Day 349

Day 349

Pray (ACts)

Read - Exodus 5:22-23

Message - Alan Burke

Things rarely turn out as we expect them to, when we were in school and we were asked to imagine what our lives would be like, asked what we wanted to be when we grew up none of us could have predicted that this is the way they would be. Of course we may have got some things right, but what about that heartache over the loss of a loved one that remains all these years later, those disappointments, struggles of every day, the bitter reality of how time takes its tole on all of us. All these things can either lead us to turn to God or turn against God. They either cause us to cry out to him or complain about him. Turn to him or turn against him, cry out to him or complain about him. 

Things had gone from bad to worse for the Israelites, Pharaoh had succeeded, the reputation of Moses was mud, he was dejected, defeated, doubting, but like the foremen of the Israelites who had turned to pharaoh for their help, Moses cried out to the Lord God. Asking the Lord ‘Why have you brought trouble upon this people’. Actually what Moses says is much stronger, its “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people?

This people, don’t miss that. 

Moses was effectively saying to the Lord God that you brought this upon a people that you have nothing to do with, their lives were hard and they were better without your meddling. Then he blamed the Lord God that the evil he seen, the evil that had come upon the people, even though it was at the hands of pharaoh because his decree that they should gather their own straw, and Moses blamed himself asking why had he been sent (23). To him it was that God by his omission, that is lack of action in how he had not rescued the people was just as to blame if not fully to blame even though it had been Pharaoh by his commission, his actions and decree had caused their suffering to increase. It seems that God’s plan to bring salvation to his people had come to a grinding if not embarrassing halt, Pharaoh has won. 

What are you facing right now? What have you faced in the past? Has it turned you to God or turned you against God, that unbelieving spouse and children, how your health has been getting worse, how life has not gone the way that you expected in so many ways?

What did you do, turn to God or turn against him? When the heartache came with the loss of a loved one, or the day it will come? When those disappointments come, when struggles seem to much for you to handle? Moses even though he was mouthing off at God he had turned to him, in the midst of his anguish, when things didn’t turn out as he expected them to he knew he could cry out to God. When troubles come we can turn to God with confidence by the presence of the Holy spirit within us, Jesus, he has promised to be with us, that’s in the joys and the sorrows, the times of celebration and the times of consternation (Matt 28:20). He hears our cries just like he did with Moses, although his answer may not be what we wanted or expected as Moses was about to find out.

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q 4 What is God?God is a Spirit, (John 4:24) infinite, (Job 11:7–9) eternal, (Ps. 90:2) and unchangeable, (James 1:17) in his being, (Exod. 3:14)wisdom, (Ps. 147:5) power, (Rev. 4:8) holiness, (Rev. 15:4) justice, goodness, and truth. (Exod. 34:6–7)
​