Learning to Trust
We left off Moses’ story last time with him in a dilemma. Pharaoh had not responded well to Moses and Aaron’s request to let the people go and had increased Israel’s workload. Also the Israelites were now angry with Moses as well. He went from things seeming like they were going to be ok to the bottom dropping out. Where do you go in a situation like that?
Moses went running to the Lord. And when he comes to the Lord it is full of desperation. “Why Lord have You brought trouble on Your people?… You have not rescued Your people at all.” Moses was dependent on what the Lord had told him being true, and this first rattle out of the box likely felt more like God had abandoned him. Remember Moses has already been in a situation where he tried to bring Israel out of Egypt and instead of fulfilling his calling he had to flee to exile. These thoughts have to be weighing on him as Pharaoh is responding with animosity and the Israelites are turning on him.
So when Moses comes running back to the Lord, his response is not, “Lord, we have them where we want them!” It is, “Lord why did You bring me here?” The thing about the way the Lord works is that it isn’t always going to make sense, even to the one He has called. Moses certainly wasn’t seeing the plan in this moment. But God did.
What I love about this exchange is the Lord’s response, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh.” God immediately reassures Moses that he is not alone in this process. I think that is why it is so important to come running into the Lord’s presence when we are in a jam. Who else can calm us like Him? Who else has the solutions to our problems like He does? Who else understands the situation like Him? And even though Moses’ opening sentence before the Lord was one of fear, misunderstanding, and confusion, the Lord’s response calms the fear, clears some of the misunderstanding, and makes sense of the confusion. I’m not suggesting in this moment that Moses now has complete understanding of what God is doing here. I’m saying God made Moses’ trust possible and reasonable here. Amidst the chaos of the situation.
This is why it is important to turn to the Lord first in all our situations. A friend, while well-meaning, won’t have the same insight the Lord has to offer. I’m not saying not to talk to our friends when we struggle, but not to run to them first. Seek God’s counsel first.
Moses was not going to make it through this season of the plagues on man’s insight. Even if he had gone to someone he trusted like his brother Aaron, Moses was not going to receive the counsel he needed to gain the strength to endure the trial he was going through here. It was the Lord that had the ability to give Moses the strength and courage to carry on. And right off the bat, God was letting Moses that he wasn’t going through this alone. The Lord Almighty was leading the way here. So the pressure wasn’t even on Moses to execute the plan. It was to let the Lord lead, and to go where He said go. That’s reassuring! But it’s also the only way Moses was going to succeed here.
God actually spelled a lot of the plan out to Moses both on Mount Horeb and here. But hearing the plan is very different from living the plan. It sounds safe in the moment God is speaking, but it felt terrifying living it out. However, the more Moses trusted the Lord, the more God delivered. We are going to slowly go through the plagues. There are a lot more surprises for a faithful servant of God, but God is working on a bigger scale than what Moses was expecting. Moses knew his purpose was to lead Israel out of Egypt. But God was declaring Who He was to the nations. This will be vital to the Israelites down the road, but in the moment it’s intimidating.
What I love about this exchange between Moses and God is that God wants Moses to win. He isn’t looking for Moses to make a mistake so He can call him out on it. He is looking to support Moses, to strengthen him, to encourage him. He’ll do the same for us in our trials.
