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Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.”
Exodus 5:22–23 NASB
Moses asked God the question we all would ask in his position, and the start of the Torah reading וארא Va’era (“I appeared,” Exodus 6:2–9:35) is God’s reply to Moses’ question. God is responding to Moses in a similar manner that He answered Job. God knows what He is doing. We can’t comprehend His plan or how we fit into His plans for the world.
Moses’ faith is interesting. It changes over time, and our faith also changes over time as we experience the world and experience God more. The difficulties and struggles we face are tools that God uses to increase our faith.
Moses is a messianic figure. This is a fact well known in both Jewish and Christian sources. A messianic figure is someone whose life story points to some part of the Messiah’s mission.
What is Moses’ gospel message?
- Forgiveness of sin: God’s response to our repentance
- Justification: Payment for sin
- Sanctification: Setting yourself apart from the old ways
Jeremiah 3 tells us how God responds to repentance and how He forgives.
And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
“Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not be angry forever.
“‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD.
“‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; ‘For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.’”
Jeremiah 3:11–14 NASB
Moses was in charge of God’s house and was faithful in his stewardship of God’s house, but Messiah is the owner of the house.
Moses is a dynamic character, he changed as his faith wavered and grew. It’s not enough to read Moses’ message, we need to apply it and practice it. Moses’ faith starts early. Although he was raised as a prince of Egypt, he was also raised by his parents as a Hebrew.
Jewish tradition records that Moses grew up to be a military leader in Egypt and they were preparing him for a greater role in the Egyptian monarchy, but Moses’ threw all that away. Moses was not raised as a slave so he had little practical experience as a slave, yet he preferred to be a part of their community, which the world would have considered worthless rather than to live as a high ranking member of the Egyptian royal family.
After he killed the Egyptian man, he fled Egypt and by all accounts, he didn’t look back. The fact that Moses threw his lot with his biological family rather than his adopted family and the fact that he fled being charged with a crime are actions we can related to and would consider reasonable. These are small acts of faith on Moses’ part but God didn’t leave Moses there.
After Moses reached Midian, God starts to stretch Moses’ faith out of his own comfort zone. This stretching of Moses’ faith started at the burning bush, but God continued stretching Moses faith as he had to convince the elders of Israel that he was on a mission from God to free them from slavery to Egypt. The miracles were not the key proofs of God’s anointing on Moses, after all, the magicians could perform some of those, too.
The only way Moses could prove that God sent is his own belief in God’s anointing on him. If Moses didn’t believe God sent him, there would be no way he could convince others that he was sent by God. As we read in this Torah portion, the children of Israel didn’t initially believe in Moses’ mission.
Hope deferred crushes the heart, and the children of Israel had yearned for liberation for so long that when the deliverer came, they didn’t believe in it anymore. Not only did the children of Israel believe, Pharaoh did not believe either.
Opposition to messianic figures foreshadows hatred of the Messiah
All Messianic figures face opposition. Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) had the same reception when He came. Some people believed in Him, but most of the Jewish people did not believe in Him. There were those who believed in Moses and Yeshua, but the majority resisted them.
The people believed, rejoiced, and worshiped because they saw the signs, but did they love the Lord? No, for later on these same people would die in the wilderness because of their unbelief. Similarly, when Jesus did signs before the people, they believed; however, He would not commit Himself to them, for they did not love Him.
Orthodox Study Bible note on Ex. 4:30-31
When there is resistance, there is also opposition. They go hand in hand. The main resistance and opposition Moses faced was not among the children of Israel or Pharaoh, but the magicians of Pharaoh’s court. The magicians knew that their power and status came from the demonic world while Moses’ power came from the Creator of Heaven and Earth. That’s why they were so opposed to Moses and encouraged Pharaoh’s opposition to Moses, too.
God stretches our faith because our faith needs to be deep and strong, not shallow and weak. Moses grew as he went through his life. God stretched his faith so that when he faced resistance from Pharaoh’s magicians, rather than fleeing from them as he did before, he stood up to them and set himself on the mission God sent him to accomplish.
Our struggles explain where we come from and help us reach our destination.
Summary: Tammy