Look Up & Live
LOOK UP AND LIVE
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you doing what you know God wants you to do but everything seems to be going pear-shaped? You had a clear and confirmed word from God but nothing seems to be working out, in fact things seem to be getting worse?
Well that’s what happened for Moses (and Aaron) when, at the Lord’s instruction, they went to Pharaoh and asked for him to release children of Israel to leave Egypt to go and worship him. Pharaoh refused outright and instead forced the Hebrews to make bricks without the provisio of straw as before. Pharaoh was upset, and the leaders of the Hebrew people were upset and Moses found himself very much “between-a-rock-and-a-hard place” relationally.
“Moses went back to God and said, ‘My Master, why are you treating this people so badly? Why did you ever send me? From the moment I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name things only got worse for this people. And rescue? Does this look like rescue to you?….. Look – the Israelites won’t even listen to me. How do you expect Pharaoh to? And besides, I stutter.” (Exodus 5: 22-23; 6:12)[1]
Whenever you think you’re having a bad day, reflect for a moment on how Moses must’ve felt – he left a secure job as a sheep farmer, committed himself and family to a journey to Egypt, announced good news to his Hebrew relatives, obediently spoke to Pharaoh and got totally rejected all round. I can certainly understand his discouragement. But God was teaching Moses an important lesson to shape his character for service in the future and it’s summed up in his words in response to Moses
“Look at me. I’ll make you as of God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your profit. You are to speak everything I command you and your brother Aaron will tell it to Pharaoh. Then he will release the Israelites from this land.” (Exodus 7:1-2).
When you study some of the heroes of the Bible (e.g., Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David) you find that after they were given a wonderful and inspiring promise/assignment from God for kingdom benefit, they all went through a process of rejection and found themselves in discouraging circumstances where all the signs were opposite to what was promised. They all had to realise that only God could fulfil his promise to them – they couldn’t make it happen! They all had to learn to be faithful and persevere through tough times. Moses was going through this same “pressure cooker” process of character refinement where his faith was being refined/purified to enable him to step into a greater anointing and responsibility/assignment in the future to bring glory to God and fulfil his purposes. Like all of us, Moses had to learn to place his confidence in God’s word and promise, not in what our senses/circumstances or abilities tell us. Our confidence is in God’s faithfulness and power to perform His word, it doesn’t depend on reason and the dictates of our minds balancing out resources and probabilities of success. Generally, I’ve noticed the worse the circumstances become, the greater is the glory God gets when his word is fulfilled and realised – people come to realise God is at work and results don’t depend on our natural resources or the cleverness of people (e.g., Phil. 4:13).
So if you find yourself in discouraging situations, the solution is always found in God’s response to Moses “Look at Me !” When you are serving the Lord the best you know how and find yourself rejected by others – God says “Look at Me !”. He is our encourager and the lifter of our heads (& remember that rejection is often the back door to promotion). God is our very great reward and as a people led by His Spirit, we have His joy and peace in our hearts. It takes courage/faith to follow the Spirit & serve God.
Of course we all know the wonderful result of Moses trials and perseverance – God’s fame and glory spread to the surrounding nations as people witnessed astounding miracles of deliverance/salvation. May our lives and spirit-led service also bring glory to God.
God bless, Lew
[1] E.Peterson (2003) The Message: NavPress