Verse of the day: Exodus
6:9 So Moses spoke thus to the
children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit
and cruel bondage.
How
discouraging this must have been for Moses, God’s messenger. The response of
his brethren was much different than the first time he came to them in Exodus
4:31, “So the people
believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had
looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.” There
are many of us who can relate to what Moses was going through. How often have we
told others about Jesus, shared the Gospel message, and had a positive
response? However, shortly thereafter, the person who accepted the Gospel
message with joy experienced rejection or persecution, or some other hardship
in life, and suddenly they wanted to hear nothing further about Jesus or the
Gospel. In Matthew 13:18-23, Jesus told the parable of the sower, and how His
Word will be received; some will receive it but it will not take root, and when
troubles and tribulations come they will stumble and forsake the message, and the
messenger. So it was with the Israelites and Moses. The first time they heard
God’s message to them, they received it with joy because although they were
laboring, it was not yet at the height of cruelty, causing them the kind of
anguish they were now experiencing. Now that Moses has come back to them, their
hearts are afraid, as they had trusted that Moses’ message from God was one
that would finally bring freedom from their bondage. When the result was that
the level of cruelty increased, they immediately fell into unbelief because
their focus fell on their circumstances. May I caution us in how we share
Christ and His message with others? All too often I hear well-meaning
Christians tell others that by accepting Jesus all their troubles will go away,
and they will experience all kinds of prosperity and happiness. This kind of
message can be so destructive to the person who accepts Jesus on false
pretenses. The fact of the matter is that when we accept Jesus as our Savior,
we gain eternal life, and become children of God, but it is also the beginning of
a lifelong battle that is waged against us by the devils and the unsaved world.
It is in the midst of these challenges that we receive the greatest riches any
of us could ever ask for. We learn how to trust God in the midst of the
toughest circumstances, because we have His peace, His joy, His grace, His
mercy, His forgiveness, His love, and the list goes on. He may choose to give
us earthly riches, and advance us in life, or He may choose for us to remain
poor, by the world’s standard, and use us right where we are currently
stationed, to share a message of hope with those who are suffering, and with
whom we can best relate. The fact of the matter is that our relationship with
Christ can open us up to more suffering, humanly speaking, but do so having a
hope, and a peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7); that is a
far more powerful testimony than one of earthly fame and riches. The Israelites
could not see past their current suffering, and situation, and therefore it
became bigger than God in their eyes. The messenger that they received with
joy, and whose message caused them to worship, was now a messenger of false
hope and lies, because they failed to keep their eyes on the LORD. Now, before
we criticize these Israelites, let us stop and think about how often we have
taken our eyes off the Lord, and focused on our problems, circumstances, and “bad
luck”. How often have we been tempted to walk away from God and our faith
because things always seem to go from bad to worse? It is so difficult to have
hope when we find ourselves in the midst of poverty, or homelessness. It is so
difficult to have hope when we, or a family member, is diagnosed with a
terminal illness. It is so difficult to have hope when death comes to take a
loved one. The Israelites were so oppressed at this time, as a result of Moses
going to Pharaoh that they barely had time to breathe. When we bring our
message of hope to those who are in life situations that leave them hopeless
and feeling like they can hardly breathe, let us have compassion, and patience,
and trust God to reveal Himself to them in the midst of their suffering, in His
time. Our responsibility is to bring the message; it is God who is responsible
for the outcome. We must not allow what we see deter us from carrying out our
duty. If we are the one who feels helpless because of our circumstances, let us
not allow our troubles to become bigger than our God. Let us keep our eyes on the
God who later led these same Israelites out of Egypt, and led them across the
Red Sea on dry land. Our suffering is only for the moment (2 Corinthians 4:17).
We have a God who is faithful, and much bigger than any form of oppression we
may be facing now. The Israelites rejected the messenger because they failed to
trust the Message, and He with whom it originated.
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