Sometimes, it just seems too good to be true. After a couple centuries of mistreatment, Israel was crying out for deliverance. Along comes Moses, he tells the people that God heard their cries and sent him to liberate Israel. They are worshipful, glad, and ready to be free. Then the hammer drops and not only is their request to leave denied, but then their treatment is made exponentially worse. THANKS MOSES AND THANKS GOD!!!
After that, Moses confronts God (Bold Move) and God tells Moses not to worry, He will get them released, because His word is good. The people were not impressed. All they knew was that prior to Moses entering their lives it was tough. Now, with His help, life is virtually impossible. Not how any of us would have scripted the story.
Clearly, God knew there would need to be some faith stretching for Israel to truly become free. This first event was the beginning. It was going to become a great deal more difficult and graphic before they were to leave Egypt. Even then, though; their liberation was only the end of the beginning–as the song says. God was building a nation of priests. They were to be selfless and sacrificial; these slaves were neither.
God had no issue with His reputation, He did not need their approval, He needed His people to experience the trials for the liberation to be effective and complete. Getting away was easy, getting obedient and trusting in God, well that was and is another story.
In our lives, We ask God to deliver us, to bless us, or to lead us. He is glad to complete all those requests, however, He asks us simply to consider if he does deliver, bless, and lead us, what is our end goal? We want events, but God does not simply deliver events; He builds journeys.
We need to think beyond our desired instant gratification, and begin to pray and seek God’s direction for our journey. As a 59-year-old, I wish, as a young man, I would have sought God’s leadership in my sanctification (The ongoing process of transformation). Instead, I jumped from event to event, hoping God would hold on to me and help me across to the next one. What a waste of vision.
Jesus told us in Matthew 6:33, “Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to You.” Those things included protection, provision, and discernment to know the difference between the temporal world view and an eternal perspective. Had Israel treasured this next part of God’s plan, they would have been truly free; free from Pharaoh, but more importantly, free from the hold this world has on most human beings.
It needs to be our prayer to be grateful for what we have, content in our circumstance, and focused on our citizenship in Heaven–where we will spend eternity.
God Bless You
19 The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” 20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
God Promises Deliverance
22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
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6 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.”
2 God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. 3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty,[a] but by my name the Lord[b] I did not make myself fully known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. 5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
6 “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. 7 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. 8 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.’”
9 Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.
Walking With God 