The Rock And The Hard Place Part 7
Is God Waiting On You
Scriptures: Exodus 13:3, 14, 16; 6:28-30; 7:17-20; 8:5-6, 13, 16-17, 28-31; 9:8-10, 18-24, 29;
10:3-6, 12-14 18-19, 21-23; 11:4-6, 10; 14:10-16, 21-22
Introduction:
Two weeks ago in part six of this series, “The Rock and the Hard Place”, I talked about failure. I told you that if you are between a rock and a hard place right now and your faith begins to waver that we often view that as a failure. That if we are always struggling and never seems to get ahead in life according to the world’s standard, for many that is considered failure. We define failure as things that go wrong in our lives; as loss opportunities. We recognize failure when we see it because we have been trained to do so. So many of us have allowed the world to determine what it means to be successful as a son and daughter of God versus allowing God to do it. Because we allow the world to decide, there are times when we fall down (fail) and never fully recover. Remember when I demonstrated how we will lie on the pier watching people walking around us versus getting up and continuing to walk towards the boat? As I told you two weeks ago, it is okay to truly examine where you are in your faith walk and recognize where you have failed; those times when you fell down; when you missed the mark. However, when you consider your failures, ask yourself if you got back up. We fall down but we get back up and our goal should be to fall down less and less as we grow in our faith.
As I told you I would, this morning in part seven, my question to you is “Is God waiting on you?” Think about the analogy of the pier and the boat. If you’ve fallen down on the pier and you need to get to the boat, is God waiting on you to get up and start walking again? Or, are you just lying there waiting on God to come and pick you up and take you to the boat? Is God waiting on you to get up? Is He waiting on you to make a critical decision about your life? Is God waiting on you to decide if you really believe what you have read and are ready to stop giving Him lip service? What is God waiting on you to do? Previously I asked the question, “Are you satisfied with your faith?” I hope that after hearing that message your answer was a resounding “no” and you made the commitment to do something about it. You see, if we ever get to the place where we’re satisfied in our walk with God, in our level of faith regardless of the level, then the devil has us right where he wants us – neutralized. We will not be a threat to him or his kingdom because we are happy right where we are. We stop striving for growth. In this situation we will not be living the life our Heavenly Father has called for us to live – one of victory over Satan.
If you’re satisfied with you faith when you fall down you may not get up as falling down is acceptable, especially if you're just a sinner saved by grace! Since you are satisfied with your faith you accept failure as being outside of your control, meaning that it would have happened regardless of what you did or did not do. God is waiting on all of us to recognize that our failures do not have to be. We have such a hunger for God and yet we are so far from knowing and understanding who He truly is to us. And this is how Satan has deceived us – we truly think and believe we know our Heavenly Father. But when we speak about Him and about what He does or doesn’t do, we show Satan that he has accomplished his goal. He doesn’t want us to know our Father and he doesn’t want us to know who we are because of our father.
This morning we’re going to examine the plagues God brought upon Egypt as recorded in the book of Exodus. In those passages we’re going to see a lot of repetition and it’s not by accident. When the Lord repeats something over and over in a short period of time, in this case four chapters, He’s really trying to get us to see an important spiritual principle. Our minds filter what we receive from our born again spirits and hinders our ability to respond to God and move as He desires us to move. That’s why He often repeats things so that our minds can understand what He’s really after and stop filtering what it receives from our born again spirits. Let me put it to you this way: we talk ourselves out of the blessings of God because our minds have difficulty accepting them as truth. I know that’s not what you want to hear this morning but it’s true. God is not withholding His blessings. We are blocking them from manifesting in our lives.
Let’s begin with Exodus chapter thirteen.
I. By Strength of Hand The Lord.…
Exodus 13: 3, 14, 16 records. “And Moses said unto the people, ‘Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this…..And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage…..And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.
There’s a phrase I want to draw your attention to – “by strength of hand the Lord.” It refers to how the Lord delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and we’re going to look at several of those passages this morning. But my question to you is this: whose hand did the delivering? When you know the answer to that question, you will be one step closer to understanding why you need to increase your faith and why you can know that God hears and answers every prayer that is accompanied by your faith. Turn to Exodus 6:28-29. “And it came to pass on the day when the LORD spake unto Moses in the land of Egypt, That the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ‘I am the LORD: speak thou unto Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say unto thee.” Before going to Pharaoh, the Lord says to Moses, “Moses, you are going to get a word from me and everything I say to you I want you to say it to Pharaoh.” Keep this in mind.
The first of the ten plagues is in Exodus 7:17-20. “Thus saith the LORD, ‘In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.’ And the LORD spake unto Moses, ‘Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.’ And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.”
What was the word of the Lord? Tell Aaron to take the rod and stretch it out over the waters of Egypt. What did Aaron do? He obeyed. What was the result? The waters of Egypt turned to blood. This is the pattern we see in the passages about the plagues that devastated the land of Egypt. The Lord spoke, Moses and Aaron obeyed and what the Lord spoke came to pass. Do you think that pattern is any different for us today? How I read this passage for so many years was influenced by the movie “The Ten Commandments.” In the movie, Moses goes before Pharaoh while he’s offering water to the Nile god and tells him that the water would become blood as a sign that God wanted him to let the people go. But when you read Exodus 4:9 you see that the water turning to blood was also a sign for the children of Israel that God would deliver them out of bondage! Now, if Moses had not stretched forth his hand would the river have turned to blood? All the people who say “God is in control” will have a hard time with this verse. If Moses had not obeyed the word of the Lord the river would have remained the same. Here’s what I want you to see: Moses had to hear the word of the Lord and obey it before the word of the Lord could come to pass. How many of us are stopping the word of the Lord from coming to pass in our lives because we’re either hearing and not obeying or we’re not hearing at all? If God is in control, could we stop Him from doing what He wants to do in our lives? Absolutely not! The fact that we are stopping God more than we realize is a testament (if you accept it) that He is not controlling everything and some things arte within our power.
Turn to Exodus 8. We’re going to read verses five, six and thirteen. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, ‘Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.’ And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt…And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.” (Exodus 8:5, 6, 13)
Once again we see the pattern of receiving a word from the Lord, obeying that word and then seeing that word come to pass. I want you to look at verse 13 again. We have the same life in us that Jesus has in Him. Moses didn’t have Jesus’ life living in him. I’m going to say something that can be a real challenge to some of you but we just read it. Moses didn’t have the life we have and yet God obeyed him. God did what Moses asked him to do. Is God, our Heavenly Father, going to do less for us, His children? Do you really believe that? Would God have rid the land of frogs if Moses hadn’t asked Him to do so? No, He wouldn’t. Church, is God waiting on you to ask of Him what He’s already willing to do for you? Let me put it this way. God told Moses what He wanted Aaron to do. Moses, having a free will, had to decide to follow what God had said. When Moses chose to follow what God said, God then in return did as Moses asked. When we line up with the will of God (including how we walk in our faith) God will surely honor our requests because they are in line with His will.
In Exodus 8:16-17 lice is released upon Egypt. In verses 28-31 we see flies. After the flies attack the land, Pharaoh pleads with Moses to ask God to take away the flies. Look at what happens in verse 31: “And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one.” Once again we see God doing what Moses asked Him to do. God could have chosen to leave the flies in the land for another week, but He honored Moses before Pharaoh and removed the flies at Moses request. Again, is God waiting on you?
Egypt is plagued with boils and hail in Exodus 9. In each case the Lord gave Moses a command. When Moses obeyed the plagues engulfed the land. I want to point out something to you in verses 18 and 19 of chapter 9. “Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.” (Exodus 9:18-19) Do you see how God’s mercy is at work here? He tells Pharaoh in advance what He is going to do through Moses and Aaron giving him an opportunity to save his servants and his livestock. The Egyptians who paid heed to what the Lord had said saved their servants and their livestock. Understand that our Father is willing to shower His love, mercy and kindness on all who will accept it, even those who have yet to believe in Him. We’re not going to look at the records of the locusts and the darkness in Exodus 10 except to say that Moses received God’s command, obeyed it and the plagues came to pass. As I said at the beginning of this message, all of the plagues contain the same instruction: hear what the Lord says, do what He says to do and you will see the results.
We are going to quickly look at the last plague, the declaration of the death of the firstborn, and it’s found in Exodus 11:4-6. “And Moses said, ‘Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it anymore.” The death of the firstborn actually occurs in chapter 12. Again, Moses spoke what the Lord told him to speak and it happened. We have seen in all of these passages the importance of speaking “the word of the Lord.” What is the word of the Lord to us today? The Bible is our word from the Lord.
Before leaving this chapter and winding things up, look at the first part of verse 10. “And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh.” Who did the wonders before Pharaoh? Was it God or was it Moses and Aaron? It was Moses and Aaron and they were not born again in the same manner as we are, yet they served God. They were the “strength of hand” the Lord used to deliver the children of Israel even though they were two men who had a sin nature. They were two men who were not part of the kingdom of God that came through Jesus Christ. I am not saying they were not saved because we know they were saved. What I am saying is that they died before they received the ultimate promise – Jesus Christ – which we have received. We have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us which should make us “more productive” for the kingdom of God than they ever thought possible. Just imagine what we are capable of doing because we are born again and we live in the kingdom of God.
We’re going to close with a few verses in Exodus 14. Before reading them let’s set the stage. Pharaoh and the leaders of Egypt have had second thoughts about letting the people go so they decide to pursue them. Their intent was not to bring them back to Egypt but to kill them. The children of Israel see Pharaoh and his chariots coming toward them and they freak out. Let’s pick it up in verse 10 and read through verse 16. “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. And they said unto Moses, ‘Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.’ And Moses said unto the people, ‘Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.’ And the LORD said unto Moses, ‘Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” (Exodus 14:10-16)
Let’s paint a picture. The children of Israel were in Egypt when the 10 plagues hit. Each plague devastated the land until finally the death of the firstborn convinced Pharaoh to drive them out of the land for good. If you had seen God do all of this to get you out of Egypt and none of it affected you, would you have had any concerns about Pharaoh’s ability to harm you? But the children of Israel were afraid. Their fear had created a picture in their minds of what could happen even though it had not happened. Their fear had negated everything the Lord had done for them. Now listen to this: the picture was so vivid in their minds that they forgot about their deliverance. They forgot that they were already free. This happens to us too. Sometimes life hits us so hard that we forget that we have been delivered from this world – Satan’s kingdom – and now live in God’s kingdom.
Conclusion
Let’s wrap this up. After the children of Israel cried in fear, Moses tells them to be still and see the salvation – the deliverance – that God has in store for them. He tells them that after this situation they would never see the Egyptians again. But notice something. In verse 15 the Lord asks Moses why he was crying to Him for deliverance. Something took place between verses 14 and 15 that scripture does not share with us but the Lord’s question is unmistakable. The Lord says, “Instead of crying to me to deliver you, tell the children of Israel to start walking and after they do lift the rod I gave you and stretch it over the sea and divide it.” Is that not what we read in verse 15? Who was the Lord waiting on? Who had to make the first move? The Lord was waiting for the children of Israel to make the first move. Who had the authority to command the Red Sea to part? God had given the authority to Moses and apparently He expected Moses to use it hence the question He asked Moses. Maybe in the heat of the situation Moses forgot he had this authority. Regardless, God reminded him and told him what he needed to do as the Children of Israel started walking. Moses received the instruction from the Lord and obeyed. Who had the power to part the Red Sea? God.
Now I want you to see this. It took God, the children of Israel and Moses working together to part the Red Sea. Do you think the waters started to part before the children of Israel took that first step toward it and maybe even into it? What if they had stood still and looked at the Red Sea in fear? Would anything have happened? No. They would have been slaughtered by the Egyptians. The children of Israel had to take a step of faith and Moses had to raise his rod in obedience before anything happened. Is God waiting on you to take a step of faith? Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” When the children of Israel took that first step the waters began to part. With each step more of the Red Sea parted. Can you imagine seeing tons and tons of water parting with each step you take? Can you imagine seeing tons and tons of water like a wall of protection all around you as you look back and see others “walking the path you are walking?” Imagine that!
The children of Israel walked out their freedom. With every step they were walking out their freedom because God said they could. How many of you are stuck in spiritual mud and not walking out your freedom? It doesn’t have to stay that way. You can take God at His word and begin to walk out the freedom you already have as a son or daughter of God. The only thing that can keep us from walking out our freedom is fear. It will stop us just like it stopped the children of Israel. Don’t let fear of the unknown rob you of the freedom that Jesus has already provided for you. Walk in your freedom and help others to do the same. Sometimes, when you are walking out your freedom, when you are learning the true relationship between faith and prayer, Satan is going to attack your emotions and make you feel like the path to complete freedom is not worth it. He will do his best to stop you at a level where you feel like you are doing God’s will in your life. I will continue with the series next week.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
