Not happy

Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.       Exodus 5.23

Moses is speaking to God, and he is not a happy chappie. He is not happy with God. He is in the poo, and it’s all God’s fault.

Moses was most reluctant to undertake God’s mission for him in the first place. And now it is patently not working as he would like it. I know that as I read further into this saga I will see that it gets a whole lot worse before it gets any better. Yet this was the start of the great Exodus – the deliverance of God’s people out of captivity, the fore-runner of the wonderful deliverance that is available to everyone by salvation in Christ. And, just as the Israelites in Egypt were subjected to certain experiences, parallels can be seen in the lives of many pilgrims today. In his blunt speech to God, Moses identifies two issues that may well occur in the experience of today’s believer.

The first is the negative response encountered when speaking to non-believers in God’s name. Moses was commissioned to speak to Pharaoh, the highest authority in the land, and all he got was trouble. Yet, he was fully in God’s plan. It will help me, to remember that I might experience negative reaction, even trouble, when I speak to unbelievers about Jesus. It is important, therefore, that I commit any and all such initiatives into God’s hands, seeking His guidance as I go.

The second point made by Moses is that God has not rescued your people at all. The plan seemed reasonably clear. Moses was commissioned, however reluctantly, by God to approach Pharaoh for the release of the Israelites. Moses has done his bit, and all that’s ensued is trouble for everyone. Clearly God has let them down, and Moses tells Him so.

God’s response is to remind Moses who He is.

God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD.” (Exod. 6.2)

Therefore (because of my covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians...I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God...And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’ ” (Exod. 6.6-8)

Surely the point is that God is God. Nothing is impossible, and what He says He will do – He will most certainly do. But the timing will be His. Moses and the Israelites experienced much trouble and hardship before they enjoyed the Promised Land. Yet, through all their wilderness wanderings, God was with them every step of the way.

And so it is for me. God has a plan for me. He has, from time to time, declared something of His plan. My part is to trust Him, to receive His Word and accept it as truth, to let Him know that I believe fully and totally in Him.

Lord God,

I thank You for this word. I am tempted to follow Solomon and say there is nothing new under the sun, for surely the situations and circumstances that I struggle with have all been seen, perhaps in different guises, before.

I rejoice that You have a plan for my life, and I surrender myself totally to Your plan. I thank You for the insights You have given me from time to time. I receive every prophetic word You have sent to me. I hold to them believing that You have spoken and will outwork, in due course, everything that You have said. Whatever might appear in the physical, I choose to believe that Your full and perfect plan will come to pass in my life.

I declare You are my Lord. You are the one I worship and adore. I offer up my full allegiance to You. I willingly give You my life. I want only for Your will to be outworked in me.

Glorious Lord, I love You and thank You for the love You have for me. Lead me in love, in Jesus’ Name I ask.                                                                                                          Amen.