Exodus Week 6 - Unexpected Disappointment
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Introduction
Introduction
Signs of the Lords Power
Moses pleads with God to use someone else.
God shows Moses His power by changing his staff to a snake, his hand into leprosy, and changing water from the Nile into blood.
God gives Moses Aaron to speak for him
The Trip to the Elders
Things go very well with the elders.
Aaron told them everything the Lord had told Moses, and Moses performed the miraculous signs as they watched. Then the people of Israel were convinced that the Lord had sent Moses and Aaron. When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Everything is going wonderful, the people are excited and believe based on the signs that God sent Moses to them.
This would have been an exciting time, the Israelites have been oppressed for over 400 years and felt like God had abandoned them. They had probably lost hope.
Now there is hope, hope for a future, hope for freedom.
And then comes Exodus 5......
After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”
“Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”
But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t, he will kill us with a plague or with the sword.”
Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work! Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work.”
That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen: “Do not supply any more straw for making bricks. Make the people get it themselves! But still require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy. That’s why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to our God.’ Load them down with more work. Make them sweat! That will teach them to listen to lies!”
So the slave drivers and foremen went out and told the people: “This is what Pharaoh says: I will not provide any more straw for you. Go and get it yourselves. Find it wherever you can. But you must produce just as many bricks as before!” So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt in search of stubble to use as straw.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian slave drivers continued to push hard. “Meet your daily quota of bricks, just as you did when we provided you with straw!” they demanded. Then they whipped the Israelite foremen they had put in charge of the work crews. “Why haven’t you met your quotas either yesterday or today?” they demanded.
So the Israelite foremen went to Pharaoh and pleaded with him. “Please don’t treat your servants like this,” they begged. “We are given no straw, but the slave drivers still demand, ‘Make bricks!’ We are being beaten, but it isn’t our fault! Your own people are to blame!”
But Pharaoh shouted, “You’re just lazy! Lazy! That’s why you’re saying, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.’ Now get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the full quota of bricks.”
The Israelite foremen could see that they were in serious trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the number of bricks you make each day.” As they left Pharaoh’s court, they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were waiting outside for them. The foremen said to them, “May the Lord judge and punish you for making us stink before Pharaoh and his officials. You have put a sword into their hands, an excuse to kill us!”
Then Moses went back to the Lord and protested, “Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord? Why did you send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people. And you have done nothing to rescue them!”
Hope Brings Expectations
Hope Brings Expectations
Hope brings expectations, the second human beings receive hope we form a picture of what the future will bring. The problem is this future is rarely the reality.
Remember early in this series I said that we need to remember that God has a good plan, a plan to save His people, but God’s plan rarely plays out the way we expect.
Exodus 5 is proof that God’s plan doesn’t always go how we expect it.
We expect things to go our way, the way that benefits us, the comfortable way. And when it doesn’t we are like.....what is wrong with God, I must have heard Him wrong
Often we then give up. Yet Scripture shows us over and over again that we should expect unexpected times of disappointment.
Disappointment is a Theme Within Scripture.
Disappointment is a Theme Within Scripture.
Disappointment is always rooted in hope. But we are told in our culture that we can do anything we put our mind to. The problem with this is then we don’t need to rely on God. It’s a lie culture has told us.
We live in a Genesis 3 world, a broken world full of sin.
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
Our hope rests in Jesus Christ, not human beings. But sometimes we forget that things don’t always play out the way we think it should. Let me give you some examples from scripture.
John the Baptist
In Matthew 11:2-6, there is this surreal and, I think, beautiful moment where John the Baptist is in prison. Basically, he has called out the ruler of Rome there in Jerusalem because he has divorced his wife and is sleeping with somebody who is not his wife.
John the Baptist calls him out and is then arrested. There is not a lot of free speech in the Roman Empire.
John the Baptist is arrested and thrown in prison, which seems really strange, since he’s the one who makes a way for the Lord, prepares a way for the Lord.
He understands himself to be the frontrunner of Jesus Christ. He has been faithful. In fact, even Jesus would say that born of man, there is not a greater man born than John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is now in prison, death sentence more than likely coming. We pick up the story. The story is super intriguing. Here’s what he says in verse 2.
John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
Here’s what has happened. John the Baptist is in prison. He hears all of the things that Jesus is doing, and he’s like, ”Okay, I get it, but why am I in prison? Something has gone wrong here.
“ Have you been there? ”Something is not adding up in my life because I’ve been faithfully preaching Christ. I’ve been eating locusts and honey.
I have sacrificed everything for the plan of God. Something has gone wrong here. Guys, go find Jesus and ask him, ’Are you the one, or should we be waiting for somebody else?
Was I wrong when I baptized him in the Jordan? I could have sworn the Holy Spirit fell at that moment.“ Look at Jesus’ response. It’s stunning.
Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.”
On the surface, that just looks like great news, but here is what Jesus just did. Jesus just quoted the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming of the Messiah. He quoted verbatim outside of one little line. Do you know what the line was? ”And the prisoners will be set free.“ The very last line of that Isaiah prophetic word about the coming of the Messiah is, ”The prisoners will be set free.“
Do you see what Jesus did here? He just told John that he is going to die in prison. Not what John expected......
2. Jeremiah
God comes to Jeremiah. Here’s what he says to Jeremiah.
Today I appoint you to stand up
against nations and kingdoms.
Some you must uproot and tear down,
destroy and overthrow.
Others you must build up
and plant.”
Sounds pretty good, sound like a great gig. But here is what happens
Almost every time Jeremiah opens his mouth and testifies what God tells him to testify, he is beaten. He is imprisoned. He is thrown bloody into a ditch.
Finally, after Jeremiah faithfully says what the Lord told him to say, he is literally beaten naked and thrown bloodied into a ditch, and here’s what he says to the Lord.
O Lord, you misled me,
and I allowed myself to be misled.
You are stronger than I am,
and you overpowered me.
Now I am mocked every day;
everyone laughs at me.
When I speak, the words burst out.
“Violence and destruction!” I shout.
So these messages from the Lord
have made me a household joke.
Sounds like things didn’t go exactly how Jeremiah thought they would.
Jeremiah just wants his people to repent and serve God.
When the book of Jeremiah ends, Israel is led into captivity, and Jeremiah with them.
3. King David
David rose to his feet and said: “My brothers and my people! It was my desire to build a Temple where the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, God’s footstool, could rest permanently. I made the necessary preparations for building it, but God said to me, ‘You must not build a Temple to honor my name, for you are a warrior and have shed much blood.’
Loom at verse 3. No David you can’t build a Temple to honour me, your a killer. Who sent David out to war against the Philistines?
David is disappointed, things are going exactly as he expected.
We Need to Read Scripture with Honesty
We Need to Read Scripture with Honesty
We need to read the Bible honestly so we’re not surprised in the day of trouble. We should never be surprised in the day of trouble. Natural disaster shouldn’t surprise you. Disease shouldn’t surprise you. Death shouldn’t surprise you.
I’m not saying that not being surprised means it hurts less. It doesn’t hurt less, but if we’re going to survive waves of disappointment we need to acknowledge our limitations as human beings, but we also need to read the Bible honestly.
What Can Exasperate Disappointment?
What Can Exasperate Disappointment?
Lets take a look at the text, there are a few things the text tells us that can exasperate disappointment.
Halfhearted Faith.
In the very first verse of the text today there is a sign of Moses and Aaron having halfhearted faith.
They change what God told them to say.
After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”
That’s not what God told them to say,
They modify the message to how they think will be better for Pharaoh to respond the way they want him to. Basically they ask him to let them go on a holiday to have a party.
Then when Pharaoh responds negatively they do it again. This time it’s closer to what God actually said, but they add that God will kill them if he doesn’t let them go.
That’s not what God said......They are not trusting God, they are making things fit the way they want them too.
God told them to ask Pharaoh to let them go, but it was going to take a mighty hand to make it happen. Instead of trusting God, Moses and Aaron take it upon themselves to change the message, make it more effective....at least they think.
2. Fear
Fear drives a lot of human beings poor decisions.
This passage shows us that because things don’t go as they assumed it would, fear sets in. Change happens and life gets worse, so we default back to “let’s pretend this never happened and go back to the way things were”.
The problem is maybe the challenge is part of the process of drawing you back into relying on God.
God wants us to believe and trust in his promises. Often we need disappointment to draw us back to remembering how much we need Him.
But often we give God our halfhearted faith that is full of fear and when it doesn’t go our way we bail on God completely. But there is something this story can teach us, but we have to look past the text today to see it. We can’t just put the book down and say, “see God failed them, I am done with God”.
Keep your Eye on the End, the Goal.
Keep your Eye on the End, the Goal.
The key to walking through disappointment is to learn to see the big picture, and trust that God is faithful.
God wants one thing from us, to trust Him.
If you go to Florida on a family trip, everyone is excited, but it’s a three day drive. You have to remind everyone on day two what the destination is.
Closing
Closing
God will always walk us through our disappointments, but we need to trust Him.
Often our disappointments can teach us where our hearts truly are. It can show us if our hearts are trusting God, or if we are relying on our own abilities and strength.
If we focus on the end, we can see the big picture and the struggles are just part of the journey. Shaping us into people who rely completely on God.
Big Idea: Life will bring plenty of disappointment. But God is always faithful. Don’t let halfhearted faith, and fear determine what you think the outcome should be. Let God’s promise be your expected outcome, and take the journey as it comes.
Our fear of change, our need for control. All of these Genesis 3 realities drive our disappointment. But we have a God who has proven to be faithful, we need to trust Him and believe that He will bring us through to the promise land.