Moses Said to God "The Elders won't Believe Me (Ex. 4:1-9)

3/10/2008 10:36 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time   Focus:  Moses says to God “the elders won’t believe me”

Bible Reading & Meditation                     Reference:  Exodus: 4:1-9

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  Then Moses said, "What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’"

2  The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" And he said, "A staff."  3  Then He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.  4  But the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail"—so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—5  "that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."  6  The LORD furthermore said to him, "Now put your hand into your bosom." So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.  7  Then He said, "Put your hand into your bosom again." So he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.  8  "If they will not believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe the witness of the last sign.  9  "But if they will not believe even these two signs or heed what you say, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water which you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.’”

            Moses makes excuse # 3 to God in this section that I am looking at today.  He asks the question on behalf of the elders of Israel, but maybe he was the one who did not believe God could cause the elders to believe him.  I believe that because God knew Moses’ heart, and that he would eventually be obedient to Him that He kept answering the excuses of Moses, although God will get upset with Moses over one of his future excuses.  God is patient and shows his patience towards Moses as He answers all of his excuses. 

            God gives three signs or miracles for Moses to do in the presence of the elders of Israel in order to show them that it was truly God who is sending Moses to rescue all Israel from the hand of Egypt.  In John’s Gospel he records eight signs or miracles that Jesus did in order to convince his readers that Jesus was indeed the Christ and that believing on Him they too could experience eternal life.  Joh 20:30-31  “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I cannot be hard on Moses even though at times I think that just because he was talking directly to God and God was talking directly to him, and also because I know the rest of the story that I have the right to be hard on Moses, I cannot use this as an excuse so that I can be hard on Moses.  Why?  Even though Moses was one of the greatest men in the OT he did not have all the things available to me as a NT believer, for I have the completed Bible and I live on the other side of the cross and I have the Holy Spirit living in me, and I can also talk directly to God in prayer and can hear from Him by reading His Word.  To sum it all up I don’t have any excuses as to why at times that I do not obey God, and I, like Moses am thankful for the patience of God.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to know God better and trust Him more and obey His commands.

Memory verses for the week:                      2Cor. 12:9-10

9.      And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

10. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak then I am strong.

Earlier Memory verses:                     Philippians 1:9-11

9.      And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real love and all discernment,

10. so that you may approve the things that are excellent,  in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;

11. having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.