In Exodus 5, The Israelites were excited to hear God was going to set them free, but instantly became upset when Pharaoh said “NO” and then increased their work load. Sadly, we often do the same thing; we are so happy with God when we feel like his hand of blessing is on our life but then mad at him at the first sign of adversity. We must learn how to respond when life doesn’t play out how we hoped.
The Message
In case you haven’t noticed, there is a common plot line in nearly all movies. As the movie starts, things go well for the hero or heroine. Life looks rosy and he or she looks forward to a long and happy future. But about that time there is a setback or a rejection that the character must respond to before success finally comes.
- The team starts training with a new coach and starts winning, but then they face the best team in the league and get clobbered.
- The geek who starts gaining confidence decides to ask his crush out, but as he approaches her he sees her kissing another guy.
- The adventurers are very close to reaching the prize, but suddenly something out of their control sweeps the prize away.
Why this pattern? Because most people think movies are more interesting this way. The plot would be pretty boring if everything went smoothly from beginning to end without a twist or turn.
However, in our own lives we can get pretty frustrated when things don’t go according to plan. If our lives were a chart, we would prefer they only went up and to the right. But how do we respondto “NO”? The story of Exodus has a clear “NO” in chapters 5 and 6; and, like God’s people the Israelites, we often have to respond to hearing “NO” in our own lives.
A SERIES OF YESSES
Up to this point in the book of Exodus, the Israelites have multiplied greatly during their time in Egypt, and Pharaoh has forced them into slavery. God has called Moses to free them, and Moses is now on his way to Egypt to do the work God has outlined for him. Now let’s look at how the story continues to go perfectly according to plan at the end of Exodus 4.
- Exodus 4:27 – The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.
Aaron said ”YES” to the call of God.
- Exodus 4:28 – Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had told him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
Aaron said “YES” to the message Moses shared with him.
- Exodus 4:29 – Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed.
The elders said “YES” to the message and signs from Moses and Aaron.
- Exodus 4:30-31 – And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
The elders felt like GOD HIMSELF had said “YES” to their prayers by sending Moses and Aaron to deliver them.
Think about how everybody is feeling at this moment. It’s like the movie when everything is going perfectly. Everyone is excited! Everyone has big expectations; the Israelites expect freedom! Their hopes are raised, and they are ready to GO!
We’ve all been there! Everything seems to be going according to plan. You know the phrase we use when we’re on the mountain top: “I feel so blessed.” We see everything falling into place, and we assume God must be pleased with us and that’s why he’s giving us the desires of our hearts.
THE BIG NO
But – wait for it – here comes The Big “NO!”
- Exodus 5:1–2 – Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’” Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”
This is the first time Moses and Aaron have heard “NO.” Pharaoh is not as excited about this plan as Moses, Aaron and the Israelites. How will Moses respond? Will he wither like a flower in the sweltering heat or will he persevere?
- Exodus 5:3-4 – Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.” But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to work!”
To Moses’s credit, he pushes back against Pharaoh. He makes the request again, this time alluding to the plagues and even the sword – potential death – to try to get Pharaoh’s attention.
Moses receives the same response: “NO.” This time Pharaoh basically says, “Stop wasting my time and the time of my valuable slaves”. And then he decides he’s not very happy with this whole situation.
Exodus 5:5-18 shows us how Pharaoh responded: Pharaoh increases the Israelites’ work load even though he has taken away the straw they need for making bricks. When the Israelites can’t keep up, the slave drivers begin to beat the foremen. Sot the Israelites go to Pharaoh for relief, but he tells them they are lazy!
The Israelites are stuck between a rock and a hard place – let’s look at their reaction:
Exodus 5:19-21 – The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble … When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
It’s pretty clear how the Israelite leaders felt – they felt like dead men walking, stuck with impossible demands and no way to meet the quotas. And they remember whose fault it is – Moses and Aaron! Why did they have to get involved?
The people’s excitement for freedom has clearly vanished. Now they simply wish they could go back to how it used to be when they could focus on making bricks and not have to worry about finding straw. This won’t be the last time the people will resist any change Moses brings. It crops up again in the wilderness when they long for the leeks and cucumbers of Egypt, all provided to them for free!
The Israelites supposedly have heard about everything the Lord told Moses. That should have included the fact that God was going to have to compel Pharaoh with a strong hand and with all His wonders and power. Only then will Pharaoh let them go. They have known all along that this wouldn’t be an “up and to the right” adventure, and yet they are greatly upset when they are squeezed between the quotas and the slave drivers.
So we see the Israelites quickly forget about God’s promise. Perhaps Moses will respond with more confidence. Lets continue:
- Exodus 5:22-23 – Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
Not only are the Israelites complaining about hearing “No,” but now Moses is complaining too, even though he’s the one who heard God’s very clear message that this wasn’t going to be a simple process. God even told Moses He would have to kill the firstborn before Pharaoh would let the Israelites go.
The last line, “and you have not rescued your people at all” shows that even Moses feels doubt creeping in. He wonders if the people can count on God to actually come through and rescue them.
I think we have to take a hard look at ourselves for a moment. How would we have responded if we were in the Israelites’ shoes or Moses’s shoes?Do we trust God fully, even when adversity comes as a result of following Him? Or as soon as our comfort is compromised, do we run back to the safety of old habits? Are we willing to keep walking the path He calls us to even when it isn’t easy and even when it feels like His blessings have been taken from us? Have we believed the lie that anytime life gets harder, when our comforts are removed, we must have done something wrong? Or worse yet, that God must not be good if He allows us to experience suffering? We must wrestle with all these questions.
GOD RESPONDS TO THE COMPLAINTS
After all these complaints are made to God, let’s see what he has to say:
- Exodus 6:1 – Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: because of My mighty hand he will let them go; because of My mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.
First, God reiterates the promise He has already stated several times.
- Exodus 6:2-4 – God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty. I also established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners.
Next, God again ties his action back to the covenant he made with Abraham. God isn’t some new God who cannot be trusted! He is the God of their forefathers who is finally fulfilling His promise.
- Exodus 6:5 -”Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, and I have remembered My covenant.”
He makes sure to remind them why He is involving himself in their misery – He heard their groans and He remembered His promise.
- Exodus 6:6-8 – Therefore, say to the Israelites: “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.”
Do you see all the action of God described here? He will bring them, free them, redeem them, and give them. .God is telling Moses to remind them of all the good He is about o do for them. He is trying to encourage them to hold on to hope and not just return to the mess of their past life.
- Exodus 6:9 – Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor.
This verse is a terribly sad conclusion to the Lord’s message! They didn’t even want to hear what Moses had to say. They allowed their discouragement, discomfort and suffering to color all God’s work so much that they didn’t want to hear about what God was doing for them! Essentially, they decided to throw themselves a big pity party – to dig deeply into all their woes rather than hear the promises God had for them.
- Exodus 6:10-12 – Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.” But Moses said to the LORD, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?”
The Israelites come out looking pretty bad, but Moses ends this entire scene looking even worse. He is the one who has been communicating with God. He keeps hearing the plan and the promise, and then he sits here with the same complaint as back in Midian: “The Israelites won’t listen to me. Pharaoh won’t listen to me. See, it’s because I’m bad with words.” Now at NO POINT has any of this had anything to do with Moses and his speech issues – but when the wheels fall off, he immediately jumps back to his original insecurities.
What We All Have in Common
The common responses between the Israelites and Moses are that they all quickly forget who God is. They doubt that He is good and will fulfill His promise. It is crucial that we see how quickly the doubt took root and completely changed their response to God.
At the first sign of pushback – pushback that was predicted – they instantly slide into their old ways of thinking. The Israelites wish they were slaves with an easier job, and Moses feels insecure about his speech. It’s like nothing changed. Meanwhile, God is screaming at them: Just trust me! I’m Good. I’ve got a plan. I’m going to come through for you, just like I told you I would!
As we turn this story to ourselves, we have to ask, How do I respond when I hear “NO”? When my life or my experience stops going up and to the right? When things just don’t seem to go my way? The“NO” can look like rejection in a relationship or in the workplace. It can look like health issues that will completely transform our lives. At it’s most basic level, hearing “NO” leaves us with unfulfilled expectations. It’s something that brings disappointment, and often worry and fear follow.
How you respond to a “NO” in your life is rooted in what you believe about God and how deeply you hold those beliefs.
Some Christians believe that if you follow Jesus your life should always be rainbows and butterflies. Any type of difficulty or suffering shakes their faith. They are like the Israelites and want comfort rather than God’s best. So when life doesn’t go according to plan, everything they believe seems untrue. This is dangerous ground to stand on! The Bible never promises a life of perfect ease.
Other Christians tie the ups and downs of life to how pleased God is or is not wth them. They see the valleys as times when God must be mad at them, and the blessings as times when they must have done something really special. They mistakenly believe that we can fully understand what God is doing. Guess what? We can’t! We have to be willing to trust that God is working for our good, no matter what life looks like in front of our noses. There are some things we aren’t privy to see.
Mature Christians understand that everything we receive comes from God as grace. Nothing is earned. Nothing is deserved. God is kind and loving, and sometimes He blesses us for no reason we can see. Sometimes He allows us to go through fiery trials without telling us why. Regardless of what they face, mature Christians trust and stand firm on the promise that God is with them.
CONCLUSION
Here’s the big idea: Sometimes God is up to something beyond what we can begin to understand, and how he gets from A to B might be a path we could never imagine! It might be a path that creates challenges for us. What are we going to do in that situation? Will we respond with complaining and doubt? Will we allow the hardships to rock our faith? Or will we be like the Apostle Paul who said:
- Romans 5:3-4 – Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
Like the Israelites, many Christians see all suffering as terrible – something that must be avoided. We don’t see how God might redeem it. We don’t believe that God might be allowing the suffering or troubles because He has a HUGE “YES” in store for us.
Furthermore, we fail to understand Paul’s premise that suffering, sitting with the “No,” actually allows us to grow and develop. Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. We don’t have to wallow in the trials and challenges of life, throwing pity parties and feeling like God has abandoned us. In fact, our circumstances have no bearing on God’s presence in our lives. GOD IS WITH US – PERIOD! He’s not more with us when life is good and less with us when life is bad. God is for us; He is with us. His grace sometimes gives us incredible gifts for no reason; and sometimes His wisdom allows us to experience challenges.
Through all the ups and downs of your life story, God is with you in all of it. Even when your life doesn’t look like it is going up and to the right, you can trust that God has guaranteed where your life will end – with Him in paradise.
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