Redeeming Exile
As Moses was asking God his questions at the burning bush, God is patient in answering each one. It’s not until Moses asks God to send someone else that God gets angry. God had been preparing Moses all his life for this task, but Moses had hit such a level of discouragement that he was no longer willing to go. God wasn’t just going to let Moses quit though and kicked Moses into gear. What I think is interesting is that God still provided a solution for Moses within this and sent his brother Aaron to him.
The thing I find so fascinating about the Lord in all of this is how willing He is to help Moses along this journey. Even though Moses has had a rough go of it in the past, trying and failing, to lead Israel out of Egypt, God hadn’t abandoned Moses. That season of exile had been a preparation season for Moses for the last 40 years of his life. And now that it was time to lead Israel out of Egypt, God was leading the way to do that. Even though Moses was reluctant to go. God had a solution for each problem Moses presented, but He needed Moses to be willing to go. It would have been a big problem if Moses had flat out refused to go.
The thing about the Israelites being led out of Egypt was it was a redemption for Moses as well. He had tried and failed to lead them out earlier which resulted in great loss for him, but this was the opportunity for his story to be redeemed. What I think is interesting about this is Moses would have been satisfied for his life to ended in failure, but God was not. God hadn’t let Moses go early and fail just to leave him in a mess. God had a plan the whole time to redeem him, but it took time to bring it about.
When God appeared to Moses at the burning bush, Moses seemed to understand that this really was God sending him. God gave Moses multiple signs: the burning bush that was not consumed, the staff turning into a serpent, his hand becoming leperous and then being healed again. So Moses knew it was the Lord telling him to go, but after experiencing such a loss in his past he seems content with how his story ended up. Which is understandable. The thing is God always had a plan to restore what he had lost acting in faith and landing in exile. God hadn’t just let him fail with no plan to redeem him. It seems rather that exile was the learning curve that Moses needed in order to succeed when the right time was upon him. But Moses had to be willing to go.
Sometimes when the struggle comes, it’s easy to think that’s it. That is all there is to the story. I failed and now it’s over. But when it comes to the plans of God He always has a way to redeem our stories. And even if it takes time, and we are long past believing God is going to redeem He may yet have a desire to restore what we lost. For Moses, he never got those 40 years back, but God made excellent use of the time. Using it to help him in the last 40 years of his life. And then when it was time, proved to Moses that it was Him coming to bring about Moses’ purpose after all.
What once seemed obvious to Moses was not understood by those around him, that Moses was going to lead them out of Egypt. Then Moses fled to exile, which would have made his purpose seem lost. But then at the right time, God comes in to restore the loss and bring Moses back to Egypt to fulfill the purpose that had seemed had not been possible for 40 years. So even though Moses was reluctant to go try again, the Lord wasn’t going to just leave Moses in an unredeemed situation. I think that should bring us all comfort.
