The Battle Belongs to the Lord

I realized this week that I have never really had any understanding of what "the fear of the Lord" means.  I've heard it said many times, and I've even memorized bible verses about it,  but I've never truly "gotten" them.  The only real fear I have ever understood is my own fear of the world. 

Do you have a fear that you are forced to face on a daily basis?  I do.  I have several of them in fact, but one in particular has taken a prominent place in my life this year.  That fear is one of gossip;  I hate the wildfire that gushes out of careless mouths.  I can't lie,  I have been guilty of such carelessness (I think we all have), but particularly in the small community we are a part of and with the pain of what we've come through this year, I feel the heat of it almost daily.  I'm not judging those who talk about me because truthfully if I was on the outside looking in, I would probably do the same.  If all I had was words to help me gain understanding, and if lacked life experience in this area, I would talk too.  I get it, but I still fear it.  I love my husband and I proudly walk arm in arm with him, but it's not my strength that carries me;  only by God's mighty hand do I keep my head up because on my own, the fear that I know so well, would rule over me. 

That's the fear I know;  my fears are based completely on worldliness, and solely on man's sinful nature.  I have never really understood "the fear of the Lord" until recently. 

Something amazing happened to me this week as I was reading in the Old Testament:  it suddenly all became real.  As I have said before, I love to read;  I get lost in books as my mind creates worlds from words written on a page, but I've never done that with the bible before.  I read it, I believe it, and I memorize it, but I've never lost myself in it.  We have all learned the Sunday School versions of the Old Testament stories, but have you ever immersed yourself in the uncut version?  Have you ever allowed your mind the freedom to imagine what it would be like to be oppressed, forced into slavery, and to live under a ruler who declares that every male baby that is born must be killed?  Can you imagine fleeing from armies, having actual conversations with God, and telling God that He must have picked the wrong guy for the job?  I think it's sometimes hard (at least for me) to put myself there in the middle of the parted Red Sea;  it's hard to imagine what that would've been like, or to believe that it really happened at all.  It did happen though, and as I read Exodus this week I found myself there;  I suddenly understood the power of God, and with that, the fear of Him. 

God chose Moses to lead His people out of Egypt;  it wasn't easy, but God intended for it to not be easy.  In Exodus 7:3-5 God says, "But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you (Moses and Aaron).  Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.  And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."  My first thought is that I want to know what God's voice sounded like when He said, "...the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord...";  can you imagine that?  The authority and power behind it...  Pharaoh and his officials had no fear of the Lord, and boy, did they get a lesson in it.  Sign after sign, plague after plague, God's power kept increasing until suddenly the Israelites are standing at the shore of the Red Sea.  As God's children cry out in fear with the water on one side and the Egyptian army on the other, Moses (the man who previously debated with God over his speaking abilities) says this, "Do not be afraid!  Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you;  you need only to be still." 

And there is it...  What a beautiful speech; a gift from God out of the mouth of one who said he couldn't do it.  "You need only to be still..."  God delivered the Israelites;  they walked straight through the Red Sea.  As I read the story, I could feel the mist of the water on my face, and I could imagine the confusion, the wonder, and the fear of my God who was quite literally guiding them through the impossible.  The Egyptians tried to follow the path through the sea, and as Moses had said, the Israelites would never see them again; "That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.  And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him..."  Exodus 14:30-31. 

The fear of the Lord has suddenly become very real to me;  though I had heard the Exodus story many times before, I never "got" it until now.  The Lord is powerful, and He moves in mighty ways...even today... 

We all face fears;  yours is most certainly different from mine, but know this:  the battle belongs to the Lord.  When we walk in faith with Him, He will deliver us from any multitude of situations, and with fear of Him comes the beginning of truly understanding His love for us. 

When you find yourself caught in the middle of an impossible situation, when a sea that threatens to drown you is on one side and an army who is out to get you is on the other, remember, "you need only to be still...'  The Lord who loves you with a never ending, incomprehensible love will make a way every time, and as you feel the mist of the raging sea on your face remember it is He who is holding back the water;  trust in Him and give thanks to Him.

I love the song lyrics that say, "In heavenly armor we'll enter this land, the battle belongs to the Lord.  No weapon that's fashioned against will stand, the battle belongs to the Lord.  We sing glory and honor, power and strength to the Lord..."