It seems like, even if some of them did "cry out to the Lord," the majority reaction was one of complaint—one of terrified complaint. When in terror, people tend to exaggerate their situation; and they also tend to exaggerate how "good" they had it before. That is exactly what they did here. They are very sarcastic. "Are there no graves in Egypt?"
Remember in "The Ten Commandments" movie? This was Dathan that came up and said it to Moses. (Edward G. Robinson. Yeah, "the gangster" comes out and says this.) But Egypt is a land of tombs. The tombs of the pharaohs, the tombs of their wives, the tombs of their servants—it was a land of graves. And yet they said: "Were there no graves in Egypt, that you brought us out here to die?" Very sarcastic!
And they also misrepresented what they had said to Moses when they were back in Egypt. They were very willing to call him their "savior" at first. But it was not until Pharaoh said, "Okay, you are going to make bricks without straw. You are going to have to gather the straw yourself. And I want the same amount of bricks as you gave me before." Then they started complaining to Moses, saying, "Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians." So it really was not true that they had not wanted this freedom. They were in it with him.
Now we are beginning to see that they were, at this point, very far from being still.
Moses, being a righteous man and knowing what he had to do (and also knowing the psychology of people)—he told them to calm down, to be still, to not be so afraid. Why? So that they could see the salvation that God was bringing to them. If there were all riled up, they would miss it. Notice he says, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today." And then he brackets it with another "You shall hold your peace." You shall be still—so you can see, so you can observe, so you can understand, so you can witness the things that God is doing for you.
God promises deliverance from all our trials. But having been raised in this zero-sum game, we can easily blame God for our trials and want to return to the bondage from which we have been delivered. But this is not a zero-sum game with God, and He always makes a way of escape for those who faithfully trust Him to keep His set-apart children moving forward. Here, as they neared the seventh day of their journey, memorialized in the seventh day of Unleavened Bread, Israel looked back at the might of the army of Pharaoh rather than forward, remembering what they were told to focus on: the hand of God that had done all to deliver them. Instead they allowed what was truly in their hearts to drag them back into the Satan-weakening of nations, the system of things, a zero-sum system.
They had all ready forgotten. I do not mean that they had forgotten what happened in Egypt. I mean, they had not forgotten the events of their very recent past, but they had forgotten the lesson of the past. If they had learned the lesson, they would not have been afraid. They would not have actually cursed God by their failure to believe. It would have positively affected their conduct at that time. You see, Egypt should have been a school. The events that involved God's liberation of them from their bondage should have been a learning experience that changed their lives! But it did not.
It seems that they had forgotten what happened in Egypt. They had not really forgotten the events. The events, I am sure were fresh in their mind, but they never either learned, or if they had learned, they forgot the lesson. It's like I said last week: Israel believed that God existed. Israel believed that He had worked in their behalf but somehow or another, it never translated into a faith that will save.
Moses was not afraid, but he was a man of faith. They were not. So what did they do? When they saw the problem, fear quickly came to mind and it determined their action! Was that the act of someone filled with faith? Moses was the one who was filled with faith and his reaction was not one of fear. He said to "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."
They were ready to give it up. "You didn't listen to us, Moses. We told you this was a fool's errand and here we are out at the edge of the wilderness and we are going to die now." Moses' reply is a way of trying to seek to calm them.
