Tuesday 12 July 2005

Now you will see

Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.” – Exodus 6v1

The ever-present problem of walking by sight instead of by faith is not a new one. Men have always found it much easier to look at the seen instead of the unseen instead of looking at the unseen. Obviously it is much easier to look at what you can see than what you can’t see.

Moses had two chooses as to what he could look at. He could look at God’s promises (the unseen) or he could look at the seen (Israel’s affliction). It was hard to miss Israel’s affliction. Things went from bad to worse. After Moses and Aaron’s demand to let the people go Pharaoh increased the workload by removing the required straw from their brick making and did not reduce the quota of bricks. Of course they could not keep up and were punished. The Hebrews chose to blame Moses and Aaron for their problems.

When Moses took the matter back to God he blamed God for sending the evil. “What are you doing such evil God? Why did you send me here?” We can find ourselves in the same dilemma at times. We can look at our efforts to serve God and wonder why God is doing the things He is doing, because we tend to look at only what we can see.

God had an answer though – “Now you will see what I will do.” God knew exactly when to work, something Moses and us do not always see. God always has a purpose in what He does. We may not see it until we get to heaven, but one day it will be all clear, one day we will see what God is doing. May we have the faith Jesus talked to Peter about that does not require seeing to believe.

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