When Our Obedience Makes Things Worse (Exodus 5:22)

Today’s Bible Verse: “Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?" - Exodus 5:22

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Full Transcript Below:

Hello. Thank you for listening to your daily Bible verse, the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn more about God and His will for us. I'm your host, Jennifer Slattery, and after this short word from our sponsor, we'll continue with our series titled Moses, Fearful to Faithful, with a discussion on today's Bible verse, Exodus 5:22.

Moses, Fearful to Faithful, and Exodus 5:22. Today's Bible verse is Exodus 5:22. "Moses returned to the Lord and said, Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people?Is this why you sent me?"

Have you ever sensed God asking you to do something, taking a step in obedient faith, and this caused someone else's pain? A few years ago, our family tried to help an abused youth. Desperate to help her, we contacted the authorities, but their investigation exasperated the situation and further enraged her abusers. I felt to blame for the escalation of her abuse, and I felt like God was ignoring her plight and our prayers. I was angry, and I wanted to withdraw, to stop poking at the hornet's nest, if you will.

In answer to my angry prayers, God directed me to Exodus 5, to the passage in which Moses clearly felt the same. Despite his fear and anxiety, he'd obeyed God, returned to the very place in which he'd failed prior, stepped back into the darkness of seeing his people, including his family, viciously treated, and he'd stood up to the most powerful and oppressive ruler around, only to see his people's suffering, which was already intense, increase. The Pharaoh not only refused to let the Hebrew slaves go, he ordered their slave masters to, in essence, demand from them the impossible and beat them when they failed. In verses 6-9 we read, That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and overseers in charge of the people. You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks. Let them go and gather their own straw, but require them to make the same number of bricks as before. Don't reduce the quota.

They are lazy. That is why they are crying out, let us go and sacrifice to our God. Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies. When they couldn't produce the required amount, Pharaoh's slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers. To make matters worse, Moses' people blamed him for their misery. They said to Moses and his brother, 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.

You can sense Moses' anguish in today's verse and all the unspoken questions that must have followed. Why, Lord, why did you ask me to step into this painful situation? Why did you force me to face such human suffering and then do nothing about it? You must have known what would happen. You are the I Am, the God of my forefathers, the creator who spoke to me in a burning bush, the one who said you'd heard the cries of your people. So why didn't you help them? Why did you allow this to happen?

Maybe you've been there. Maybe God asked you to make some significant parenting changes and your child rebelled. Maybe he told you to draw a firm boundary and it cost you a relationship. Maybe you've been praying for decades for someone only to see their situation grow worse. And in those seasons, when we might realize intellectually that God is loving, all powerful and good, our hearts can struggle to believe this. Our souls can become so overwhelmed with anguish and anxiety that we're unable to see past our pain. But here's the good news.

God remains with us in our weakness and despair, and he always finishes what he starts. Sometimes things do need to get worse before they get better for reasons only known to God. Sometimes we get to see the better he brings about, like Moses eventually did. But like what occurred with my family and that youth we tried to help, sometimes we don't, not for some time, maybe not until we reach heaven. Meanwhile, God asks us to trust. As I've said before, when we don't understand his hand, we must trust his heart. And when that feels near impossible, may we reflect deeply and repeatedly on Jesus's last moments on the cross.

May we remember the words of Romans 8:32. Will he not the father who willingly gave his son for us that we might live also graci