Moses must have been pretty frustrated. He was living it up in the desert with his wife Zipporah SP?, and then God appears to him in the form of a burning bush and commands him to go rescue the Hebrews from their evil oppressors the Egyptians. So he did what any good person would do, he obeyed God. Yet he did it very sheepishly by constantly pointing out why he shouldn’t be the one to do it. God reassured him over and over and even had his cousin Aaron help him out. So then Moses went along with God’s plan and what happened?
“Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” Ex. 5:22-23
Imagine that? You do what God wants you to do and instead of things getting better they get worse! Oh brother.
That wasn’t the gospel I was taught. I was taught that God had a wonderful plan for my life as long as I obeyed him and prayed a little prayer. To quote another famous poet, “Nobody told me there would be days like these.”
Perhaps my human impulse should have understood that following God would NOT be easy BUT perhaps I shouldn’t have been hoodwinked either? Why not be honest about what the gospel means and where it leads. Sure it is nice to have close friends and communities of people who gather in the name of Jesus but eventually they have to learn to let go for the name of Jesus and most of us aren’t very accustomed to that. Are we?
Anyway, just a random musing from some reading I was doing today. If I could talk to Moses at that point in time I would say “yeah”.
Thoughts?
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