Exodus 5:22 to 6:12
THERE ARE TIMES IN OUR LIVES WHEN WE WANT GOD TO MOVE EXACTLY AS WE WANT HIM TO MOVE. BUT GOD MOVES IN HIS OWN TIME, AND IN HIS OWN WAY. A STORY IS TOLD OF PHILLIP BROOKS, A FAMOUS PASTOR OF THE 19TH CENTURY WHO WAS IN HIS OFFICE WORKING ON A SERMON. HE WAS PACING THE FLOOR AND FRUSTRATED, AS HE AWAITED REVELATION AND A PARISHONER WALKED PAST AND NOTICED HIS COUNTENANCE. THE MEMBER ASKED, “WHAT IS THE MATTER PASTOR?” DR. BROOKS ANSWERED HIM….I’M IN A HURRY, AND GOD ISN’T!
† Last week we heard how Moses was in conversation with God. God had promised Moses that he would be with him, that he would speak through him to the Israelites, and to the Egyptian King. Moses had come up with reasons and excuses why he was not the one to do the job. Moses said this to God: “But Lord I have never been a good speaker. I wasn’t one before you spoke to me, and I’m not one now. I am slow at speaking, and I can never think of what to say.” In other words, Moses is telling God that he will get tongue-tied!
† God promised Moses that he would give him the words to say and so Moses came up with another excuse by saying, “Lord, please send someone else to do it.” He doesn’t want the responsibility; he wants to ‘pass the buck’. Lord, not me, send Michael, send Geoff, send Bernard, send my sister; don’t send me!
† God was angry with Moses but did send him his brother Aaron; they performed signs with the staff and the Israelites worshipped (Exodus 4:31).
† Moses and Aaron visited the king and told him about God’s plan. I guess that they were confident, with great trust in God because God had spoken and made it clear through miraculous signs that he could be trusted. They spoke God’s words to the King, and warned him what may happen if God was not obeyed, and what did the King do? He made things worse for the Israelites, made their jobs harder so that they would not listen to Moses.
† When this happened, the Israelites blamed Moses who after all, had done exactly what God had asked him to do. God, it seems, was not in a hurry!
† (5:22) Moses speaks to God, and just like us when things seem to have gone wrong, and just like Moses were things have gone badly wrong, he asks, “Why have you brought this trouble on me? 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.” In other words, “Come on Lord, you said you’d do it but you haven’t! Why not!”
† Why, why, why? The question which my little sister asked more than anything when she was 3 years old. The question which we all ask as we get to know about the world.
† And what does God do, what does God say as Moses asks, “why?” What does he do as we ask, “why?”
God re-assured Moses:
† (6:1) “You will see what I will do. Because of my mighty hand he will let them go.”
† Things had gone from bad to really bad for the Israelites as a result of Moses’ God-given task. Have you ever felt that about the things God asks you to do? Perhaps you’ve been convinced God asked you to do something, speak to someone, go somewhere, take a certain job, move to a certain house or place, challenge a local MP, challenge a leader; challenge a decision maker. You’ve done it, you’ve obeyed what God asked you to do, in all good faith, and things have gone from bad to very bad. Have any of you ever been in that place? Are you there right now?
† God comes along side you, like he did with Moses, and he says, “You will see what I will do. Because of my mighty hand, what I’ve said will come to pass. Trust me!”
Not ‘why’ but ‘who’!:
† God came alongside Moses and revealed something precious about himself, something which he had not revealed previously even to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To them he had appeared as ‘El-Shaddai’ which means God almighty. To Moses he appeared as “I AM”.
† To Moses God appeared as God who was, and is, and is to come. To Moses God appeared as “I will be what I will be”. To Moses God appeared and said, “I AM the LORD”. Not a lord, but the LORD.
† Moses was worried about today, as we often are. God wanted Moses to listen to his promise about what would be, what will be, what will come to pass. God promises today a deliverance which will be complete in the future.
† In response to Moses asking, “Why?” God answers by telling Moses ‘who’ He is! Moses, trust me! I am the one who you can trust. I will do it.
† When we ask, “Why”, ‘who’ do we turn to, who do we trust? In Romans 8: 28 Paul, inspired by God’s Spirit wrote this: “…in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” That does not mean that God brings about rotten circumstances! No, God works inside of rotten circumstances in order to bring good out of them. I know that very often I am like Dr Brooks: “I am in a hurry! God isn’t.”
† Often the reality for me is that I spend too long looking at the circumstances of today, rather than trusting in the one who promises to be with me, to give me the words, and to work for the good of those who love him. How about you?
† God’s one and only begotten Son, Jesus, knew God’s call upon his earthly, human life. He always did what he saw the Father doing. He set his face towards Jerusalem despite the protests of his closest friends who knew that the religious leaders wanted to lynch him. Jesus stayed in line with his father’s will, and on the cross, still completely in line with God’s will, and God’s plan, he did call out, “My God my God why have you forsaken me?”
† We may hear that and think that Jesus stopped trusting, stopped looking to the one who works for good in those who love him because he asks, “Why.” However, when we read further into the Psalm that Jesus was quoting, (Psalm 22), then we understand!
22 I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. 23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob honour him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfil my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him— may your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him— those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn— for he has done it.
† In your circumstances God has a plan and a purpose. He is drawing alongside you to re-assure you, and although we may be asking, “why”, God says: “I am the one to trust. You will see my power. I am God. I am the LORD.”
