“Moses returned to the LORD and said, “‘O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?”
~ Exodus 5:22
Hi James and Ellen,
How have you felt when after you have decided that you want to do something, your ma and dad tells you that they will not let you to do it? This is something which is going to happen to you throughout all your life. This should never stop you from making and following through on a decision to do something – especially if it is a something that you sense that God has told you or has led you to do. There will be times though when God will delay allowing you to follow through on a decision that you have made. Your grandpaa yesterday wrote about finishing strong. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are praying that you are already thinking about what it might be for you do to have you finishing strong. Your grandpaa told you that there were guys mentioned in the book that your grandpaa had just read who had finished strong. Moses was one of the guys who are mentioned in the book who finished strong. At the time when Moses was born, an Egyptian Pharaoh had made an edict that every Israelite baby boy that was born was to be killed right away. Instead of killing Moses, Moses’ ma placed Moses in a small reed raft and left him floating on the Nile River where Moses was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses lived with the Pharaoh’s family for the first forty years of his life. These forty years were good years for Moses. Moses learned a lot over these forty years. Even though Moses’ ethnicity was that of an Israelite, Moses became a leader in Egypt. Moses had his life changed when he saw an Egyptian guy beating up an Israelite guy. Moses would kill the Egyptian guy who was beating up the Israelite guy. Moses was seen by a guy from of his own Israelite people group – who were God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids, killing the Egyptian guy. God’s specially chosen guys had become Egyptian slaves. Moses may have been thinking – when he killed the Egyptian guy, that he would lead God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids out of Egypt back to the land that God had promised Abraham and Isaac that their extended families would always have to live in as their very own land. Moses instead found out the next day that God’s specially chosen guys were not pleased at all with him because he had killed an Egyptian guy. For the first forty years of his life, Moses had everything that he could have wanted. For the next forty years of his life, Moses would live in a barren desert – where there was nothing, where he was able to escape from being killed by an Egyptian looking for revenge. Moses had his life track changed again when God spoke to him directly from a burning bush. Moses was told by God that he was to go back to Egypt and what he was to do once he was back in Egypt.
Even though Moses was not happy about going back to Egypt, Moses went back. Exodus 5 tells you what took place when Moses got back to Egypt to do what God said that he was to do with His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. Moses first found his bro Aaron. Moses and Aaron then went to see Egypt’s Pharaoh to tell Egypt’s Pharaoh that they were going to take God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids to a quiet desert spot for three days to offer sacrifices to God. Moses thought God would become angry with His specially chosen guys and gals if they did not spend the three days in the desert offering sacrifices to God. Your grandpaa thinks that Moses really thought that the Pharaoh would let him take all the Israelite guys, gals and kids – like somewhere by this time around a couple of million guys, gals and kids, out into a desert for three days to offer sacrifices to God. What do you think that the Pharaoh’s answer was? It was no way Moses. It was Moses you are not going to take away for three days our slaves who we need to make bricks. The Pharaoh became really angry. The Pharaoh decided that God’s specially chosen guys who had become Egypt’s slaves would just have to work even harder at making bricks. How do you think that Moses felt when he heard what the Pharaoh said? Your grandpaa thinks that Moses was very surprised, disappointed and upset. That is how your grandpaa would feel if your grandpaa was told that he could not do something after your grandpaa really believed that he had heard God’s voice telling him what to do.
Your grandpaa and grandmaa know that it takes trusting in God to finish strong. Your grandpaa thinks that Moses thought God would have leading His specially chosen guys, gals and kids out of Egypt something easy for him to do. Instead – after he and Aaron visited the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh made the Israelite guys work even harder at making bricks. It is not easy to make adobe bricks. A hole is dug first. Lots of water is put in the hole. Some of the dirt that came out of the hole is mixed with the water. Straw is added to the muddy mix. The straw is mixed into the mud by walking barefoot back and forth in the muck. It is dirty, filthy work. Once the muck is thick, the muck is packed into wooden frames. The compacted muck is pushed out of the frames and left in the sun to bake. Adobe bricks like this were made by the centro de capacitación students for the classroom walls and for the walls of the rooms in which they lived at the rural resident training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez in Bolivia with their wives and kids. Your grandmaa and grandpaa lived for three years with the centro de capacitación students and their families. When Egypt’s Pharaoh made God’s specially chosen guys work even harder to make bricks, Moses in verse 22 said that he did this “Moses returned to the LORD and said, “‘O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?” There will be times in your lives when you will wonder what God is doing. About five years passed from when your grandpaa heard God’s call to be a missionary to when your grandpaa, grandmaa, dad and Aunt Lynn made it to Bolivia. Trusting God is accepting how God is guiding you through life.
Exodus 5 (106)