Moses and Aaron speak to Pharaoh about God's will for Israel and Pharaoh responds by increasing their work load. Have you ever felt like Israel......that you are being punished for doing God's will? Never assume that the suffering that you are enduring is from God. Remember that the world that we live in suffers from the curse of Adam. Evil and the King of Evil reigns in this world. Sometimes we suffer for doing good in this world because the there is evil in the world.
The Moses story is a parallel to the Christian story. Israel is delivered out of slavery, accepts God and God's covenant relationship, God becomes their God and Israel his people and God leads them to new life. We sinners accept God's offer of deliverance from the wages of our sin, he accepts us as his people, we accept him as our God, he leads us to new live in Christ with all of its privileges including the promise of eternal life.
The Israelites don't want to hear anymore of what Moses has to say after Pharaoh says, "bricks without straw". Moses doesn't want to face Pharaoh again after what seems to be failure. The question for them and for us is "who do you trust when times are really hard?" Do we trust in El Shaddai, the God of Sufficiency or do we cow to the forces of this world that do not have our best interests at heart?
My final thought of this reading and day is this: Moses lived 40 years in the palace of the Pharaoh, learning all of the lessons of a Prince. These were important lessons that would serve him as he organized a new nation and kept them together on their wilderness journey. He spent 40 years in the desert learning to be humble before God and what it meant to lead a life of solitude. This sensitized his heart and his ear to God's voice and God's calling. 40 years of palace training + 40 years of desert training was preparing him for 40 years of leadership with God's people. What is God training you for in the experience that you are in?
I guess my question is, why does God toy with Moses and Aaron? Why does he make the Isrealites suffer longer when he can save them? I know that sometimes it is hard work to be a Christian, but he already flooded the world because of the sinners so why not allow the Isrealites to rise up, be successful in turning the world into a more peaceful place?
ReplyDeletePS - I apologize for not getting on this blog earlier. Sara and I are reading the New Revised Standard Version (I received it in 1992). It's interesting to hear you talk about the different names of the Lord because our Bible doesn't do that.