Keep Calm

“The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Exodus 14:14

The phrase “keep calm” has been popping up all over the place for the past several years. It can be found on t-shirts, coffee mugs and other merchandise. Keep calm and carry on is a popular slogan calling for persistence in the face of challenge, but it’s not a new idea. It was first used on a British propaganda poster during World War II. The idea of staying calm in the face of trouble actually goes back even a bit further than that.

Around 1400 B.C. the nation of Israel, having been released from 430 years of bondage, find themselves stuck between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. A catchy t-shirt with a “keep calm” logo on it was not what they needed in that moment. Instead, Moses tells the Israelites that “The Lord himself will fight for you,” followed by the exhortation, “Just stay calm.” This was not going to be a do-it-yourself situation. Without God’s intervention, Israel would not survive. But God didn’t bring them out of bondage into the wilderness to allow them to be destroyed by the ones who had enslaved them. No, the Lord Himself would fight for them.

The fact is, God fights for His people. God fought for His people against the Egyptians in Exodus 14, against the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Meunites in 2 Chronicles 20, and against the Amalekites in Exodus 17. Keep Calm is more than just a catchy phrase, if you will look to God and put your trust in Him, the Lord Himself will go to battle for you. If your confidence is in God’s ability to save and not your own strength and understanding, then you can keep calm and carry on.