Whenever anyone uses a verse of Scripture (including me) in their teaching, please take note of it and then read it yourself … in context. Understanding the setting of a sentence is crucial for accurately comprehending it.

Last week, I started listening to a nationally known preacher, and he was discussing pastors not being driven by action, but instead becoming people who live with a stillness before God. Prayer, Bible reading, and meditation should be the center of a pastor’s life, not ministry activities. Then he read a passage of Scripture, claiming it was “one of his favorites for ministry.”

The army of Egypt is coming toward them with 600 of their best chariots, with officers over all of them. The Red Sea traps the Israelites. Then “Moses answered the people, ‘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. (14) The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.'” (Exodus 14:13-14)

This pastor quoted Exodus 14:14 and stated that the people were to be still and trust God. Then he went into his message, which is that God’s call to Church leaders remains the same today. Don’t focus on activity, but rather on stillness, as Moses and the Israelites did.

Because I had recently preached on this passage, I was familiar with the context, and he totally ignored the very next verse. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.'” (Exodus 14:15). In the passage that follows God saying for them to be still, he shouts at them to get moving.

Being still before God is not about inaction; it is about an attitude of total trust in doing what God says. They were to follow His instructions precisely as He told them. They do not need to be filled with anxiety; they need only to act as God commanded them. It was not a call to inaction but to acting in obedience.

Later that same day, I saw a meme on one of my Christian Facebook groups that I had seen before, but it made me laugh and cry a little that day. It said, “I can do all things through a verse taken out of context.”