WHY DID YOU SEND ME?

BOOK OF EXODUS

CHAPTER 6

            Good day to all of you visiting Daily Bread on this fine day.  When we left off, Moses had gone to Pharaoh and told him the message that God sent, to let His people go.  Pharaoh, saying that the if the Israelites were thinking such things, they must have too much time on their hands, ordered that no more straw be given to the Israelites, but demanded the same amount of bricks be made each day.  The officers of the children of Israel that Pharaoh’s taskmasters had put in charge of them were beaten when the bricks weren’t made. 

            They told Moses what happened and Moses returned to the Lord and asked, Why have you treated these people like this?  Why did you send me?  And God said to Moses, Now you’ll see what I’ll do to Pharaoh.  With my power, he’ll let MY PEOPLE go and with my power, he’ll drive them out of his land.

            God said to Moses, I am the Lord and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH, they didn’t know me.  I began my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their journeying where they were strangers.  I’ve heard their crying because the Egyptians keep them in bondage and I remember my promise.  So say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I’ll free you with great justice.  And I will take you to be my people, and I will be to you a God and you’ll know that I am the Lord your God who saved you.  I will bring you to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and I’ll give it to you to own forever, I am the Lord.

            That, friends, was God’s answer to the question ... "Why did you send me?"

            Moses told the children of Israel what the Lord said, but they wouldn’t listen because their spirits were so anguished from the cruelty they were facing.  God told Moses to go and tell Pharaoh again to let His people go.  Moses said, The children of Israel didn’t listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to someone like me who isn’t even considered an Israelite?

            The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron again and told them it was their responsibility to the children of Israel and to command Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 

            If you would like, you can read through all the names of the heads of the tribes of Israel that were in Egypt that Moses was to help deliver.  They are listed in Exodus 6:14-25.  We won’t list them all here, but keep in mind that the bloodline is an important thing and it’s particularly interesting when you do specific studies of a certain tribe or person.  In any case, at the end of this chapter, Moses repeated that the Lord told him to speak to Pharaoh and tell him everything that He said.  And he also repeated that he didn’t think that Pharaoh would listen to him. 

            There have been times in all of our lives when we’ve done something that we just can’t believe we did, because we thought we couldn’t.  The truth is, there are many things we can’t and didn’t do on our own.  Without the words of God, without the hand of God, without the will of God … well, just ask Moses if he could have gone in to speak to Pharaoh without God.   Sometimes it takes some nudging by the Lord to get us to finally give Him our attention, surrender our pride and let Him work through us.  Just because your umbrella doesn’t turn into a serpent doesn’t mean that God doesn’t work through you in other ways.  Let’s keep an eye on how God used Moses through this study of Exodus and try to recognize in our own lives when the Lord is using us to help someone He loves in one way or another.

            In our next story, we’ll find out Pharaoh’s reaction as Moses and Aaron show him the signs that the Lord showed them.  What will it take to soften Pharaoh’s hardened heart and let God’s people go?  Come on back and find out as we look for the answer in our next stories in Daily Bread.

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