And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." The LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen."
Exodus 14:13-18
Over against the panic of Israel there stood Moses, the man who was sure of God. And he said, 'Fear not, stand still ...' which, it has been suggested, means, not 'Wait and see', but 'Stop and think'. It is not that Moses had 'inside' knowledge of what God was intending to do - this could hardly have been the case, and to suggest so is to detract from the magnificent calm of his faith in God - but rather, being sure of God, it was, for him, only a question of how God would accomplish His people's deliverance. There seems at first glance to be a contradiction between Moses' words to the people 'Stand still ...' and God's command to Moses, 'Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward', but it is only apparently so. In fact, the two commands refer to two different exercises of faith. In the spiritual life - and what Israel underwent that day was a spiritual test - we are to stand still in the sense of utterly trusting God for our salvation and all our help, and we are to go forward in that spirit of trust, obeying His lead in all things. (For an interesting and instructive parallel, see Galatians 5 where the command 'Stand fast' is followed by the injunction to 'Walk in the Spirit' without any sense of incongruity). For justification and deliverance, it is always a matter of standing still and seeing the salvation of the Lord, but for sanctification, for growth and progress in the Christian life it must ever be a matter of going forward in obedience to the will and command of God (cf Philippians 3:13, 14).