God Keeps Wanting to Get His Message Across to Us -- Exodus 7:1-7

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land.  But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.  When Pharaoh will not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt, and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments.  And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.”  So Moses and Aaron did it; as the Lord commanded them, thus they did.  And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
 

In this passage that starts the seventh chapter of Exodus, we have again some repetition of what God has already told Moses.  The basic message to Moses is that whatever he is being asked to do, he is doing it “for God” and thus “God will be there with him”.  And furthermore, God tells Moses “I have given you a partner to help you, your brother, Aaron”.  But that is not all – Moses is told he would not succeed at first for God will harden Pharaoh’s heart.

Here is the whole package for whatever God is asking us to do:

1.     Whatever we are asked to do, is essentially for God, and on his behalf – it is His Plan, not ours.  And we have to keep remembering that and checking our attitude as we work.

2.     God is there, coaching us and keeping us as we work.  He will not abandon us.

3.     He provides helpmates where necessary.

4.     It will not be easy and we may fail big time at first, but there is a reason for that.

I also notice in the text that God said Moses was to ask Pharaoh to let the people go out from “his land”.   When we are in bondage, we often forget that we are not where we are supposed to be.  We are in someone else’s “land”.  When we are struggling, we are in someone else’s land.  We may belong to God and God is definitely with us, but we are traveling in someone else’s land and we need to get out.  In fact, all of our current life here on earth is a life being lived on someone else’s land.  And that ‘someone’ is:

“Satan, Lucifer, the bearer of light, (who) will come to you, handsome and alluring, innocent and with the appearance of light.  He will obscure God’s law and call it in doubt.  He will want to rob you of the joy you have in God’s path.  And once the evil one has caused us to waver, he will tear our entire faith out of our hearts, will trample it under foot and cast it away.  Those will be difficult hours in your life, when you tend to become weary of God’s word, when all is in revolt, when no prayer passes your lips anymore, when the heart refuses to listen any longer.”

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sermon entitled, “The Gift of Faith” preached on April 9, 1938 at a confirmation event.

And it is at that precise moment that you and I need to say, “Lord, help me overcome my unbelief.  Help me have full faith in You, Your Word, and Your record.  Amen.”  I believe Moses and Aaron did just that.

And then God says, “Look, I’m going to harden Pharaoh’s heart but I am doing it for a purpose.”  He is saying to us, “You will struggle in your efforts to serve Me, but there’s a purpose for it – and it is all for good.”  In the case of Moses, it was so that God would perform many signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, in the land of the ‘enemy’.  For us, it may be that, or it may be to further hone or train us for greater service.  But whatever the reason, it is for ‘good’.

And the end result of both what Moses was asked to do, and what we are asked to do, is simply this, God says, “I will accomplish My purpose.”  That is the ultimate end result; there is never a different ending or outcome when it comes to God’s work with us and among us.

We stop for a moment and notice that God sometimes works to accomplish His purpose with “great judgments”.  Those who know the story of the children of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt, know that God did in fact inflict great judgments on Pharaoh and Egypt.  Those of us who have seen God work in very difficult situations in our own lives have seen God do likewise, sometimes surprising even us to the point where we are tempted to ask, “Oh God, did you have to go that far?  Did you have to do that to them?”  When one works with God, one cannot challenge the way God takes care of things.  One can only say, “Yes God.  Thank you, God.  I trust you God.”

And God reminds us again, that He does what He does so that others “shall know that I am the Lord” when He acts to save and to free people from bondage, and takes them out of the land of the enemy.  What God is doing through you and me, and with you and me, He is doing for His purpose that “others shall know He is the Lord”.  What a privilege to be part of that.  No matter what our age – whether a child, a teenager, middle-aged, a new senior like me, or have lived the eighty years that Moses had and the eighty-three years that Aaron had at the time.  There is an exciting part for all of us to carry out, with God.

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Genealogy of Moses and Aaron -- Exodus 6:14-30

Exodus 6:14-25: [The text in these verses (not reproduced here) are intended to connect for the reader, the sons of Jacob with the two men that God was using at this point in Israel’s history to free them of their bondage in Egypt.]
Exodus 6:26-30: It was the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their hosts.”  They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the sons of Israel from Egypt; it was the same Moses and Aaron.  Now it came about on the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, that the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I am the Lord; speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I speak to you.”   But Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am unskilled in speech; how then will Pharaoh listen to me.”

In summary, the account tells of Reuben, Simeon and Levi’s sons and their descendants.  Of particular interest to us is the following genealogy of Levi. 

Jacob begot Levi (who lived 137 years).  Levi begot Kohath (who lived 133 years), among other sons.  Kohath begot Amram (who lived 137 years), among other sons.  Amram married his father Kohath’s sister, Jochebed, and together they had Aaron and Moses.  Here we are also told Aaron married Elisheba.  Elisheba’s family is mentioned but their names (here mentioned for the first time in Scripture) do not come into play again until later in the Old Testament.  Aaron and Elisheba had four children, some of whom we will hear about later.  One of the children is Eleazar, who marries a daughter of Putiel (whose name means “afflicted by God”) and she bore him Phinehas (whom we will meet later).

The passage itself ends by saying “these” (although it is not clear to whom that refers exactly or how inclusive it is) are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites.  Then it repeats somewhat what the author had already provided us with earlier in this chapter and even before that.  The question for the student of the Scriptures is “Why?”.

We can only offer the possible explanations that come to our mind.  First, by providing the genealogy, we are once again reminded that God cares about families and history.  He is sharing with us here how His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is linked via genealogy to Aaron and Moses.  It is this pair that is helping to carry out God’s promises to Abraham many years earlier.  As we saw, there are several generations between Abraham and Aaron and Moses.  What is important here for us to note is how each generation, beginning with Isaac, and Jacob right up to Aaron and Moses’ parents had an important role to play in “keeping the faith”.  They ran families and homes that talked about and taught their children about God, Who He was, and wanted He did for us, and what He wanted of us.  This is our job as parents representing various generations of our family tree and especially as participants in the implementation of God’s Plan for mankind.  Are you and I playing that role as best as we can?

Secondly, the text repeats itself, especially in verses 28-30, because it is important for us to be reminded that this was God’s plan, not theirs, and that He is the Lord.  And all our objections do not throw Him off at all.  He can and does overcome them.  So we find ourselves asking, “Do I realize that I am involved in God’s Plan?  And do I realize and fully accept that He is not just a business owner, or a politician, or a senior partner of a firm I work for, or a teacher at my university – but He is the Lord God Almighty?  And do I realize that while I can raise objections about His choosing me, my true happiness can only be found in obeying His instructions?”  That is the message for you and I from this passage.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Having Accepted His Calling, Moses Now Raises Objection to His Service -- Exodus 6:10-13

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Go tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the sons of Israel go out of his land.”  But Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, “Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech?”  Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the sons of Israel and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
 

After God told Moses again as to Who He was, what He would do, and what He wants of His people, Moses went to the children of Israel and shared the message.  He was rejected big time.  Without letting any time pass and being aware of the rejection Moses suffered, God immediately gets back to him with further instructions.  God leaves us alone only as long as is necessary, but never longer than He knows we need, when things like this happen.

And this time, God tells Moses to go directly to the enemy himself.  Can you imagine Moses’ reaction?  Those who were supposedly on God and Moses’ side flatly refused his plans that were dictated by God Himself.  Furthermore, it was these very people who were to be saved from their bondage.  Yet God now wants him to bypass the people and go directly to Moses with God’s intentions.  Moses could contain himself no longer and it was time for yet another objection.  This time it was not about his calling for he had accepted that some time ago after five objections, you might remember.  No, this time Moses was objecting about the terms of his ‘service’ he was expected to be involved in.

In essence, God was saying to Moses that he and his brother Aaron were to go it alone.  And notice that they were to go on behalf of the people.  The goal was still the same -- to save the children of Israel from their bondage.  You see, the mission, once given, never changes for a leader.  It is the resources and the support of others that change.  They may not be the ones that we expected when we took on the assignment, but they are always sufficient.  And that is what we need to remember as we move with God to accomplish His work.

Still, for Moses, as it would be for most of us, this was a hard instruction to follow at this time.  So he raises his sixth objection.  “If my own people won’t listen to me and You, God, how will the enemy ever listen and agree to my request?”

A good question indeed, at least from a human perspective.  Moses is basically saying, to use a baseball analogy, “Lord, we didn’t get to first base, and now you want us to cross home plate.”  And if that humanly logical argument was not enough, Moses reminds God (as if He had forgotten) that he is a stutterer.  When we cannot see our way through a problem, we throw all our arguments at God.  We use logical ones and personal ones.  We give Him all the reasons as to why we cannot do what He wants us to.  We give Him all the reasons why His plan will not work.  Oh, we may not do it as blatantly as Moses did, but we do it sometimes in a way that is worse – we simply ignore His instructions, even saving ourselves from making the arguments.

But here is where we fail in our thinking.  We forget first of all that we are dealing with the Almighty God, Creator of the universe and Provider of all we need.  Secondly, we forget that He is our Lord who loves us and has an intimate relationship with us.  Thirdly, we forget that it is His plan, not ours – He is totally capable of delivering it with or without our help, and He has total responsibility for it.  We are simply a conduit, a vessel, a human mouthpiece or ambassador if you like.  That’s it.  Nothing more.  That is not to say that our heart is not to be in it, for it must.  But it is to say that we are not responsible for the end results, God is.  Moses had forgotten that at this point.

So what does God do?  Well, it is possible that He is a little frustrated with Moses.  Who would not be?  But remember, He still loves Moses and He would not give up on him as He does not give up on you and me.  And God brings in reinforcement in the person of Aaron for the text says that in response to Moses’ objection He now spoke “to Moses and to Aaron”.  God realizes that as humans we are not yet totally reliant on Him, we need the reassurance and the assistance of others, or at least the company of others as we pursue feats for God.  So God speaks to both of them very directly.  Because God did not want Moses to give up, He brought others along to encourage him.  I have noticed that in my own life and leadership.  Sometimes I pursue things and no one is with me.  It is then I realize I may have mistaken what God had asked me to do.  Other times, God brings a number of men and women of proven faith in God to come stand with me, and that reassures me.  It allows me to refocus on God and His ability to accomplish His will through me, even when some are vehemently opposed.

And the text says God gave them a charge – a charge meant for both the sons of Israel (the leaders among the people including Moses and Aaron) and to Pharaoh himself, to lead the children of Israel, and to let them go, respectively, out of the land of Egypt.  What was God saying to these two men, and through them to the children of Israel, and to Pharaoh?  I believe He was saying, “Look this is no longer a request, a nice suggestion for a nice thing for you to do.  This is my will and it will be done.”  Sometimes God has to be that direct with us as well.  So, we have a choice – be part of God’s plan or sit on the sidelines.

I am reminded of President Abraham Lincoln’s frustration in the movie released in 2012 entitled Lincoln when he finally displays some anger and bangs his fist on the table around which some of his cabinet was giving him a hard time.  He wanted something done and by George, because he was the president, it was going to be done.  God is doing the same thing here with Moses.  There comes a time, for every parent, when a child refuses to obey, to lay down the law.  God was being nothing less than a loving father here.

Soon we will see how Moses reacted.  For now, I hope we each take the opportunity to reflect on how we react to God’s dealing with us when it comes to doing His work.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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“Give This Message to the People, Moses” -- Exodus 6:6-9

“Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage.  I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  And I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the Lord.’”  So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage.
 

In the passages previous to this one, we read that Moses obeyed God, got frustrated with the outcome, and then God reminded him of Who He is, what He has done, and what He has promised.  But I love the beginning of this short passage, “Therefore, tell your fellow Hebrews . . .”.

As I study this passage, I have come to believe that one of its purposes is to remind us that our relationship with God, our knowledge of Who He is and what He has done and has promised, is to be shared with others, beginning with our own people –family, friends, coworkers, and countrymen/women.  This is all about ‘telling others’.  It is about ‘witnessing’.  And then God, in telling Moses what he is to say, gives us some instructions as to what we are to say.  God would have us tell people that:

1.     Our God is indeed, as we saw from the previous passage, more than just a Creator and Provider – He is our Lord with whom we can have a personal and intimate relationship, as a Father and a child.

2.     Because our God is a God of love, He is fully aware of their circumstances and their needs and that He will deliver them from any bondage they find themselves in.  For many people, life is no longer fun, only bondage.  When the curtain goes down, the patrons have left for after-theatre drinks, and the lights are dimmed, the actor is often left alone, tired, spent, and despondent.

3.     Because He is a God of justice, He will also deal with our enemy, the devil, as well as those that work with him.  Vengeance is indeed His and He will judge the evildoers and repay them accordingly.

4.     He wants us to be His people, His children and to know Him as a Father.  He wants to be our God and lead us and save us.  In short, God will redeem us from being slaves.  If not Him, who or what else?

5.     At the end of our journey, if He is our God and we are His children, we will get our promised land – we will get our reward of eternal life; our struggles will be over; and we will sing of our Redeemer’s praise.

The message could not be any simpler.  All of the above is now made possible for us, who were not originally “children of Israel” and thus were not Jews.  It is now possible for the whole world to participate fully in God’s desire to have us as His children and to save us, through His Son, Jesus Christ.  The New Testament thousands of years after God spoke these words and gave these instructions to Moses, instructs us so.

Now notice the interesting lack or absence of words between the completion of God’s utterance and Moses’ obedience.   The Bible simply says, “So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel.”  Wow.  Here were clear instructions, followed by immediate and complete obedience to them.  Are we as faithful, as trusting, as obedient?  Let us determine this day to be so, or at least to be more so than we have in the past.

Now here is the shocker.  This passage clearly warns us that even though we do all we are instructed to do in sharing with others our relationship with and in God, many, if not all, simply will not listen.  And they won’t listen, the Bible says, because of “their despondency and [their] cruel bondage”.  Despondency is defined as a state of low spirits caused by a loss of hope or courage -- often from years of ‘slavery’ or ‘bondage’ in our lives.  And the loss of hope or courage often comes from being or feeling defeated by the enemy, or believing that because of what they see around them, they cannot win; that life is indeed intended to be hard, and then you die.

You and I, as was Moses and Aaron in our story, are often the only chance these people of low spirits have of ever seeing things differently.  We are the only way that some of them will ever find the hope of having joy and purpose and peace again through Christ Jesus and of finding the courage to live life with Him one day at a time, realizing that each challenge He allows is for their ultimate strengthening and confidence, as well as their own mission in life.

Somehow, Moses was not getting that across to his own people, and as we will see, in the passages that follow, God moves in again.  Did Moses listen and continue with his mission?  We’ll find out.  The more pertinent question is, “Are we listening and continuing in Christ, sharing with others our story of redemption?”  I pray so.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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2013: The Joyless and Ungrateful Are Still Among Us

I received a subscription to Canada’s National Post for Christmas.  The paper’s ‘Letters’ page, December 31, 2012, was dedicated to an idea suggested earlier by one of their readers, Esther Paul.  Esther had recommended to Paul Russell, the Letters editor, that readers be asked, “What gives them joy/satisfaction/what are they grateful for.”

From what I could see, the majority of printed letters were indeed “quite heartwarming” as the paper said.  People were grateful for family and friends.  Some were thankful there was a God.  Others were thankful for what Canada offers, or for their health, or for a free press, and a slew of other reasons.

But two letters in particular caught my attention.  The first was under a sub-heading that read, “Grateful that there is not a God”.  It was by an A. Hughes from Thorold, Ontario.  He wrote:

Your question is an open invitation to believers to go on about religion.  In response to them I have to say that I’m happy that I don’t believe in any sort of god.  Indeed, it even gives me joy.

The second one was printed under a heading that read, “Nothing to be grateful for”.  Another man, A. Sotto, sent it in from Montreal, Quebec.  He wrote:

I have nothing to be grateful for.  Cigarettes are expensive and the winters here are long and harsh.  However, I enjoyed watching ‘La Traviata’ [an opera by Verdi] at the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier [a Montreal concert hall].

What do we really have here as represented by these two letters?  In the first case, Mr. Hughes, in my opinion, demonstrates evidence of a “man angry at God”.  He takes issue with the very question the editor asked of readers.  Why does his mind immediately go to the idea that joy/satisfaction/being grateful can be only somehow related to God or belief in a religious faith?  May I suggest it is because a) finding true joy/satisfaction/reasons-for-gratefulness is indeed related to knowing God personally and Mr. Hughes’ inner-self knows that but refuses to accept it, and b) that the writer was in some way irate that it is so, especially since he denies God’s existence.  At the same time, the writer feels it necessary that he have some sort of joy nonetheless and insists that he has found it in his ability to believe there is no God.  Unfortunately, one’s belief that something (or Someone) does not exist does not make it so.

[As an example, denying that something more devious and evil, involving well-known and previously trusted Americans, was the cause of the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings of 9/11 fame – something like ‘controlled demolition’ as is coming to light by scientific research these days -- and instead choosing to believe the ‘official but unscientific story’ that they were solely downed by two ordinary commercial airplanes under the control of Muslims crashing into them and the resultant fires that were observed, does not necessarily make the latter to be a fact.  But that’s another story for another time.  In the meantime, readers may want to check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ddz2mw2vaEg and then https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n_fp5kaVYhk for more information on this.  But be warned, it may well shake your foundational beliefs in your country, your government, and mankind.]

Let us look at the letter of the second writer, Mr. Sotto.  His submission too is puzzling.  He offers the statement that he has “nothing to be grateful about”.  And why is that?  Well, if you believed him, it is because “cigarettes are expensive” and “winters (where he lives) are long and harsh.”  If I had a chance to spend a little time with Mr. Sotto, I am sure we could find a number of things for which he could be grateful if he so chose.  Among them would be the fact that he is still alive to enjoy some of the benefits that this country does indeed have to offer.   While cigarettes may be expensive, surely he can be thankful for the fact that he does, even from time to time, have sufficient money to purchase them for his self-satisfaction (that is assuming he hasn’t given up smoking which I very much doubt).  Perhaps he could be grateful for the very source of those funds.  And then Mr. Motto himself offers a cause for joy (surely we can say we are ‘grateful’ for things that cause us ‘joy’) when he talks about the opportunity he had to see a great opera at a wonderful concert hall.  So, you see, even those that at first reaction have nothing to be grateful for, even they have something and often, have much, to be grateful for.  [ I am reminded of the reaction I observe in my grandchildren sometimes when they are missing one thing they want right now, the whole world of blessings they have and are surrounded by, are easily forgotten.]

We can well ask what then makes the difference between a joyful or grateful individual and one who thinks and talks and feels as if he or she is not?  The answer is simple (at least to me).  It is a matter of the intellect and the emotion.  It is a matter of what one thinks in one’s head and what one feels in one’s heart.  And then of course, one has to consciously decide what that is and stick to it.  I, for one, have chosen to believe there is a God, and that makes it easy for me to see all the things in my life for which I am joyous and grateful about.  My family, my health, my life and opportunities in general, my ability and desire to help others, and so on – all these are seen by me as a gift from God.  The only thing I have to do is make the decision that what my head and heart are telling me I will stick with.

At the same time, I do realize that it is possible for some to experience the same joy and sense of being grateful without believing in God.  The only problem that arises with that approach is how one might then a) explain the presence and absence of these things for which they are happy about and grateful, in their lives, or in the lives of others; and b) who is such a person being “thankful” or “grateful” to, or from whom are we withhold such thankfulness.  The actual meaning of the phrase “thank you” makes sense when we consider that normally when we express it, we are shifting “responsibility” in a positive way from ourselves to someone else.  [For example, when your arms are full of grocery bags and you have to get through a door, and I come along and open that door for you, you say “thank you” because I have in essence taken that ‘responsibility’ from you and transferred it to myself as you allow me to.  You would not be saying ‘thank you’ if you refused to allow me to open the door for you, even if I did.]  So I would ask anyone who thinks like Mr. Sotto, “Who is taking on the responsibility of making you “thankful” by giving you any joy or gratefulness in anything?”

Finally, there are three verses in the New Testament of the Bible, found in Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8, where Jesus says, “The poor you will always have with you.”  Commentators have translated that very literally and for good reason if one understands the full context of the wording.  But somehow, I cannot help but think that Jesus may also mean those that are “poor in the sense that they cannot be joyful or grateful” and those who refuse to shift the responsibility for life and its blessings to Him.

I hope Mssrs. Hughes and Sotto and the many they represent will indeed find more reasons to be joyous and thankful in 2013.  More importantly, it is my wish that more of us who have this JOY will indeed take the time necessary to find the joyless and the ungrateful in this world, like these two honest men, or at least those that God puts in our path, and simply share with them our own source of this most-valued asset.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

God Reflects On His Covenant and Name -- Exodus 6:1-5

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he shall let them go, and under compulsion he shall drive them out of his land.”  God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them.  And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned.  And furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.”

This was a hard section to title.  While God is definitely speaking to Moses in response to his complaint, I feel there is also present an element of God thinking out loud and reflecting on what has transpired so far and what will transpire.  When looking at the actual language, one can easily say God is simply restating His promises to Moses, and you can almost hear Moses thinking, “promises, promises, promises”.  Sometimes we feel like that.  “God, I’ve done all I could; I kept my side of the bargain; what about you?  Why isn’t my child better?  Why doesn’t my husband have a job?  Why do I feel no one on earth loves me?  Why can’t we buy our own place?  Why is there so much trouble in my church?”

And this is the very time that we need to remember that, in one sense, we have not really trusted and believed unless we have trusted and believed to the very end.  I have been a Christian for over five decades now.  Sometimes, when I consider all that is going on in the world, especially with respect to growth of Jihadic Islam in the world and its goal of eliminating all Christians and Jews from the face of the earth, I ask myself “What happens if I fail my Lord in the end?”  All those years of faithfulness will not count for much if I do not run the full race.  I will have only believed and trusted when I saw evidence of His hand in my life.  I will have been no different than an atheist if I stopped believing and trusting when I felt He had not kept His Word to me.

I believe that is the very secret to a Christian life.  One allows his or her faith to carry him or her throughout life right up to the point of death.  It is at that point that one can be told, “you have run a good race”.  It is then that the struggles end.  I do not for a moment want to suggest that God cannot or will not be merciful even then (that is His call to make, not ours), but from my perspective anything short of that would make me feel I have failed my Lord and my faith at the time I most needed them.

God tells Moses that He will, by force, cause Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go.  But Moses had been told that earlier.  This was just a reminder.  That is the amazing thing about God – He gives people a chance to do the right thing voluntarily.  Only when they do not, He uses His power to bring about the result that He wants.  And He can do that because of Who He is.

And so He reminds Moses of that.  He tells him He is the Lord, the same One Who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty.  Moses only had to remember what He did for them to know that He would deliver His promises to Moses as well.  If our God is God and He is, then we need to only remember what He has done in the past, and what He is doing for others even now, in order to be assured of what He will do for us in the future.

But here God makes an interesting distinction.  He says Moses knows Him by one name and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him by another.  Moses’ ancestors knew Him as “God Almighty” or more literally ‘El Shaddai’ (Genesis 17:1), the Creator of the heavens and the earth, or as "Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide" (Genesis 22:8).  But God wanted His children to know Him in a much more personal way, as Lord.

What God now wanted for the children of Israel, here He was sharing with Moses, His handpicked servant.  He wanted Moses to be in this close relationship with Him.  Beforehand, God was merely known as one Who keeps His covenant, but now He is to be known more intimately.  That is what He wants for us as well.  Do you know God as just the Creator (as major as that is) or a Provider; or do you know Him intimately as your Father and as the Lord of your life?

And here’s the rest of the good news.  God says His covenant gives Canaan to the people of Israel.  Nothing would change that.  They were to get the land in due course.  And then God addresses the ‘timing’ issue as well, knowing that Moses was concerned about “when all this was to pass”.   God had heard the groaning of the children of Israel – groaning that was caused by the increased work pressure put on them lately because Pharaoh got angered at their request for time off to go and worship God.

What does this tell us?  Simply this – God is aware of our own legitimate groaning.  And if we are close to Him, we will sense that He does and we will trust Him with the knowledge of that, knowing He will come at the right time to rescue us.  I personally experienced that again just this past week.  Just when I felt all was lost in a particular situation in my ministry, God heard my cry.  But in the process I did sense His love for, and direction of, me, and then He delivered me in a most miraculous way.  The result was far more than I expected.

There was a Gospel song a few years back sung by a group called Karen Peck and New River.  It was called “Four Days Late”.  It depicted the story of Lazarus on how his starts thought that Jesus was four days late in coming and all hope was lost.  But the truth was that Jesus was “right on time”.  I encourage you to look it up on the internet and listen to it.  Friend, God remembers His covenant with His people.  He did for the Israelites and He does now for you.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Moses Questions God -- Exodus 5:22-23

Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why hast Thou brought harm to this people?  Why didst Thou ever send me?  Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he has done harm to this people; and Thu has not delivered Thy people at all.”

It happens to all of us.  When things are not going right, especially when we think we have done all that God wants us to, and people are being hurt, the natural thing to do is to turn to God and ask “Why?”  It is a common response or frustration.  It hits Christians and non-Christians alike.  In fact, even atheists seem to want to blame the God whose existence they deny.

I experienced a little of this recently when I was speaking to one of the members of a Board of Directors I work with.  I told him that I did not know why God was allowing certain things to happen, but I was willing to keep on following what I believe He has told me and suffer any necessary consequences.  My personal view is that it is okay for us to wonder “why” God is allowing or doing something we cannot understand, but it is not okay for us to question Him.

I think that Moses, in keeping with his previous approach to questioning God, again went a little too far.  Not only does he ask “why?” but also he accuses God of bringing harm to the children of Israel.  And then he makes the issue about him when he further asks, “Why did you ever think of sending me?”  Wow.  Now Moses was actually challenging God’s selection of His choice as to who would do His work or how it was to be done.  This is probably not a wise way to question the Almighty.

And Moses does not stop there.  He tells God that he did everything in His Name, as God told him to and all that resulted was that Pharaoh started harming the people more.  God’s plan was faulty as far as he was concerned.  And then he makes it about God – “You have not delivered at all as you promised.”  We cannot miss that phrase, “at all”.  I am reminded of our grandchildren that get ‘totally’ upset at one of their parents because they were denied a fourth treat at a local fair, but give no credit to their mom or dad who take them to the fair, buy them lots of rides, and the first three treats.  So it is with us, in the moment’s frustration, we often forget God’s blessings and overall generosity to His people and His individual children.

Chuck Smith in his commentary on these verses in C2000 Series says this:

You know quite often Satan, when you embark on a work of God, throws so many things in the way that things look like they've just gotten so much worse, you wonder, "Oh man, did God really tell me that?" Or, "Did God really call me?" He does his best to discourage you right at the onset of any program that you endeavor for God. You'd be amazed how many problems can arise when you make a commitment to God, you desire to serve the Lord. Not gonna be peaches and cream, not gonna be roses. Satan will do his best to discourage you. So often things look like they have just gone from bad to calamity because you've launched out in faith to do a work for God. Satan will do his best to hinder it and stop it at the beginning. He'll do anything to stop it, discouragement, lies, anything to stop that work of God that you endeavor for Him. So that secret is "just keep on". If God has called you to a task, "just do it". Don't get discouraged at initial responses.

Years ago I thought God called me to the ministry. So I trained, went to school, prepared, and spent seventeen years trying to minister, until I got so discouraged that I thought "Well, maybe God didn't call me to the ministry." I was ready to quit, ready to give up so many times. Put out applications for different kinds of work, get out of the ministry, get into something secular. I was discouraged, I was tired, fighting, hassles, trying to feed a family, to patch the squabbles of people. The thing, the interesting thing is it was just after my period of greatest discouragement, I really just sort of resigning from the ministry, and going into home Bible studies that God really began to bless and anoint me. Just when I had a good job, started making money. Satan will do his best to discourage you. He'll make you question your call. He'll challenge you on every corner. If God has called you to do it, stick with it, God will bring you through. God will work.

I know exactly how Moses felt. I turned in my resignation to God so many times, "I've had it, through. Thought You called me to the ministry, but Lord there's nothing happening, I'm tired." Lord said, "Ah get out there and get back to work. What are you doing crying to Me?"

It is my prayer that we can all learn from Moses’ mistakes and be strengthened by God’s undying love for us and His willingness to forgive and overlook our failing eyesight and memory.  It is fine that we pour out of heart to God as Moses did, but we must never forget God’s promises and His exact words.  You will remember that back in Exodus 3:19-20 God had actually said, “But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.”  Moses had forgotten.  Let us not forget God’s promises to us, even when things look dismal.

In the next chapter of Exodus, we see God’s response once again to the man He has chosen to lead Israel out of Egypt.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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The Hebrew Foremen Blame Moses and Aaron -- Exodus 5:15-21

Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants?  There is no straw given to your servants, yet they keep saying to us, ‘Make bricks!’  And behold, your servants are being beaten; but it is the fault of your own people.”  But he said, “You are lazy, very lazy; therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’  So go now and work; for you shall be given no straw, yet must deliver the quota of bricks.”  And the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, “You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks.”  When they left Pharaoh’s presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them.  And they said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

Seeing that their fellow Hebrews could not deliver the quotas they were assigned due to the fact that they also had to now collect their own straw with which to construct the bricks, the foremen who were Hebrews went to Pharaoh and complained strongly.  They appealed to his sense of fairness in the way servants should be treated and to his sense of logic in terms of what was to be reasonably expected in terms of product within a set timeframe.

But Pharaoh would hear nothing of it.  Instead he accuses them of being lazy and the scripture in fact says, he repeated the words “very lazy”.  Their request to be given time to sacrifice to the Lord in his opinion was simply an attempt to get out of work.  The requirements remained in place and he sent them back to their work.

So the Hebrew foremen sensed they were in trouble having gained no good news to report to their people.

Realizing they could not win any concessions from Pharaoh, they next meet with Moses and Aaron who had been waiting to see what the outcome of the foremen’s meeting with Pharaoh was.  The foremen then take their frustration out on Moses and Aaron, accusing them of making the people hated in the sight of Pharaoh and his representatives, so much so that they believed they would kill them if they did not meet their daily production quotas.  You will remember this whole thing of the extra demands started when Moses and Aaron had asked Pharaoh to let the people go into the desert to sacrifice unto God.

What do we make of this short passage?  This was the first instance where Moses was faced with opposition from his own side as a result of his willingness to obey God with respect to his mission for God.  And interestingly enough, it came from the very people that stood to benefit from what God was doing through Moses.  There is more to come later.

The lesson is simply this – you can expect challenges and grief from the very people that should be supporting you when you set about doing the hard things that God wants you to do.  Anyone in leadership can well identify with this, be he/she a pastor, an executive, or a politician.

One may well ask “but why does God allow this to happen?”  The answer seems to be that part of the leader’s development for real challenges is the ability to handle the frustrations and oppositions that come from his/her people.   If you are experiencing this today and still feel you are doing what God wants you to do, then consider it as part and parcel of the training process.  God is not finished with you yet.  He is watching to see how true you will remain to the cause and the methodology He has given you to follow.  Hang in there and as Bill Hybels says, “Stay the Course”.
You may also ask, "why do the very people we are trying to help do this?"  That is a good question.  I can only offer these suggestions.  First, you are the leader, not they.  They often cannot see the process that has to be followed from start to finish.  Second, God has spoken to you, not necessarily to them.  There will be some in the group that will support you -- God has chosen them to be your Aarons.  Be thankful for them and pray that they can influence others.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.