PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Exodus 5-6
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“They did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” (Exodus 6:9)
Moses can’t accept God’s call because he only sees his inability (Exodus 4:10,13).
Pharoah doesn’t listen to God because he is too full of himself (Exodus 5:2).
The people do not listen to Moses because they’re so burdened and discouraged (Exodus 6:9).
There is a pattern in these chapters – how and why people don’t listen to God.
What are my reasons for not listening to or accepting what Jesus says?
Too hard, too full of or down on myself, too busy, or too overwhelmed?
But what am I missing by not listening to what the Lord is saying?
Does he know something I don’t, can he do things I can’t?
There are rhetorical questions: of course he does, of course he can!
Jesus often urges people to have eyes to see and ears to hear (Mark 8:18).
If Pharoah, Israel and Moses struggled with this, I know I do too.
I need to assume that I am not seeing or hearing the Lord in some way every day.
I need to pray for the Spirit’s help to see and to hear, and to receive it.
If I want to see and hear him today, I need to look beyond myself and my life.
PRAYER
Lord, the struggle and stuff of life is so pressing, I cannot help seeing and hearing it. Help me to see and hear you even more, and to listen and trust you!
Here’s a mission statement for God: “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” It is not only prophetic for the people of Israel but also for us – Jesus stretched out on the cross redeems us and God promises to be our God. An early picture – and it clearly states God’s mission!
Yet Moses and I need to know that we need to work in step with God – as Moses says: “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips[c]?” The mistake is thinking its just me. No one will listen if it is just me.! Moses, Pharaoh and the Israelites and so also us will learn that when God speaks – we better listen!