Moments With God

Exodus 5-6

Living in obedience and submission to the Lord is sometimes challenging and difficult. When the Lord allows a deep trial in our lives it is tempting to question why He has allowed that difficulty in our lives. When the Lord calls us to a special new challenge and assignment in our lives and problems ensue as a result of accepting that new challenge, we may be tempted to give up and think the Lord is not with us.

That may be how Moses felt in Exodus chapters five and six. God had called Moses to lead God’s Old Testament people out of slavery in the land of Egypt. Moses had came up with all kinds of excuses for not accepting God’s call. When all excuses failed Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it," (Exodus 4:13) But it was Moses God had chosen to lead His people out of slavery, and in the end Moses submitted to God’s call on his life.

Hence, at the beginning of Exodus chapter five Moses found himself in the presence of the great Pharaoh of Egypt. Moses said to Pharaoh, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’" (Exodus 5:1b) In response Pharaoh arrogantly said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go." (Exodus 5:2) To make matters worse that very same day Pharaoh ordered his slave drivers to make God’s people work even harder. Whereas before they had been supplied with straw to meet a difficult daily quota for making bricks, now they had to make that same daily quota but also gather their own straw. A very difficult situation for God’s people seemed to have become impossible. When the daily quota was not met the Israelite foremen were beaten. When the Israelite foremen complained and appealed to Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s responded by saying, "Lazy, that what you are-lazy!---Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks." (Exodus 5:17-18) As a result of their encounter with Pharaoh the Israelite foremen in turn complained to Moses saying, "May the Lord look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us." (Exodus 5:21) So now Moses was in the position of seeing his fellow Israelites in a worse situation than they were before and of having both Pharaoh and the Israelites angry with him. Moses must have wondered why God allowed this to happen when he had only acted in obedience to God. In desperation Moses prayed to God saying, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and You have not rescued Your people at all." (Exodus 5:22-23) Moses was at the end of his rope and was questioning the Lord. Moses needed to remember that when we obey the Lord there may not be instant results. Moses needed to trust God’s perfect timing. God assured Moses that Pharaoh would eventually let God’s people leave Egypt, because of the Lord’s "mighty hand." (Exodus 6:1) The Lord also reminded Moses that He was the God of His ancestors, and He would keep His promise to lead His people to a new and wonderful land. The Lord told Moses that He had "heard the groaning of the Israelites" and would remember His covenant to deliver them. (Exodus 6:5) The Lord also promised to be His people’s God. (Exodus 6:7) The Lord would do all this for them, because He is the Lord God Almighty who can do all things. We too must rest in God and in His promises alone. When we are walking in obedience and still find the situations in our lives very difficult, we must rest it with the Lord. God works all things out in His perfect timing. We like Moses must proceed in faith in spite of overwhelming obstacles.