As the children of Israel stood on the shore of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s army behind them and an impassable body of water in front, they predictably began to doubt the wisdom of their journey. Having lived their entire lives in servitude, this new adventure now seemed more reckless than empowering, and many of them began to complain. Was there a shortage of graves in Egypt, they asked Moses, that you’ve led us out here to die? We never asked you to save us? Why didn’t you just leave us alone? Slavery was hard, but at least we were still alive.
Moses responded to these protestations of doubt with a call to courage and faith:
Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Exodus 14:13-14
Notice the verbs in this short speech: fear not, stand still, and see. God invited them to calm their fears so that they could fully experience the monumental miracle He was about to perform on their behalf. This was not only a day they would remember throughout their lives but a day that every subsequent generation would remember.
God then instructed Moses to have the children of Israel “go forward” (Exodus 14:15). As preposterous as that might have seemed, it was time to trust Him and move forward. He would prepare a way for them to escape from their enemies.
Many years later, in the Americas, a king would give his anxious people a similar set of instructions. They had been living in captivity for years and had endured heavy suffering after three lost battles against their captors. Now, a messenger had arrived from their homeland, and King Limhi saw reason to hope. Notice how his words acknowledge the sorrow while urging his people to have hope:
O ye, my people, lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies, notwithstanding our many strugglings, which have been in vain; yet I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made.
Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that God who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and caused that they should walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, and fed them with manna that they might not perish in the wilderness; and many more things did he do for them. …
Ye are smitten and afflicted.
But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.
Mosiah 7:18-19; 32-33
Soon after, they found a way to incapacitate their captors and relocate to their homeland (Mosiah 22).
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf has assured us, “Moses’s counsel to the people of his day still applies: ‘Do not be afraid. … See the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.’ … Therefore, let us set aside our fears and live instead with joy, humility, hope, and a bold confidence that the Lord is with us.” (“Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear,” April 2017 general conference).
Today, I will set aside my fears, stand still long enough to recognize God’s hand, and then move forward with courage and hope. I will trust that He is with me and will help me overcome every obstacle I encounter.
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