A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”
“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.
“I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is, technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”
The woman below responded, “You must be in Management.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.” (Andrew Chan, www.SermonCentral.com)
I love that story, because it is so real. When things go wrong, a lot of people play the blame game, but that doesn’t help anyone.
There’s a better way to handle disappointment, and if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 5, Exodus 5, where we see how God helps Moses handle a major set-back in their plan to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
Exodus 5:1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’” (NIV)
Now, this was not an unreasonable request. Egypt had enslaved other desert peoples, who were known to make sudden departures for a pilgrimage to some desert shrine. In fact, ancient Egyptian records speak about absenteeism among the workers for these kinds of festivals. Well, Moses is just asking the same favor for the Israelites. You see, Moses is testing the waters here. He knows Pharaoh won’t let the Israelites go forever, but perhaps he might let them go for a 3-day religious festival as he does for other slaves. How does Pharaoh respond?
Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (NIV)
Pharaoh has no regard for Israel’s God. He may recognize other gods and allow his slaves to worship them, but not Israel’s God.
Exodus 5:3-5 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.” But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.” (NIV)
“The people of the land” is a derogatory term for commoners as opposed to nobility, and they were 2 to 3 million people at this time. There is no way Pharaoh is going to let 2 to 3 million of his workers time off at the same time, so he refuses their request. Then he increases their labor.
Exodus 5:6-7 That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. (NIV)
Straw was used to reinforce the bricks. They would mix the straw into the mud, so the bricks wouldn’t fall apart after they dried in the sun. Usually the slave drivers provided straw for the slaves to use. Now, the slaves would have to find their own straw, and yet with this added work, still make the same number of bricks.
Exodus 5:8-9 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.” (NIV)
Pharaoh doubts their intention to worship. He believes the slaves only want to get out of work.
Exodus 5:10-18 Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’ ” So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.” The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh’s slave drivers were beaten and were asked, “Why didn’t you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?” Then the Israelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.” Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.” (NIV)
Things get much worse for the Israelites, so they do what many people do – they look for someone to blame.
Exodus 5:19-21 The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (NIV)
They basically tell Moses, “It’s all your fault.” Instead of making things better for the Israelites, Moses has succeeded in only making things worse. So what does Moses do? He too looks for someone to blame.
Exodus 5:22-23 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 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.” (NIV)
The Israelites blame Moses, and Moses blames God for all the trouble they’re in, but what good does that do? It doesn’t do anybody any good – not Moses, not the Israelites. And it doesn’t do US any good, either. So when things don’t go as you planned…
DON’T BLAME GOD OR ANYBODY ELSE.
Don’t look for someone to criticize. Don’t resort to accusation and condemnation, because it’s a complete waste of time.
In his book, When God Whispers Your Name, Max Lucado talks about going to the church office very early one morning long before sunrise. He entered the office complex, disarmed the alarm, and then re-armed it.
A few seconds later the alarm sirens screamed. “Somebody is trying to break in!” Lucado thought, so he raced down the hall, turned off the alarm, ran back to his office, and dialed 911. After he hung up, it occurred to him that the thieves could get in before the police arrived, so he dashed back down the hall and re-armed the system.
As he punched in the code, he mumbled defiantly, “They won't get me;” but when he turned to go back to the office, the alarm blared again. Lucado disarmed the alarm and reset it. Then he walked to a window to look for the police. The alarm sounded a third time, and once again Lucado disarmed and reset it.
Walking back to his office, the alarm sounded again and Lucado disarmed it again. Then he thought, “Wait a minute; this alarm system must be fouled up,” so he called the alarm company.
He told the fellow who answered, “Our alarm system keeps going off. We've either got some determined thieves or a malfunction.”
The alarm company rep responded. “There could be one other option,” he said. “Did you know that your building is equipped with a motion detector?”
Then the police arrived. “I think the problem is on the inside, not the outside,” Lucado told them, embarrassed that he was the culprit setting off the alarm. (Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name, W Publishing Group, 1994; www.PreachingToday. com)
I wonder: Is he the only one to blame an inside problem on an outside source? Alarms go off in our world all the time, but as Max Lucado says, “It’s wise to look in the mirror before you peek out the window.” So when trouble and disappointment comes your way, don’t blame God like Moses did. Instead…
BELIEVE GOD.
Rely on the Lord. Depend on who He is and on what He has said. That’s how God helps Moses deal with the disappointment in his life. God reminds Moses of who He is and what He has said.
Exodus 6:1-3 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.” God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord – YHWH, I AM – I did not make myself known to them. (NIV)
Exodus 6:4-5 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. (NIV)
Moses has asked the question, “Why?” But God answers the question, “Who?” God reminds Moses that He is the Almighty I AM, who knows Israel’s trouble and will be faithful to His covenant.
So it is when we face disappointment and our plans get derailed. We don’t need to know the answer to the question WHY as much as we need to be reminded about WHO God is. In other words, just rely on God’s person. Depend on His character. Trust Him for who He is.
When our daughter, Elizabeth, was seven years old, we had to take her to the doctor’s office for some blood tests. On the way, mom explained to her that the doctor was going to take some blood and that it would hurt, but it was necessary so they could find out what was making her feel so bad. We always had a policy with our children to explain the reasons why certain things had to be done, so mom was doing her best to explain medical procedures to a 7-year-old. Well, when the nurse got out the needle to draw blood, Elizabeth no longer cared about the reason why. She just wanted her momma and clung to her like super glue.
You see, real comfort does not come in knowing the reason why. It comes in knowing the Comforter, the Almighty I AM Himself. So cling to the Lord when you face disappointment. Trust Him for who He is. Rely on His person.
Then rely on God’s promises. Depend on what God has said. Trust in His Word. As God reassures Moses about His person, He also reassures Moses about His promises.
Exodus 6:6-8 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 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.’” (NIV)
I am YHWH, the I AM, who keeps His promises. Count on it! That’s what God is saying to Moses, and that’s what God says to us in our disappointment.
First, rely on God’s promise of redemption. In verse 6, God says, “I WILL bring you out… I WILL free you… I WILL redeem you…” In the Hebrew, God is saying I will be your Goel, i.e., your Family Protector.
Now, the job of the Family Protector in Hebrew society was to rescue family members when they got into trouble. If they had to sell some property to pay their debts, the Family Protector purchased the property back for his family. If they had to sell themselves into slavery, the Family Protector paid the price to buy them out of slavery. And if a family member was murdered, the Family Protector went after the murderer to eliminate any further threats to the family.
The Family Protector was a close relative who took care of His family, and that’s what God promises to be for us, His family. For Israel, God says, “I will free you from slavery to the Egyptians and eliminate their threat forever. For believers today, God says, “I will free you from slavery to sin and eliminate its threat forever in your lives.”
God is our Redeemer – our Goel – our Family Protector, and He paid a high price buy us out of slavery. 1 Peter 1 says, “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
God paid the price of His own Son’s shed blood on the cross to purchase our freedom. Now, all we need to do is depend on Him to experience that freedom from sin. Like God asks Moses to do, trust Him with your life. Depend on your Family Protector, your Redeemer, your Goel.
In his book The Prodigal God, Tim Keller tells the story of Hai, a bicycle rickshaw driver, and Lan, a beautiful prostitute, in postwar Vietnam. Hai is in love with Lan, and Lan lives in grinding poverty, longing to live in the beautiful world where she works, but never even spends the night. She hopes that the money she makes by prostitution will be her means of escape, but instead the work brutalizes and enslaves her.
Then Hai enters a rickshaw race and wins the top prize. With the money he brings Lan to the hotel. He pays for the night and pays her fee. Then he tells her he just wants to watch her fall asleep. Instead of using his power and wealth to have sex with her, he spends it to purchase a place for her for one night in a normal world, to fulfill her desire to belong. Lan finds such grace deeply troubling at first, thinking that Han has done this to control her. When it becomes apparent that he is using his power to serve rather than use her, it begins to transform her, making it impossible for her to return to a life of prostitution. (Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, Riverhead Books, 2008, pp. 96-98; www.PreachingToday.com)
So it is when we accept God’s unconditional love for us. We are transformed when we truly believe that Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life for unworthy sinners like us. So don’t blame God for your troubles. Instead, trust God in them. First, rely on His promise of redemption.
Then second, rely on God’s promise of a relationship. Depend on God’s commitment that we belong to Him.
In verse 7, God says, “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” God promises Israel that He will enter into a personal relationship with them, and God says the same thing about all of us who believe in Christ. In 1 Peter 2, the Bible says of every believer, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10).
We who have trusted Christ “belong to God.” We are His and He is ours, so we can depend on Him even in the middle of the storms of our lives.
A long time ago, a navy officer and his wife were on board a ship that got caught in a terrible storm in the middle of the ocean. The wife was frantic, but the man who had been through such storms before remained very calm. He tried to comfort his wife, but she was inconsolable.
Suddenly, she grasped his sleeve and cried, “How can you be so calm?” He stepped back a few feet and drew his sword. Pointing it at her heart, he said, “Are you afraid of this?”
Without hesitation, she answered, “Of course not.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because it’s in your hand,” she said, “and you love me too much to hurt me.”
Then the man told her, “I know the One who holds the winds and the waters in the hollow of His hand, and He will surely care for us!”
You see, God loves us too much to hurt us. Instead, He only designs the storms of life to help us. So in your disappointments, don’t blame God; believe God. First, rely on His promise of redemption. Second, rely on His promise of a relationship.
And third, rely on God’s promise of a realm. Depend on God’s commitment to give every believer a wonderful inheritance in His Kingdom.
In verse 8, God says to Israel, “I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.” God promised Israel a glorious future, and He has promised an even better future to everyone who believes in His Son.
1 Peter 1 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
That’s something we can count on even when “suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
1 Peter 1 goes on to say, “These [trials] have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).
During the days of the Great Depression, a man lost his job, his wife and his home. All he had left was his faith.
Then one day, he stopped to watch some men building a stone church. One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of rock.
“What are you going to do with that?” asked the man.
The workman replied, “Do you see that little opening way up there near the spire? I’m shaping this down here so that it will fit up there.”
That’s what God is doing for those of us who trust in His Son. He is shaping us down here so we’ll fit up there in heaven. Just trust Him in your trial. Rely on His promise of redemption. Rely on His promise of a relationship, and rely on His promise of a realm – a place in His Kingdom. In your disappointment, don’t blame God. Instead, believe God, and…
GET BACK TO WORK.
Return to the task at hand. Continue to pursue the call God gave you to begin with. That’s what God tells Moses to do.
Exodus 6:9-13 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.” But Moses said to the Lord, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?” Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. (NIV)
Moses is still not sure he is going to succeed, but God tells Him, “Go back to Pharaoh and tell him to let My people go.” In other words, the call hasn’t changed just because there is a setback. And that’s what God would say to us, as well. God’s will doesn’t change just because there is an obstacle. So get back to work, and keep on pursuing the task God has given you to do.
Sir Edmund Hillary made several unsuccessful attempts at scaling Mount Everest before he finally succeeded. After one attempt he stood at the base of the giant mountain and shook his fist at it. “I'll defeat you yet,” he said in defiance. “Because you're as big as you're going to get, but I'm still growing.”
Hillary didn’t let a mountain stop him. In fact, every time he climbed he failed, but every time he failed, he learned. And every time he learned, he grew and tried again. And one day he did not fail. (John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water You Have to Get Out of the Boat, Zondervan 2001; www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, don’t let setbacks stop you from climbing the mountain God has called you to climb. Instead, learn from each setback, and by faith, keep on climbing. Don’t blame God in your disappointment. Instead, believe in Him and get back to work.
I like the way Carol Kent put it after her only son was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In her book, A New Kind of Normal, she writes:
When despair tries to take me under… I choose life.
When I wonder what God could possibly be thinking… I choose trust.
When I desperately want relief from unrelenting reality… I choose perseverance.
When I feel oppressed by my disappointment and sorrow… I choose gratitude.
When I want to keep my feelings to myself… I choose vulnerability.
When nothing goes according to my plan… I choose relinquishment.
When I want to point the finger… I choose forgiveness.
When I want to give up… I choose purposeful action. (Carol Kent, A New Kind of Normal, Thomas Nelson, 2007; www.PreachingToday.com)
What will you choose in the midst of your disappointment today?
