When It Doesn't Fit

There are often moments that stick in my mind while I read. 

For some reason they resonate more than others.

One such moment Moses returning from an audience with the Israelite foremen, still reeling from losing access to raw material to make bricks, and still being expected to finish full production runs. 

He returns to the Lord

And says,

“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!!!

I wonder if Moses thought this would turn out better from the start. 

I wonder if he had an expectation of how this would unfold. 

I don’t he expected to be so discouraged.

It got worse before it got better.

Because of a message he carried to Pharaoh. 

Sometimes life is a lot like that. 

We pray for deliverance. 

For life to not be so hard.

And we would like God to ride in and lift us out of our circumstance.

But it rarely happens like that. 

It feels like we don’t get an answer at all.  

And that if we can’t see things visibly improving

Then God must be completely absent. 

I’m often not very patient.

And I know my picture is often very small.  

Instead God is working behind the scenes.

He responds to Moses to watch and wait and see!

Ch 6: 1 “ Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh:

Because of My Might Hand he will let them go;

because of My Mighty Hand he will drive them out of his country.”

I AM..

I established my covenant.

I have heard their groanings…

I have remembered my covenant

I am the Lord

I will bring you out

I will free you

I will redeem you

I will take you as my own people

And I will be your God.

Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. 

I will bring you

I will give it to you

I am the LORD.

But Israel was discouraged and did not listen.

They actually didn’t listen any better than Pharaoh. 

But God was not done with Pharaoh yet…

And God told Moses from the start that Pharaoh’s heart would be hard.

It would take a lot more to break Pharaoh’s heart. 

God had this plan to draw his people,

and not just deliver them from hard things,

but also to set them apart for himself.  

Sometimes the road is just really long. 

That’s what I love about reading this story.
God’s Story.

That this story often sounds so much like my own.

That I wish and hope and dream and pray.

And that I see struggles.

But I can be assured that God is working with His Mighty Hand.

And that He wants me know that I belong to Him