When Moses grew up and went out to explore the land of Egypt, he found an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and killed the Egyptian. The next day he saw "two Hebrews fighting," and he said to the wicked one, "Why are you beating your fellow Hebrew?" The beating man replied, "Are you going to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" When Moses heard this, "Moses was afraid and said, 'Indeed, the matter has become known.'" The Torah continues that Pharaoh heard about the incident and sought out Moses to kill him. Why was Moses afraid? Did he not trust that God would help him? The Midrash tells us that "two people received promises from God and yet they were afraid: the most select of the patriarchs and the most select of the prophets." The most select of the patriarchs is Jacob, to whom God promised, "I am with you," and when he came to meet Esau, he was afraid. The most select of the prophets is Moshe, to whom God promised "for I will be with you," and he feared in his confrontation with Og, king of Bashan, to the point that God Himself told him "do not fear him.".
Some commentators interpret the Midrash as praise for Jacob and Moses: their humility was so profound that some thought perhaps inappropriate behavior on their part would have nullified God's promise. Other commentators explain it in the opposite way, that the Midrash presents these examples to show us how No We must behave ourselves, because the appropriate thing is not to be afraid, since one should "be calm and trust in God.".
This leads us to ask: what is the basis for trust in God? Isn't it possible that some sin could have nullified a Divine promise? Furthermore, when God didn't speak to us and didn't promise us anything personally, on what basis can we trust God?
The answer lies in a story about Tzemach Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe. A Jew pleaded with Tzemach Tzedek to awaken Divine mercy upon a terminally ill person, and the Rebbe replied, "Think well, and it will be well." His response reveals that good thinking itself, a positive attitude toward the matter, brings about a good outcome, a positive resolution.
In other words, trust in God is an effort a person must make, leaning on Him and casting all burdens into His hands, to the point of not relying on or expecting help from any other source except Him. This effort becomes a vessel for Divine blessing, so that God may be good to the person in both revealed and practical ways.
When a person truly trusts God and from the depths of their soul relies solely on Him to the point of not worrying at all about difficulties and problems, this generates a similar effect on God, in such a way as to "make" God behave towards one in the same way, even though without this trust the person would not have been worthy of such Divine behavior.
This is what the Torah teaches us in our parashah: precisely because Moses was afraid when the matter became known and did not fully trust God, it had the same effect in this world, and Pharaoh sought to kill him, until he was forced to flee Egypt. Had he trusted God completely, that very trust would have caused the matter to be forgotten, and nothing would have happened to him.
The same applies to our confidence in early redemption; we ourselves can cause redemption to be faster.
Adapted from Shulchan Shabbat