some of them seeing the Egyptians on the horizon in horses and chariots in the whole

bit. I mean, I would be screaming. I'm like, I would be screaming. I'd be like, help. You know,

what do we do? And I can imagine that it was a bit chaotic. And while the Israelites though

were complaining and fearing death, the angel of God and the pillar of cloud moved and stood

in between the Israelites and the Egyptians so that they could walk across the sea.

To think that they experienced this in visual impact, it wasn't a movie. It was right then.

Today's featured verse shows Moses' response. And the Israelites did not need to do anything.

They didn't need to say anything. They didn't need to do anything except walk in silence

on the path God opened for them. In the 11th hour, God parted the sea. All he needed them to do

was to walk in silence. I bet that was so hard, you know, or maybe it was easy for some people as

they were consuming all of what was going around them. Maybe they walked in silence because they were

afraid of the walls of water coming down on them or maybe they were walking in silence just

basically because Moses said, be quiet, don't talk, you don't talk. You know, but all he needed them

to do was to walk in silence. Then also in today's morning rinse, there's a second battle where

they were attacked again and this time by the army of Amolec. Miraculously, the Israelites,

they prevailed in the battle when this was when Moses was on the top of the hill and he

raised his hands in the air and every time he raised his hands in the air, then the Israelites

would win. But they began losing when his hands were let down. And so as Moses sat on this rock,

I'm sure he was praying and talking to God like God, what in the world his action was to sit there

with his hands in the air. And obviously, you know, he got some help, they held up his hands because

he got tired, but both examples are victories of God and both examples are when a battle was won

in the quietness of faith and obedience and that peaceful resolve of silence coupled with action

that people were quiet in the first one. And Moses, I'm sure, was quiet and silently

raising his hands on the rock. Can you imagine the Israelites' entire camp silently walking across

the sea while just so much chaos of the Egyptian army tries to get around the pillar of fire

in the cloud. I mean, I'm sure that, you know, they turn around and we're watching the horses trying

to maneuver around and they were trying to get around it as best as they could because they

wanted to obey the leader. They had to obey the leader. Pharaoh was like, go get them and that's

what their mission in life was is to go get the Israelites. Then can you imagine Moses sitting

in kind of, and I use the word peaceful resolve, but I'm sure that he had a confidence to him

with his hands in the air as the Israelites win another battle. Like one more time they win a battle

and all he's doing is sitting there with his hands in the air. I can imagine that if you're listening

to this, you've had experiences where you might be battling something and whether it's, you know,

trying to raise your children and having struggles with, oh my goodness, they're teething today

and they're just really extra cranky or there's something going on or my grandbabies, one of them

deals with food allergies and so the struggle with that and another grandbabie has diabetes and

so handling and managing insulin and stuff. I can't imagine all the things that my daughter

and son-in-law deal with on a day-to-day basis and sometimes those day-to-day basis

challenges can feel like there's this inward battle, whatever we're facing. Maybe there's somebody

at work that just continually causes strife. Those are like little battles that on a day-to-day basis

make it feel like it's our world can be very chaotic around us and maybe in those times could it be

to instead of getting frustrated or instead of raising our voices at the kids or instead of

complaining to employee one about employee two in the frustrations and the things that we don't

understand about why people do certain things, could it be time to just sit in silence and just

talk to God? Maybe you're sitting in silence is, hey, I need about 10 minutes, I'm going to drive

around and just have a moment where I'm just driving around in my car.

Could it be, hey, I need 45 minutes of a bath right now because I need a moment of silence?

Could it be that you just need to sit in silence for just a little? And sitting in silence,

I'm not going to lie, it is not always easy. It's not like you can separate your whole entire

world and just go off somewhere and leave the cares behind you in a moment's notice. No,

that's not how it works. We still have family, we still have a spouse, we still have life going on.

So it's not always easy. In fact, sitting in silence can actually be its own battle in and of

itself, but the battle of silence with God will win the wars. So today's challenge to dig deeper

is to look at your life and is there some chaos going on in your day to day life or is it even

more of a battle going on like some major struggle that is happening in your world? Have you been

caught complaining about your situation? My challenge to you is to seek God today in this matter.

Whatever you're dealing with, seek Him about it. Sit with Him in silence, fight through the battle

of silence and sit with Him and let your heart hear His voice instead of the chaos around you.

Even if it's five minutes, if you have to sit, close your eyes and just force yourself

to hear His voice and focus on His voice instead of the things that are raging around you.

And then when you pull out your journal and you reflect on today, I am sure I'm pretty confident

that you're going to have an opportunity at some point today to sit in silence because there

will be some chaos around you or something struggling that you are faced with. Maybe it's even time

management struggle, sit in silence, but reflect on that. What is it that God is asking you to be

silent about? Did you find it difficult to stop complaining about this situation? Did you find it

difficult to find peace in the storm? Was it even a battle to get to being silent? But once you

were there in the silence, in that five minutes or 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever

length of time it was when there, maybe it's a challenging phone call that you get today and you

remember this, push through the battle and see the battle of silence and how that it can win

the wars. So reflect on that today. Reflect on what it felt like and how it made you feel to sit in

silence and then write down, was there something that God said to you? Was there some affirmations

or empowerment that God just brought the peace back to your heart because ultimately when we have

that peace in our heart, it is going to overflow into other people. And do we want our loved ones

and friends to feel the overflow of our peace or do we want them to feel the overflow of complaining

and chaos and lack of peace and complete discord? What is it that we want? And if we are fighting

the good fight of faith, we sometimes have to fight for silence and fighting for that peace.

And I can't wait to hear what happens today and whether that battle of silence came to you

easily or whether it was a battle in and of itself. And I hope that this encourages you and you

remember today, especially when in futuristic battles come to remember the battle of silence is worth it.

If you don't have my devotional yet and you're watching this or listening, please go to the

show notes and order it and I hope that you are encouraged by this also too. When I say evening

reflection and you are looking for something to write these evening reflections on, my journal

is the reason why I made it because of years and years and years of note-taking. I know that it

is so important to go back to those notes. I've read things from 10, 15, 20 years ago and it just

is so cool to see how much I've grown and things that God has brought me through and it's so

encouraging. So I encourage you to, if you haven't gotten it, go ahead and get it and also to if you

haven't joined my Facebook group called Rinse Reflect Repeat Devotional, then come on by and I love

to read the stories of people who post on there. So please, you encourage my heart when you post and

so feel free to do that as well. And until tomorrow, keep Rinse Reflecting and Repeating. God bless you.