Today’s Reading: Exodus 1 – 4; 6:14-27

Here we are three quarters of the way through January! I hope you are finding the readings as interesting as I have found them to be! To me, it sounds almost too good to be true that God will stay faithful despite what we are and as Scott says (& it echoes my heart too) “What is this about human beings walking with God!”

Here we are at a new beginning. God takes note afresh of His people and quietly as usual starts with Moses, a little obscure baby, loved by his parents, and his parents commit in faith Moses to a little papyrus basket, to be watched over by a faithful loving sister! It’s good to see people sticking out their neck, despite danger and quietly doing what are right – and that compliments what a faithful God is doing! God’s man is groomed in Pharaoh’s rich and sophisticated palace for an important role in God’s upper story! Somehow Moses never forgets his roots (what part does God play in this fact and what part does his faithful parents play in training their child! (I wish I had been aware when my children were young, just how little time left in life I had for training them before they became immersed in this world!)) And when Moses defends a fellow Israelite, it leads to his banishment to the far-off lowly job of tending sheep for his father-in-law. But God, after forty years, is now ready to begin to “save” his people, but in His own way and not Moses’ own human of doing things! The “I AM” or “I AM WHO I AM” appears to Moses in a burning bush which doesn’t burn up! I’m glad that God doesn’t burn up in my life in the sense that He gives up on me! And the I AM Who can make things happen lays out the plan as clearly as only He can do! But now that Moses has been isolated for so long in the lonely job of shepherding in the desert (did he learn about quiet enduring and faithfulness here?), he feels inadequate for the grand job of leading God’s people out of Egypt, as well as inadequate at convincing God’s own people that he is the sent one! And so God proceeds to give him three signs to convince the people of God. Moses protests that he has never had the gift of speech, but God counters with the fact that He has made Moses and his mouth! The I AM only grows angry when Moses says – put in modern western humour, “Here am I! Send my brother (or someone else)!” And so Aaron is added to the scheme. It’s interesting whether in the big scheme of things, whether Aaron was much of a help to Moses! God had another role for him to play! Sometimes it’s easier and maybe more rewarding to just work with God under His close personal direction? It’s interesting how God tells Moses exactly what Pharaoh’s reaction will be and maybe when He does that for us, we are prevented from having false hopes or stops us from second-guessing God’s plan for us.

The last paragraph is interesting to see where Moses and his brother Aaron fit into the Israelites. Interesting how the Bible tells how long some people lived, but for most of the others, there is no mention how long they lived. Could it be that the people whose ages are mentioned have a special job to do for God or had a special position among the people of God?

Maybe each of us or we together as part of the family of God, are standing on the verge of experiencing some great rewarding section of God’s upper-story today? But be comforted, because whether we are just shepherding in obscurity someone precious whom Our Heavenly Father has committed to our care, or, on the hand, are part of something great He is doing, still as Scriptures say, “We are fellow-workers together with Him!”