Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 4-6.

When Moses asked God what he should do if the Israelites did not believe him when he said God had appeared to him, God told him to throw his staff on to the ground.  When Moses did this, his staff became a snake.  What I had never noticed before was that Moses ran from the snake his staff became.  I am not sure how that plays into what I want to write today, but I wanted to point that out.  I want to start by talking about how Moses was reluctant to do as God commanded him.  In fact, turning his staff in a snake was God’s response to the second of the objections which Moses raised (the first was in yesterday’s passage when Moses asked what name he should say was the name of the god who sent him when people asked, and yes, when Moses asked that he was putting God in with all of the other gods).  Moses repeatedly made excuses for why God should send someone else.  Then, when God had answered all of his objections, he outright asked God to send someone, anyone, else.  Then, after convincing the Israelites to believe in him, Moses went to Pharaoh with God’s message, and Pharaoh dismissed him out of hand, not even giving him a chance to argue his case and demonstrate God’s power.  Not only that, but Pharaoh increased the oppression that the Israelites were suffering under.  Pharaoh made things worse for the Israelites and they blamed Moses for it.  God told Moses to remind the Israelites of the promises He had made to their ancestors and to tell them that He was about to fulfill them.  The Israelites refused to listen to Moses when he told them.  Immediately following the Israelites rejection of Moses, God told him to go to Pharaoh again.  Once again Moses resisted doing God’s will.  I have summed all of this up because I want to point out something.  Despite the fact that Moses resisted doing as God instructed to the point that he angered God, throughout the Bible Moses is held up as one of the greatest servants of God.  Then when he started the mission God had given him, things seemed to go wrong.  Sure, there was a little success at first as the Israelites were initially enthusiastic, but when Pharaoh refused to listen, they became disheartened.  Nothing good had happened for Moses or the Israelites by the end of the passage.  Things had actually gotten worse.  Yet, everything was going exactly according to God’s plan.  So, don’t be discouraged if things seem to be going wrong in your life.  Just do what God has called you to do and trust that He has a plan.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.