“God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant” (Exodus 6:2-5 ESV).
God is about to send Moses to share His promise of deliverance but before He does, He lays out why He can be trusted. He makes sure they understand what He has done for them already before He tells them what He will do next.
“Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord” (Ex. 6:6-8 ESV).
After establishing His faithfulness, He makes 7 promises. I will bring you out. I will deliver. I will redeem. I will take you. I will be your God. I will bring you. I will give it to you.
And then we find Israel’s response.
“Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery” (Ex. 6:9 ESV).
The people saw their own condition and that colored their belief in God’s promises. They were overwhelmed by their difficulties and couldn’t hear God’s plan for redemption. God deserved their trusted and met them in their need, but they could not believe.
Today let’s pray that we could take our eyes off our own struggles and look at all He has done for us. Let’s ask that God would grow our faith so we can hear His promises and believe His goodness.
Your thoughts?
Todd
It’s amazing, isn’t it, when we shift our focus from ourselves and our pain to focus on Jesus, our perspective changes from despair to hope, from impossibility to “anything is possible through Christ.” Just like Peter when he was walking on the water, looking right into Jesus’ face; and then when he looked away he began sinking. But the same waves that were over Peter’s head were under Jesus’ feet.
Perspective . . . keeping our eyes on Jesus makes all the difference. Having an attitude of thankfulness for what He has done helps diffuse the ungrateful, cynical, whining attitudes that come so naturally to some of us. And when we remember His goodness time after time, especially when we don’t deserve it, it makes it a little bit easier to trust that He is working for our good even when life is hard and we’re not especially feeling the goodness. What an amazing God . . . what an amazing love!
It sounds so simple doesn’t it? When we read this we often wonder what more did God have to do for them to believe. But we do the same things under less circumstances, don’t we? Being a single, full time nurse, homeschooling mom of two teenagers it can be very easy to look at all the problems. Sadly, I do it more often than I care to admit. But when my heart, mind, soul gets fixed back on my Savior, the weight is lifted as he reminds me he will carry it all, if I let him. It’s the “if I let him” part that gets me hung up. God has and will do wonderful, fantastic, illuminating things when his children let him. He loves us that much. He always does what’s best even if we can’t understand it. May God Bless all who read this. Learn from someone who has messed up enough. Just follow Jesus no matter what the world says, life is better that way.
I have to say, I feel kinda bad because I have not had a hard life, not had much suffering or pain. Somehow it seems as I think back on my life that I always trusted in whatever happened that God was there and He would always take care of me. I trusted Him and didn’t worry but I was like an infant, a child. I just expected Him to take care of me and rarely gave any thought to Him or thanked Him for the things He did and has done for me. But He has let me see and understand these things now and I am so thankful and love and trust Him so much. I thank Him for everything, for the birds on my bird feeder, for the beautiful sky always above me, for the loving family He has given me, for friends and people I meet. For every breathe, I give thanks to Him, for every day He gives me. And always, for giving His only begotten Son, Jesus, through whom, by believing in Him, I have eternal life. And while I still have not had much suffering or pain in my life, when I do have struggles, once I realize that I have taken my eyes off of Him and look back to Him, that gave His life to save me from my sin, Jesus my savior. He shows me again the troubles of this world are for but an instant.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
If we don’t constantly remember our blessings, we do start to worry about our current situations. One thing that I have done in the past is to keep a journal of answered prayers, unanswered prayers and just situations in my life that I know God provided for me. This way I can renew my faith at times when I forget about how faithful God is and I start to worry. So very thankful that it will take an eternity to thank our heavenly Father.