Tag Archives: Moses

Exodus 4: He’s Got Your Back

I try to imagine the conversation between God and Moses.

God: Ok, I want you to go to Pharoah and tell him that I said to let his entire workforce go, so that they can come out here to the desert and worship Me.

Moses: *blink*

God:

Moses: I mean. They’re not gonna believe me. Or even listen to me. Right? I mean, like, I think maybe this might not be … *trails off, just short of telling God He’s got a messed up plan.*

God: *sigh* Throw down your staff…

That’s how I imagine it, but odds are it didn’t go down quite like that.

“Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”  And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” (Exodus 4:1-5)

When God tells us to speak something, He will back up our words with His power.

The Lord said to Moses, “… Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it…

… Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. (Exodus 14:16, 21)

When God tells us to do something, He will back up our actions with His power.

Joshua and his men circled Jericho the way God told them to, and it fell.

Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal at the word of the Lord, and fire fell on a water soaked altar.

Ezekiel, in obedience to God’s command, prophesied to an army of bones, and that army came to life.

Servants filled the water jars at Jesus’ command, and the water became wine.

 “I [Paul] came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:3-5)

Our obedience to God will result in the presence of the power of God.

Has He called you to speak something? Do something? Preach, teach, prophesy something? Lay something down, take something up, let go, grab hold, walk away from, return to? Let me ask it this way… what has God been asking of you?

“Do whatever He tells you,” His mother told the servants. (John 2:5)

Through the life of Moses, and beyond, we find this principle at work –

We bring the obedience, He brings the power.

But soon, we will discover another principle from Moses and the Israelites –

When we bring disobedience, He still brings the power. But the results are a lot different! Stayed tuned.

Exodus 3: Exodus Easter

Sometimes I read a chapter of scripture and nothing really catches my eye. Other times I find something that jumps off the page and into my heart. But this chapter filled my heart with beautiful things to ponder.

Then He said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”  

Exodus 3:5

This was not the first time God encountered Moses’ life, but it was the first time that Moses encountered God. We know that from the beginning God had been actively setting Moses up for what is about to come. And then one day God drew Moses to His presence through a burning bush. What had been an ordinary bush was now holy ground because it was occupied by a holy God.

God is holy, so what He inhabits with His presence becomes holy. If you want to know if God inhabits a place (or a life), look for holiness in that place.

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…“

Exodus 3:7

He saw. He heard. He knew. And He came. This can go one of two ways in our lives. In our suffering, we can know that He sees it, hears our cries, and knows our pain, and it can provide us with comfort, and compel us to seek His nearness. Or, it can make us blame Him for our suffering, be bitter toward Him, and compel us to push away from Him.

God is intimately aware of our suffering. What we do with that knowledge is a testing ground for our heart.

 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt…

Exodus 3:19-20

A mighty hand was needed, and a mighty hand is what Pharoah received. In the same way, Satan was never going to let go of his hold on this world unless a mighty hand compelled him.

Yesterday, we observed the Friday when God stretched forth His hand(s) and struck the kingdom of darkness.

And tomorrow we will celebrate the resurrection that brought us out of our death and into His life.

Because He saw. He heard. He knew. And He came.

Exodus 2: Destiny

Vs. 2: “The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.”

I recently heard a Jewish Rabbi teach on this verse. In the Hebrew language, the word “fine” (in the ESV, other versions may use a different word) is Tov, which means good. But it has such a deeper meaning than simply “good”. It’s a word that means something is directly related to the will of God.

In a time when Pharoah was set on exterminating the male Hebrew babies, Moses’ mother looked at her newborn son and knew that he was born as a result of God’s will. This boy who should have been killed as soon as he was born, was not only kept alive, but raised in the house of Pharoah himself! And this same boy would one day be the man God would use to destroy Pharaoh and his army, and deliver an entire nation of people from captivity.

We next see Moses as a grown man, and his destiny comes into view:

When the Egyptian was beating the Hebrew – Moses stepped in.

When two Hebrews were going at it with each other – Moses stepped in.

When the shepherds were harassing the daughters of Midian – Moses stepped in.

Moses was made for rescue. God’s use of Moses to deliver his people, which we will be reading about soon, was not a random choice. He was formed in his mother’s womb to be a rescuer.

God is intentional in the way He forms us, and the purpose He puts in us.

Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Moses’ mother, Jochabed, knew that his birth was God’s will. And Hebrews 11 tells us that it was by the faith of his parents that Moses was hidden from Pharaoh, and that they were not afraid of the Egyptian king’s command.

So here’s what I want to ponder today –  do we see the importance of destiny, and how the enemy will attempt to thwart it? This is why we must be people who will stand in the gap for the destinies of the next generation. Our children, their children, those in our churches who are stepping in to take the baton from our generation… they have destinies on them that the enemy wants to kill. I believe Moses’ mother saw it, and followed the leading of the Spirit of God in hiding him, and then in putting him into a basket in the river. She allowed him to be rescued by the very people who wanted him dead, because she trusted the will of God. This was her intercession for the destiny of her son, and it provokes me.

What will be my intercession for the destiny of the next generation?

moses is dead

“After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.” Joshua 1:1-2

mosesMoses is dead. Their leader…the man who met with God for them, convinced Him not to kill them (a bonafide sign of a good leader, by the way), and spoke God’s words to them, was now gone. When a leader goes down, by death or any other means, things can quickly turn chaotic. People get nervous, and plans get put on hold while we figure things out. But not on this day. Moses is dead, and the plan didn’t miss a beat. God handed the reins to Joshua and said, “get ready”.

Disclaimer to the blog post:  From this point on, this post is not what I had in mind to write when I sat down at my computer. Believe me, I kept trying to take it in some other direction, any other direction, than the one it went in. But my fingers adamently disobeyed my instructions. I have come to understand that God wanted me to write it, because He wanted me to read it. Hopefully, no leaders were harmed in the making writing of this post.

So, here we go.

I’ve seen at least two ways the enemy gets at us in the area of leadership and God’s plans.

~ We get overwhelmed, thinking that we will somehow mess up God’s plan. We see our own flaws and weaknesses, and we struggle to believe we have what it takes to carry out what God wants done. Making decisions gets harder and harder, as we let fear lead us into doing nothing. We fear doing it wrong, and we fear what others will think and say about our decisions. Pleasing the majority becomes more important than pleasing the One (although we would never admit to that).

~ Or, we become prideful, thinking we are the only one who can do this thing and do it right. We won’t let anyone give us counsel, because we’re the one in charge. We forget that leadership is actually a servant position. Instead we start developing programs and projects, and eventually stop seeking God for His next step, because we have the next 10 steps already figured out. And because there isn’t anyone who can do the job the way we can, we begin to “manage” people instead of leading them. From there we easily become controlling, and the work becomes far more important than the people.

God’s plan does not depend on any one person, it depends on Him.

Moses was not perfect, but God still got His people out of Egypt. We are far too weak and flawed to be responsible for God’s plans coming to pass. And not a single one of us is indispensable. When Moses died, the plan didn’t stop. God simply chose His next leader.

Today, I am compelled to speak to leaders, as one who has been in leadership, and as one who is called to submit to leadership.

God has called you to lead, so lead. Meet with God everyday and then do what He tells you to do. Don’t be afraid to speak what God has told you to speak, regardless of whether you think it might hurt my feelings or offend me. Just speak it and let God deal with my response. Get counsel from godly people, and then make a decision. Even if the decision may turn out to be wrong, trust that God will correct it and His plan will remain intact, but for heaven’s sake…make a decision. Not everyone will like it, but make it anyway. Not everyone will like you. That’s ok. This isn’t a popularity contest. They didn’t all like Moses either, so you’re in good company.

On the other hand, God has called you to lead, but He can just as easily call someone else. Don’t abuse the authority He has given you. We are not your minions, we are God’s people. He didn’t hand you a scepter so you could rule over us, He gave you a staff and rod so you could shepherd us well. He already has a strong right arm, and it’s not you. Meet with God everyday, and then do what He tells you to do. Remember that God has a plan…so He doesn’t need yours. Speak what God tells you to speak, but bear in mind that God isn’t keen on people speaking words on His behalf that didn’t come from Him. Get counsel from godly people and then make a decision. And then be willing to admit it if your decision was wrong, and let God correct it…and you.

Being a leader isn’t easy. Neither is submitting to leadership. I don’t believe your leadership will be effective unless I do my part. That means I must honor the authority God has given to you, even if I don’t like or agree with your leadership style. I need to stop grumbling and complaining about you, and start praying for you. I have a voice and I have giftings, and I can use them to encourage you, and even to tell you when I sense something is off center. But at the end of the day, you are called to lead and I am called to submit myself to your leadership. If I do that well, your calling will be a joy and not a burden.

“Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Hebrews 13:17

follow the leader

 

The leaders and the led. We can both do what we’re called to do if we trust the One who is leading us both.

don’t fit in, stand out

“Then Moses said to Him, ‘If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.   How will anyone know that You are pleased with me and with Your people unless You go with us? What else will distinguish me and Your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?'”  Exodus 33:15-16 

I remember when I was a little girl, one of the most important things to me was that I “fit in” with everyone else.  I tried hard, but could never quite get there.  It took many, many years to discover that I was not the strange misfit I thought I was, but was instead uniquely made by God (just like everyone else). And yet,  in some deep place in me there remained the desire to fit in.  And if I couldn’t fit in, then at least don’t make me stand out. 

What compels young girls today to abuse their bodies in an attempt to achieve a ridiculously thin look? Or a woman to get multiple surgeries and injections in her frantic effort to defy the aging process? The need to fit in with the world’s view of beauty.

What is underneath the corporate ladder climbing that makes a  man a stranger to his family? The need to fit in with the world’s view of success.

What causes a woman to hide the fact that, despite all outward appearances, her marriage, her family, her world, is quietly falling apart?  The need to fit in with the world’s view of  womanhood.

Moses understood that fitting in with the people around them was far from God’s heart for His people.

“I will make a distinction between My people and your people.”  Exodus 8:23

“Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.”  Exodus 11:7

“And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”  Malachi 3:17-18

Beloved, God’s heart is to make a distinction between you and those who do not know Him, and to have you live by a different set of definitions.

Redefined beauty…

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  Psalm 139:14

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment…Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”  1Peter 3:2-4

A redefined path to success…

“All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed” Proverbs 16:2-3

A redefined womanhood…

“A wife of noble character who can find?
   She is worth far more than rubies.”  Proverbs 31:10

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
   but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

Throughout His word, we are called to be different. In the New Testament, God’s people grieve, pray, fast and war differently. We don’t worry about what others worry over, and we don’t chase what they chase. His heart remains consistently insistent that His people be distinguished from all other people.

So stand up, stand out and refuse to fit in. Live a life of distinction. 

Uncommon faithfulness

Many promises are made with good intentions, but good intentions without the faithfulness and power to back them up are useless.  We have become jaded by man’s inability to keep his word, so common are broken promises.  Our hope lies not in the promises of men, but in the uncommon faithfulness of God to keep His word. 

In Genesis 15 God made a promise to an old man with a barren wife.

“‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then He said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’.” v. 5

“Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” v. 13-14

The stage is set. The promise has been made. 

Fast forward to Moses, who is currently in a bit of a tizzy. “Moses returned to the LORD and said, “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)

We can all tend to get a bit frantic when it looks like God isn’t doing what we thought He would do, what we were sure He said He would do.  I’ve been there, and I know the sense of hopelessness it brings. I know how tired we get of waiting and how frightened and overwhelmed we can be in that dark period of time when it appears that God, while faithful to others, is not going to come through for us.  It can turn our waiting into unbelief. We find ourselves waiting to see if God will really do what He promised, if He will do something about our circumstance, if He is really there for us. It will make the waiting so much easier if we can stop waiting for if, and start waiting for now.

“Now you will see what I will do…”. (6:1)  For every promise He makes, there is a “now” moment.  

And so begins the very dark days of Pharaoh, the enemy of God who refused to let His people go, until finally…

“The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country… The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” (Exodus 12:33-37)

God’s promise to an old man with a barren wife.  Four hundred and thirty years after He made the promise, God made good on His word. He never forgets. 

How long have you been waiting? More importantly, are you waiting for if, or are you waiting for now? With God’s promises, it is never a matter of if, it is always a matter of when.

“…What I have said, that will I bring about;
   what I have planned, that will I do.” Isaiah 46:11

Uncommonly faithful.

the real question

Who are you?  A doctor, lawyer, teacher…famed preacher of God’s Word? Maybe just an ordinary Joe. A tired housewife and mother or a stressed out husband and father. A misfit.. outcast…addict.

Moses was a murderer who covered up his crime, and had to flee his home. (Exodus 2:11-15) He settled down in a place called Midian and quietly attended the flocks of his father-in-law. Nothing flashy, nothing big. Just a man with a sense of justice that got him into trouble, living an obscure life. (2:16-3:1)

Then one day, God appeared and called Moses to be the deliverer of His people.  And like most of us, Moses questioned God’s decision to use him, an ordinary man who had lived a less than sinless life.

“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'” (3:11)

And then it comes. The five words in answer to every person’s insecurity and question of their own ability to do what God has told them to do. It is the answer to our identity issue.

“And God said, ‘I will be with you'”. (3:12)

Moses, it doesn’t matter who you are. What matters is Who will be with you.

“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you.” 2Samuel 7:8-9

David…shepherd, military leader, adulterer and murderer. King. Man after God’s heart. It was never about any of that. God is the One who was with you. 

“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

 The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.” Judges 6:15-16

Dear Gideon. It doesn’t matter how weak and small you are. It’s all about Who will be with you.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

It has been His promise from the beginning. He knows who and what you are. And He has always known that who you are is not the issue. The question is not are you good enough, smart enough, brave enough or strong enough. The question will never be “who are you?”.

Who is with you?