Lessons from Moses

"Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.

10 Then the LORD said to Moses, 11 "Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country."

12 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?" Exodus 6:9-12

"Now when the LORD spoke to Moses in Egypt, 29 he said to him, "I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you."

30 But Moses said to the LORD, "Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?" Exodus 6:28-30

I've been thinking about this ever since we discussed it Sunday night with our group. First of all, as you read these verses, we see that Moses was arguing with God. Of all things! God was telling Moses to do things, and Moses would do it, and the expected results would not happen. God told Moses that he was going to lead the people out of Egypt, and so far, Moses's attempts at doing so have fallen short. Pharaoh was no closer to letting the Israelites go than he had been before Moses began talking to him. Moses was becoming discouraged, and he was arguing with God about it- blaming it on himself.

Something that we all realized at our group on Sunday was that God acted this way on purpose. He hardened Pharaoh's heart for a reason. It was so that in the end, there would be no doubt whatsoever, that it was God, and God alone, who was responsible for freeing the Israelite people.

This is an amazing something to think on- and it has given me such encouragement this week. Andy's really been struggling with his job. He really hates it, and it doesn't being in enough to get the bills paid. We both really felt at the time that he needed to take this job, and we felt certain it was from God. And then he actually started working...and things promised weren't taken care of, and we both began to feel like he'd made a terrible mistake in taking this job. On Monday though, it occurred to me that he has this job for a reason. He has this specific job so that when something wonderful happens, we will know that it is only from God. And because everyone we know also knows of our situation, they will also know that our blessings will be from God alone, and it will be such a wonderful way to show God's love for us.

So now, while we still don't like the job Andy is in, at least we can appreciate it. We can appreciate what God is doing, and maybe it just makes it a little easier for Andy to get up and go to work each day.