Moses and Aaron had been to the people of Israel and told them of God's concern for them and His plan for their deliverance. They had been to Pharaoh demand freedom for the Israelites, but Pharoahs are not easily intimidated and his response was to increase the hardship and cruelty to the Israelites.
This is a huge setback for Moses and the people of Israel. It causes Moses to doubt himself and his calling. Instead of making a big impression as Israel's liberator, Moses gets the blame for rocking the boat and kicking the hornet's nest!
But what Moses does right is that he takes his doubts to the right place. He takes his complaint to God.
Even when we are serving God and giving Him our best, things can go wrong. We wrongly assume that serving God is our guarantee for an easy road. This isn't always so. There are often hiccups and setbacks. Sometimes they come from our own imperfections, sometimes from the shortcomings of others, sometimes there is opposition from the evil one and at other times it is simply the brokenness of this fallen world.
When these things happen, it is not unusual for us to feel like Moses. "What are You doing Lord? What did I do to deserve this?" We are not the only ones who have felt like this and we will not be the last.
The comforting thing is that God carried Moses through the "dark night of the soul" and He will carry us. As Moses had to learn to trust God through the vagaries of Pharaoh's hardness of heart, so we must learn to navigate the swamps of setbacks and discouragement.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
