I've been crossing the Red Sea for a couple of days now and I keep getting stuck at one particular point in the journey. Here's a brief re-cap: Pharoah let God's people go, Moses makes sure to pack Joseph's bones in his featherweight hiking pack, God guides the Israelites with a cloud by day and fire by night, and then Scripture says God hardens Pharoah's heart and the guy wants to recapture his freed slaves. Despite a pillar of God's presence surrounding them, the Israelites look up to see the Egyptian army coming after them and are terrified. They begin to question everything, especially leaving Egypt. Moses steps up to quell the panic by saying, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the delivernace the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again." Then it's this next line that throws me off. Here it is in multiple versions:

Exodus 14:14 (King James Version)
"The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

Exodus 14:14 (Amplified Bible)
"The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.

Exodus 14:14 (New International Version)
"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Exodus 14:14 (English Standard Version)
"The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."

Exodus 14:14 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
"The LORD will fight for you; you must be quiet."

I like this verse. Soothing, humbling, empowering...and confusing. Confusion sets in with disbelief in my heart. Surely this is too idyllic. How does this command stand alongside "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand (Ephesians 6:13)." When do you fight, and fight hard? I contemplated the states described: holding your peace, at rest, still, silent, quiet. There isn't much room for debate about what God was telling the Israelites at this point. But how do you know when to be hold your peace and remain at rest? And what does that really even look like?

Matthew Henry commentates on this passage, "Compose yourselves, by an entire confidence in God, into a peaceful prospect of the great salvation God is now about to work for you. Hold your peace; you need not so much give a shout against the enemy. The work shall be done without any occurence of yours." I appreciate this simple advice, "Compose yourself;" however, there's got to be more than smoothing your hair and keeping your chin up.

The Hebrew transliteration of the word peace in Exodus 14:14 is charash. It's a verb mostly translated as above (peace, keep silent, hold tongue, cease), but in several places it's translated as "to cut in, plow, engrave, devise." As I contemplated this, all I could think to ask was, "What does plowing have to do with peace?" The only verse that came to mind that combined peace and planting was James 3:19, "A harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

The Amplified Bible says it like this, "And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God's will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts."

When Moses tells the Israelites, "The Lord will fight for you, you've only to hold your peace," he's not telling them to be passive agressive or give up or be wimps. He's telling them to trust the Lord, something not at all simple or idyllic. Peace here is a verb and choosing to act in that way is hard work. Blood, sweat, and tears are involved in plowing your heart's soil into ground fertile enough for peace to be sown...and grow. Making peace as described in the Amplified version is complicated and messy, a work only the Holy Spirit can do in a heart yielded to Him. Together with Him we are fighting sin and old wounds that poison the soil and uproot seeds of peace.

What needs to happen on a daily basis so our hearts are plowed, ready to receive the seeds of peace that are ours' in Christ? What areas in our life do we need to sow peace, to be at rest? Relationships, ministries, family, work, future plans? We must trust the Lord to fight on our behalf as we learn to surrender to His warrior heart. He is for you and not against you. He will battle fiercely for your heart against the enemy--afterall, the battles we fight are not against flesh and blood. It's in the heat of the battle that peace blooms into righteousness.

After Moses speaks to the Israelites the Lord says to him, "Why do you cry to Me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward!" The Lord will fight for you. Yet, you have to hold your peace, this constant work of choosing to remain at rest in who He is and Whose you are. When you choose peace, to be silent before the mighty and powerful Yahweh...then you can move forward. You cross the sea and enter into a harvest of righteousness plowed by peace.