Wait on God: Things get worse before they get better
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Faith Fitness
Bro. Sam Kaufman
The anticipation was likely mounting for Moses, Aaron and the other Hebrews.
This would be their day of deliverance from Egyptian bondage. After all, God had commissioned Moses to deliver God’s people, and Moses returned to Egypt after a miraculous experience with God that included the fiery bush that didn’t burn and God promising Moses that He would use him to take His people from Egypt.
In Exodus 5:28-31, it is apparent that excitement was in the air for the Hebrews.
“And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.”
Then came the big day. Moses and Aaron appeared before Pharaoh with the first “Let my people go.”
But the response wasn’t what Moses and Aaron were expecting.
They felt God would immediately deliver the Israelites from Egypt.
It didn’t happen that way. In fact, it was far from it.
Things actually got worse for the Hebrews before they got better. But God had a purpose in all of it. It was for God’s glory and the benefit of the Hebrews.
God had already told Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart so that He could pour out the plagues on Egypt.
This was for Israel’s advantage, but they didn’t know it at the time. God’s miraculous work in Egypt would later put the fear of God into the nations where the Hebrews would travel and ultimately take over.
In other words, the people from those nations heard what the God of the Hebrews accomplished in Egypt and with Pharaoh and his army.
It left those nations shaking in their shoes – or sandals – in respect and fear of God and His people.
Sometimes we must wait on the Lord and trust in Him to allow His workings, purposes and promises to materialize in our lives.
It doesn’t always come when we think it should or how we think it should, but God knows best. He’s working it out for us and for our advantage.
The initial request from Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to let God’s people go and sacrifice to Him in the wilderness was met with resounding opposition.
Pharaoh basically said, “No way.”
On top of that, he felt the Hebrews were idle if they had time to go worship their God in the wilderness for multiple days.
Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters to not give the Hebrews straw to make brick, but for them to gather straw for themselves where they could find it to make brick, yet the amount of their construction was not to diminish.
When the Hebrews couldn’t meet the requirement, they were beaten.
“Where was God in all of this,” they must have thought.
The questions and murmurings began.
This is what they said to Moses: “The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.” (Exodus 5:21)
Moses heard those words and went to the Lord. “And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, ‘Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.’” (Exodus 5:22.23)
God then reminded Moses of His plan: “Then the LORD said unto Moses, ‘Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of this land.’” (Exodus 7:1)
God came through in His own timing after the plagues. The key for the Hebrews and for us is to wait on God.
Even Moses had to wait after he fled Egypt the first time upon killing an Egyptian.
Moses left for 40 years and perhaps thought God’s plan for his life was over.
Then God appeared to Moses when he was 80 years old and directed him back to Egypt to deliver His people.
