Trusting God to Work
“Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee;” (Exodus 3:9-12)
After Moses killed the Egyptian and fled, he may have abandoned the idea of God using him to deliver Israel from bondage. God had not. He would use Moses, but not in the way Moses may have expected.
When God said He would send Moses to Pharaoh, He did not tell Moses all that would happen. He did not talk about Pharaoh making things worse, or about Moses’ rod turning into a serpent, or water turning to blood, or frogs or lice or the other plagues. He did say, “Certainly I will be with thee;” Moses didn’t need to know the whole plan. He only needed to know that God was with him.
A similar event happened during Jesus’ ministry. Near a water pool in Jerusalem “..lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” (John 5:3-4)
Jesus asked a man at the pool who had been infirm thirty-eight years, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (John 5:6) The man said, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” (John 5:7) He obviously thought the only way to be healed was by the pool. Yet Jesus, as God, didn’t need the pool. He said, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked:” (John 5:8-9)
As believers in Christ, we can trust God to work, even if we don’t know how He will do it. Our part is to do what He says and to trust in Him to do what we cannot do. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” (“Trust and Obey,” James H. Sammis, Daniel B. Towner)
America has some common ground with Israel. We see God’s hand in our history. We saw our founders had “… a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” as the Declaration of Independence says, to win victory over England. We saw God’s painful chastisement in the Civil War for the evils of slavery. No doubt we can find many other instances of God’s hand on our nation.
Yet like Israel, America has its troubles. The biggest is sin. Not just various sexual sins, although they are a problem. Liquor, tobacco, gambling, and pornography are all big money, sinful industries. What can a Christian do, besides obviously not financing any of them?
We can share the gospel. Pray. Strive to live right. Speak against sin. We don’t know what God will do. We do know that when God’s word goes out, “…it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please,” (Isaiah 55:11) We also know that “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16) Never underestimate the power of God’s word or the power of prayer.
God’s biggest priority for people in America is the same for people everywhere else: that they have eternal life. If you want to see from the Bible how to have forgiveness of your sins and eternal life by receiving Jesus, God the Son, as your personal Saviour, please go to www.clevelandbaptist.org, click “Helpful Links,” then “How Do I Go to Heaven?”
Brian Miller 12/1/2023
Cleveland Baptist Church 4431 Tiedeman Road, Brooklyn, Ohio 44144 216/671-2822