Why Have You Sent Me (Exodus 5:22-6:8)

3/20/2008 10:53 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time  Focus:  Moses:  “Why have you sent me?”
Bible Reading & Meditation  Reference:  Exodus 5:22-6:8
 Message of the verses:  “22  Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me?  23  "Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all."
1 ¶  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land."  2  God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD; 3  and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.  4  "I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned.  5  "Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.  6  "Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  7  ‘Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  8 ‘I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the LORD.’”
In verses twenty-two and twenty-three Moses pretty much challenges the Lord of not keeping His promises that He had made to Moses and to all the children of Israel and then the Lord begins to answer Moses’ questions and give him assurance that He was in control and that He would keep His promises in His own way and in His own time.
Over the next day or so, Lord willing, I will answer the question, “How did the Lord encourage His struggling servant?”  First I want to write down a quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s book on Exodus:  “God’s chosen servants must expect opposition and misunderstanding, because that’s part of what it means to be a leader; and leaders must know how to get along with God, pour out their hearts, and seek His strength and wisdom.  Spiritual leaders must be bold before people but broken before God (see Jer. 1) and must claim God’s promises and do His will even when everything seems to be against them.”
First part of the answer to the question is that God spoke to Moses and gave him great promises (Ex 6:1-8).  It is presumed that God spoke audibly to Moses since there was no written Word like there is today for people to read.  God tell Moses four times in this section that “I am the Lord, and He also used His covenant name “Jehovah” seven times and God also said “I will” seven times.  God is telling Moses that He is in control for God is not only sovereign but He is also responsible for what is going on, not only in this but in all things.  I realize that this is hard to understand seeing how many things that happen both then and now are not good, but God has a plan and nothing will stop that plan from being carried out.  The rest of the story is seen in the last chapter of God’s Word.  God repeats His promise to bring Israel out of their bondage in Egypt, a promise He will keep.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have been looking at the story of God bringing Israel out of Egypt as encouragement and in its similar ways of our investment with Andrew Lech.  In this section I can see God’s Sovereignty and responsibility as He continues the process of delivering Israel from Egypt.  God is sovereign in our investment issue and He is responsible for it too.  I know that there are things that I too am responsible about this, but it seems clear to me that God had a desire for this to happen in order to, in my case, mold me more into the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ (Rom 8:29).
My Steps of Faith for Today:    I want to know God better so that I can trust Him more and then I will be learning more about contentment.
Memory verses for the week:  2Cor. 12:910
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 disappointments, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.