moses
Stand Still
Pharaoh didn’t release the children of Israel because he wanted to. He did it because he was tired of the plagues and the effects it had on his country. He lost a lot, including his firstborn and he didn’t want to lose anything else. There was no drinking water. Egypt was covered with pestilence, disease and death. Animals that were used for food and to till the field, died. The hail and locusts destroyed crops. The economy was failing.
The children of Israel built cities for Pharaoh, but they were never paid for their services. Instead, Pharaoh made their lives hard and bitter, but God was going to bless His people. He was about to use the one who stole from them to repay them. After Pharaoh’s firstborn died, he changed his mind. He called for Moses and Aaron. Not only did he tell them to leave, but he told them to take the children of Israel with them. They left with flocks, herds, cattle, silver, gold, clothes and anything else they required.
After they left, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart again. He and his servants had changed their minds. Why have we done this? We have let Israel go from serving us. The Egyptians then pursued them. When the Israelites saw the Egyptians marching towards them, they became afraid and cried out to the Lord. Have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Moses said, Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
The Israelites had no other choice, but to stand still. Had they moved forward without God, they would have drowned. Had they turned back, they would have either died or be placed in bondage again. God told the Israelites what He would do, but they had to do something also. They had to obey. If you stand still, I will save you and I will deliver you. If you hold your peace, I will fight for you.
To stand still is to rest in God and to believe His promises. When God told them to move forward, they obeyed and He performed a miracle before their eyes. They walked through what the Egyptians drowned in.
I know it’s hard to stand still when that bill is due tomorrow, but you don’t have the money in your bank account. It’s hard to stand still when you’re worried and growing impatient. When God doesn’t move as quickly as we would like, we think He is slow, but the only time He is slow is when He is slow to anger. The temptation is to fix your problems by borrowing money with high interest rates and creating credit card debt. Instead of standing on His word, you move to another city in hopes that things will get better, but where you live is not the problem. Was not the land of Goshen in Egypt? Did not God take of His people during the plagues? If He took care of them, surely He will take care you.
Stand still.
Keep Your Hands Lifted
And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but if he let them down a little, Amalek overcame (Exodus 17:11).
Moses told Joshua to choose men to fight the Amalekites. While the Israelites and Amalekites fought, Moses stood on the top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand alongside Aaron and Hur. When Moses lifted his hands, the Israelites won. When he let his hands down, the Israelites lost.
It’s the same with prayer. Every time you pray, angels are fighting on your behalf and they are winning. When you stop praying, the angels stop fighting. I know that prayer requires fighting, time, commitment, endurance and patience, but how bad do you want what you are praying for?
There was a moment when Moses’ hands got heavy, but Aaron and Hur gave him a stone to sit on and they both kept his hands lifted. When Moses saw the Israelites losing, he didn’t get discouraged and walk away from his position. He didn’t leave the top of the hill. In the face of defeat, he didn’t move. He stayed there and God helped him and strengthened him through two men of God.
About a month ago, the devil told me, God has been saying that for years and nothing has happened yet. Initially, I got discouraged. It sounded like the truth, but it was a lie. Just because I haven’t seen it happened yet, doesn’t mean nothing is happening. The moment God said what He was going to do, it was done. Hath He said, and shall He not do it?
Some of you are discouraged because you’re praying, but you’re not seeing what you prayed for. Don’t stop praying because you don’t see immediate results. The temptation is to say what you see rather than say what you want to see. Don’t focus on the things which are seen, but focus on the things which are not seen.
Learn from the example of Moses. No matter what you see and no matter how you feel, keep praying. Keep worshipping God. Keep praising Him.
And keep your hands lifted.
[Exodus 17:9-12; Numbers 23:19; 2 Corinthians 4:18]
Something to Think About
It was the second plague.
Because Pharaoh refused to let the children of Israel go, God caused the rivers to bring forth frogs. And they were everywhere – on the people, in their homes, on their beds, in their servants’ homes, in their ovens, and even in their food (dough).
But when Pharaoh had enough of this, he called for Moses and told him that if God would take the frogs away from him and his people, he would let the Israelites go. So, Moses did what he asked. He cried out to the Lord and prayed for Him to take the frogs away. Then, the Lord answered him and the frogs died.
But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not to them; as the Lord had said (Exodus 8:15).
Respite means a short period of rest or relief from something difficult or unpleasant. During this plague as well as the others, Pharaoh would repent and ask for forgiveness. He would acknowledge his sin and he even called himself wicked and the Lord righteous at one point (Exodus 9:27). He would promise the Lord that if he took away his problems (plagues), that he would obey Him and let His people go.
But he didn’t mean it. He was just saying it to get out of his situation. As soon as God moved on his behalf because of Moses’ prayer, he got comfortable again, forgot about what he just went through, returned to his way of living and refused to let the Israelites go.
I know we all want this pandemic to be over. We want the children to return to school. We want to go back to the gym. We want to go to the movies. We want things to go back to the way they were.
But, like Pharaoh, are we only pleading with God so that this virus can stop and we can return to our daily routine or do we mean what we say?
Are we going to God in prayer because we want Him or because we want something from Him?
Are we complaining and murmuring like the Israelites about this current situation or are we giving thanks in it?
Just something to think about.
Speak To It
When God told Moses that He was sending him to bring His children out of Egypt, that was a prophetic word. That was a promise. But when Moses obeyed God and did what He told him to do, Pharaoh refused to let the children of Israel go.
At first, Moses was discouraged. It seemed like what God said wasn’t going to come to pass. But instead of being upset with the enemy who was opposing him, he was angry with God. Why did you send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people, neither have you delivered your people at all (Exodus 5:22-23).
That’s what the enemy wants us to do. He wants us to blame God for something he did. He wants us to think that what God told us to do isn’t working and that it will never work.
Had Moses not obeyed God and confronted Pharaoh and speak to him again and again, what God said would have never come to pass, but he kept speaking to that ‘mountain’ until God removed him.
I know some of you are getting a little weary, but this is not the time to quit and this is not the time to be silent.
Don’t stop speaking to whatever is trying to block you, stop you or hinder you. Continue to say what God said. If you don’t speak it, you will never see it. God has given you a mouth and wisdom (Luke 21:15). Use your mouth to create and use your heart to believe what you want to see.
You have been talking about it long enough. Now it’s time to speak to it.
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be removed, and be cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says (Mark 11:23).
You Will See It When You Believe It
God told Moses that He was going to use him to deliver His people. He also told him that He had given them favor, but the king of Egypt wasn’t going to let them go. It was going to take a mighty hand and wonders and then Pharaoh would let them go.
Moses did and said what God told him, but he returned to God without what God had promised. It was disappointing for him, but God wasn’t worried. He knew Pharaoh was going to let His children go.
There is something I’ve been desiring and the Lord said to me, It’s yours.
So, I went after what God said was mine.
But I just didn’t go after it. I went, knowing that I was going to receive the thing that God said He has given me.
I faced Pharaoh, but Pharaoh wouldn’t let it go.
So I went back to God because maybe I heard it wrong. Maybe it wasn’t Him, but I knew it was Him. Like Moses, I began to question what God said.
Why did you send me (Exodus 5:22)? Why get my hopes up like that?
But you know what God did? He just reminded me again, It is yours.
When the disciples told Thomas that they saw the Lord, Thomas told them that the only way he would believe them is if he could touch and see the print of nails in his hands.
Eight days later, Thomas saw the Lord and Jesus told him to touch him. The only reason why Thomas believed was because he could touch and see him, but God doesn’t deal with me the way Jesus did with Thomas. Maybe He did years ago when I first got saved, but now He wants me to grow up and to believe Him for what I have yet to see.
He doesn’t want me to worry like the disciples, who when they were in a storm, woke Jesus up from his rest. Instead, he wants me to rest in and with Him.
Pharaoh didn’t want to let the Israelites go, but God said he was going to and Moses had to believe God. No matter how many times Pharaoh told him no, the promise was still yes and amen.
Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed (John 20:29).
How Far Are You Willing to Go?
Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country from your family and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing (Genesis 12:1-2).
God is telling some of you what He told Abram because He wants you to go where you’ve never gone before and He wants you to do what you’ve never done before.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8).
Abraham had faith and obeyed God. He was told to go to the land that God had said would be his, and he left for a country he had never seen (Contemporary English Version).
Faith motivated Abraham to obey God’s call and leave the familiar to discover the territory he was destined to inherit from God. So he left with only a promise and without even knowing ahead of time where he was going, Abraham stepped out in faith (The Passion Translation).
To go to a place that you don’t know sometimes will require you to leave a place that you do know. For Abram to become what God promised in Genesis 12:2, he had to first obey Genesis 12:1. Sometimes the hardest thing for us to do is to leave certain people. Abram couldn’t leave Lot. That was his nephew. But the thing Abram found hard to do finally had to be done. There had to be a separation.
Sometimes the person you refuse to let go of is the person who is keeping you from seeing what God promised. The moment Lot left Abraham to enter the land he had chosen, then Abraham could see what God had promised.
And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward and westward. For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever (Genesis 13:14).
You are different, but you keep fighting to remain the same. You are not like the others, but you try to be like them. Like Israel, you want what the other nations have when they be should desiring what you have. You should be like Peter, who chose to walk on water while others chose to stay in the ship.
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13).
God is making you, but you’re fighting the way He is taking you because the way is not always easy. You fight it because you would rather walk with many than to walk with a few, but the way that many are taking leads to destruction.
When I talk about going to a place in God that you’ve never been before, I’m not talking about a physical location. I’m talking about a spiritual location. I’m talking about your relationship with Him. I’m talking about getting closer to Him than you’ve ever been before. I’m talking about you drawing so close to Him that He asks, Who touched me?
God wants us to come up higher and to come closer. Zaccheus climbed a tree to see Jesus. Moses climbed a mountain and God spoke to him face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
Terah took his grandson (Lot), his son (Abram) and his daughter-in-law (Sarai) and they left Ur to go to the land of Canaan, but when they reached Haran, they settled there. Abram’s father died never entering Canaan. Abram, on the other hand, refused to settle and he chose to go all the way.
Now…
Do you want to go to a place in God that you’ve never been before? And if so, how far are you willing to go?
Deliver Us
The children of Israel cried to God because they were tired of their condition. They cried because they wanted to be free. All they knew was sorrow, but they longed to know joy. They wanted to be delivered, but the thing they wanted to be free from would not let them go.
When God sent Moses to deliver His people, Moses didn’t address Pharaoh one time and then they were set free. He had to keep speaking and commanding Pharaoh to let them go before deliverance took place. No, it wasn’t easy, but just because something seems hard, doesn’t mean it is impossible.
Pharaoh knew that his time was up so he used tactics such as not supplying the straw Israel needed to build bricks, but still expecting them to make the same number of bricks. He wanted to discourage them. He wanted them to give up because he knew their deliverance was near.
Israel is my son, even my firstborn. Let my son go that he may serve Me (Exodus 4:22). When God had enough, He had enough. Because Pharaoh refused to let His firstborn go, God took his firstborn son. What held Israel in bondage for over 400 years finally let them go, but it took a strong hand (Deuteronomy 26:8).
As long as the children of Israel did what he wanted them to do, it was fine, but the moment they decided they no longer wanted to serve him, Pharaoh wanted to destroy them. So, Pharaoh gathered his army and chased them. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them (Exodus15:9).
The Lord divided the sea with His strength (Psalm 74:13). The waters were a wall to Israel on the right and on the left so that they could walk on dry ground. But when the Egyptians went after them, those same walls fell on them. He took the wheels off their chariots and destroyed Pharaoh’s chariots, horseman and all of his army. Not one of them survived.
The reason why Pharaoh wanted to keep Israel in bondage was because he was afraid of them. He knew what they would do to him if they were free. And he (Pharaoh) said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them lest they multiply and it come to pass when there fall out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land (Exodus 1:9-10).
Today, God calls you what he called the children of Israel. You are His son, you are His daughter and enough is enough. Some say they’ve been called to preach, some say they’ve been called to teach, but we have all been called to freedom (Galatians 5:13). God just doesn’t want us to be saved, but He wants us to be free so that we may serve Him with our whole heart. He wants you to be free from sin, fear, shame and free to worship, praise, laugh.
Your adversary is afraid of you because you are a threat to him. He sets traps and builds strongholds to keep you distracted, to keep you from becoming who God called you to be. He wants you to serve sin and to please your flesh so that you will never please God. He knows he has lost, but he wants you to think he’s winning.
It will take a strong hand, but he will let you go and every spirit that should not be in you, will come out of you and will enter you no more (Mark 9:25). Nothing could hold Jesus in the grave and nothing will be able to hold you – not past hurts, disappointment, shame, unforgiveness, or past sins. God wants us to be free from every weight, distraction, hindrance and from the sin that easily trips us up so that we not only run the race, but we finish the race.
Deliver us, Lord.
God Will Not Disappoint You
disappointed: sad or discouraged because someone or something failed to fulfill one’s hopes or expectations
Have you ever thought you were getting a job or a promotion only to find out that you didn’t get it?
Have you ever met someone who you thought was ‘the one’ only to find out that he/she wasn’t?
Do you feel like you always get excited about something only to be disappointed – again?
God told Moses what to say to the Israelites, but he was afraid that they would not believe him. They will say, The Lord has not appeared to you (Exodus 4:1). But Moses obeyed. He returned to Egypt like God told him to. Israel accepts Moses as their leader and he was okay with that. Pharaoh rejects him and he was okay with that, too. Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go (Exodus 5:2).
But after Pharaoh told Moses no, he told the taskmasters and their officers to no longer supply Israel with straw to make bricks. Not only did Israel have to find their own straw, but they still had to make the same number of bricks and they were beaten (Exodus 5:16).
Now Israel rejects Moses. They didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore. May the Lord look upon you and judge you. For you have caused us to be hated by Pharaoh and his servants. You have put a sword in their hand to kill us (Exodus 5:21, NLV).
This was not okay. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. He did exactly what God told him to do and now they were angry with him. Moses went back to God. Not only did he tell God about how the people were being treated after his meeting with Pharaoh, but he also told God that He didn’t do what He said he was going to do. For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people and You have not delivered your people at all (Exodus 5:23). Moses was disappointed and he felt like God had lied to him.
Jacob also experienced disappointment. His uncle, Laban, had two daughters named Leah and Rachel. When I was younger, I was told that Leah was the ugly one and Rachel was the beautiful one, but that’s not what the scriptures tell us. In fact, the scriptures only speak of one part of Leah’s body that was flawed or less beautiful than the other parts.
Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance (Genesis 29:17, AMP).
There was no sparkle in Leah’s eyes, but Rachel had a beautiful figure and a lovely face (NLT).
There was no brightness to Leah’s eyes, but Rachel had a beautiful shape and was lovely to look at (VOICE).
Jacob loved Rachel (Genesis 29:18). He loved her so much that he served her father for seven years just so that he may have her as his wife, but on the day of the wedding feast, Laban gave Jacob his eldest daughter, Leah, and not Rachel. Jacob didn’t know this until the following morning. Can you imagine how he felt? He asked specifically for Rachel, but instead he was given Leah.
What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why then have you deceived me? (Genesis 29:25).
Now, Jacob was tricked by his uncle and I know that some of you think that Jacob deserved it because he deceived his own father. Despite everything he did, God loved Jacob (Malachi 1:2, Romans 9:13) and He loves you and me, too.
I know Jacob didn’t want Leah and he was disappointed that she was now his wife. Maybe he did feel like he deserved what happened to him because of what he did to his father and brother, but what we fail to realize is our mistakes and our plans don’t change God’s plan. Your mess-ups can’t mess up God’s plan. I know Rachel looked better. It appeared that she had everything that he wanted, but what he wanted was barren, empty and unable to produce children (initially). It wasn’t what was on the outside of Rachel, but what was on the inside of Leah that God needed.
This was God’s plan: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). And guess whose lineage Jesus was born through? It wasn’t through Rachel. Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brethren (Matthew 1:2). Judah was Leah’s mother.
For some people, it feels like you’re always getting disappointed, but your disappointment didn’t come from God. It came from the people and things you placed your hope in. Despite what Laban did, Jacob kept serving because he knew what he could have and he wanted Rachel that much. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel (Genesis 29:20). Do you know what God has promised? Do you want what God has promised? If Jacob can serve someone who lied to him, we can continue to serve Someone who cannot lie.
God did exactly what He told Moses he was going to do to Pharaoh, BUT Moses had to continue to do the things that God told him to do. Don’t stop doing what God told you to do. Put your hope and trust in what God said. We don’t always understand HIS plan, but He knows what He is doing. So, before you go to God complaining about what He didn’t do, what is it that you haven’t done yet?
Maybe you prefer ‘Rachel’ (not necessarily a person, but a thing or a situation), but God gave you ‘Leah’ because Leah will put your faith to work. Maybe you’ve been comfortable for too long and God gave you Leah to push you out of your comfort zone. It is out of Leah that the promise will come. God will give you favor because of Leah. And one day, you will realize that if it wasn’t for Leah, you wouldn’t have prayed as much as you did. If it wasn’t for Leah, you would have still been serving yourself rather than serving others. Rachel would have only drawn you away from God, but Leah brought you closer to God.
God is not keeping any good thing from you. I know not receiving the thing you were hoping for made you feel like a failure. I know it hurts. I know it made you cry, but what you thought was a disappointment was really a blessing. No one likes the feeling of rejection. No one likes to be told no, but the promises of God are still yes and Amen.
Believe that God is good, believe that His plan is good, believe that He only gives good things, and this time you will not be disappointed.
Those who hope in ME will not be disappointed (Isaiah 49:23, NIV).
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