“The Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey… Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt…’
“Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go…”’ The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, ‘You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, “Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.” Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words…’
“The taskmasters were urgent, saying, ‘Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.’ And the foremen of the people of Israel… were beaten and were asked, ‘Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?’
“Moses turned to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.’ But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’” Exodus 3:7-8,10; 5:1,6-9,13-14,22-6:1
What God promises, He will do, yet so often we chafe in the gap between utterance and fulfillment, the gap that requires patient faith. We like to string the jewel of promise on our pretty necklace of circumstance and schedule, and wear it with ease and pomp. But God designs the fulfillment of His already- accomplished-in-the-heavenlies plans so that His glory is all that sparkles. An immediate release would have obscured God’s magnificence in Israel’s exodus. (Numbers 23:19; Isaiah 46:10)
When we accuse the Lord of not keeping His word, we reveal our impatience and smugness. What we really mean is, ‘You’re not performing the way I want, when I want, and my way is best.’ When we rest in His word and watch His unfolding, we can marvel at His divine hand powerfully moving in the impossible and difficult to comfort, help, teach, and build holy expectation along the way. Our God uses darkness, trouble, and pain to show off the brilliance of His deliverance, His power rather than our desert. He loves us too much to give and allow lesser things.
Am I trapped in a hardship, griping about circumstances, impatient for God to act? Will I ask God for fresh faith to trust, clear eyes to look beyond, and an attitude adjustment from complaint to anticipation?
Lord, cause me to trust implicitly all You have promised and already completed, and watch eagerly for its glorious unfolding.
As the rain and snow 