Friday Thought – July 3, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

Have you ever gotten ahead of God? Moses did.

Moses had a heart for his own people, the people of Israel. Although he was raised in the house of Pharaoh, he never really became an Egyptian. The book of Hebrews says, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” (Hebrews 11:24) He knew who his people were and he identified with them, not with the Egyptian family that had raised him.

Exodus says, “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.” (Exodus 2:11) The Israelites were his own people and he cared enough about them to go watch what they were doing.

It seemed that God was building in Moses a heart of compassion for the plight of his people and a desire to be used by God to help them. God’s plan would not come to fruition for forty more years, but Moses was ready to get started right away. “He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2:11-12)

It seemed like the right thing to do. There was an injustice being done, an Egyptian was beating a Hebrew. Moses moved to respond to the injustice. Surely this was God’s plan?

But it wasn’t. It was Moses taking matters into his own hands. The time was not right for the Israelites to rally against Pharaoh. The Israelites weren’t ready. “The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, ‘Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?’ The man said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?’” (Exodus 2:13-14) The Israelites weren’t ready to follow Moses. They weren’t ready for God to come to their rescue. It would be another forty years before the Israelites would cry out to God to deliver them from their slavery. (Exodus 3:9)

Moses’ actions in killing the Egyptian slave driver came out of good motives. He really wanted to help. But his actions did not come out of a heart that was listening to God’s voice and following His direction. It was Moses’ plan and Moses’ action, not God’s plan and God’s action. When the time was right, when it was God’s time, Moses didn’t even have to lift a sword! God’s plan is always better than our own.

His, by Grace,

Steve