God’s wrong directions?

‘WHY?’ QUESTIONS No.3

Ex 5:22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?

Trying to understand the circumstances of life is a major human preoccupation! Guidance is a subject that has helped fill bookshelves. Likewise prophecy! It’s perhaps the reason there are so many “Why?” questions in the Bible. The bad news – and let’s state it from the outset – is that even the people who seemed to have the closest walk with God were not immune from “Why?” questions, hence this series.

Our problem, I believe, is that we can’t see the whole picture. We can’t see the end! I think the best illustration I’ve heard of this is to do with the football or rugby game on TV. If you are watching it live, the outcome is unknown and so it is tense as you watch ‘your’ team’s ups and downs during the match. However supposing you recorded it because you were out, and when you came back you were greeted by someone who saw it and couldn’t help themselves telling you the high points and the outcome. Nevertheless, you sit down and watch the recorded match – but now you know the outcome, you know that your team won. That makes watching it a completely different experience. All the tension has gone – you know the end!

The tricky bit about walking with the Lord is that He only seems to give us an overview of what is going to happen and so we come to this point in time when all is not going well and so Moses complains to the Lord and asks, “why have you brought trouble upon this people?” To catch the full import of this we need to backtrack and see what had gone before.

At the encounter at the burning bush, the Lord had told Moses that He had a task for him: “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Ex 3:10). Seems fairly simple if you don’t think about it, but hold on, Pharaoh is the big all-powerful ruler of Egypt. Perhaps he may not take kindly to this. To be fair, the Lord did explain to Moses that it would not be straight forward: “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go” (Ex 3:19 ,20) but Moses was so busy telling God why he couldn’t go that he seemed to miss that bit. That had been in the early part of the conversation, and later on the Lord had said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” (Ex 4:21) Now that was clear!

So, when Moses comes the first time to Pharaoh, Pharaoh doesn’t respond positively. In fact we find, “That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, `Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.” (Ex 5:6-9) Naturally the Israelite people did not take kindly to this and the leaders complained to Moses: “May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Ex 5:21) They were not happy! It’s bad enough that the world is not happy with you when you are a leader of God’s people, but when the people themselves start turning against you, it becomes a very lonely place!

Thus we now find Moses crying out, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?” Moses, you didn’t take note of what God said would happen. Just like us! Paul warned us about “the devil’s schemes” (Eph 6:11) and the need to put on the armour of God because there is a spiritual battle going on, but we still seem to get surprised by it! Jesus warned about persecution (Mt 5:11,44, Lk 21:12, Jn 15:20) but we still get surprised when people are nasty to us because we are Christians! How naïve we are when we think, “Lord, was it supposed to be like this?” This side of heaven and the Second Coming it will be!

Of course the thing that Moses had to learn was that this was God’s battle. Yes, the Lord would use Moses to speak into the situation but He, the Lord, would be the one exercising His power to deal with Pharaoh. Again and again we have to learn the same lesson – it’s the Lord who has got to do it! It’s His grace that is available for us, His power that will uphold us and see us through. That’s what this is all about – learning to see that it’s all about Him! It’s His plans being worked out, and His power that is available for us, and His word to be spoken through us.

Perhaps, before we finish, we should add one rider: don’t blame the enemy for things you bring upon yourself by your own sin. There will be times when we bring upon ourselves the wrath of the world, because of our lack of wisdom or graciousness. Don’t blame the Lord for that, and don’t give Satan the glory for that. That was just a part of our immaturity showing through, something we’ve yet to learn, something we’ve yet to deal with. So that makes three things we have to learn to cope with: Satan, nasty people, and our own folly. Well, there’s one of those we can do something about straight away, and as for the first two, the Lord’s grace is there to cope. So, let’s learn not to grumble and complain; it’s all part of living in the Fallen World, and it’s of limited duration, so let’s make the most of it. Have fun!