After Pentecost Devotional - Day 05

“God replied, 'I will be with you. And you will know that I am the one who sent you, when you worship me on this mountain after you have led my people out of Egypt.'” Exodus 3:12

We often see characters in the Bible asking God for proof. Recently in a production of “The Cotton Patch Gospel,” I watched John the Baptist demanding proof from his audience, proof of a changed life. It is not very different from people I meet in day to day life who ask for proof from God, or Gideon who demanded proof from God thrice before taking steps to follow God's instructions.

We like assurance. We want to know ahead of time what is going to happen, how it will take place. We are, after all, risk averse. We are willing to take a risk if we believe that the odds are in our favor. We designs various tests to determine when, where, what, and how to risk in order to attain a goal that lies somewhere ahead of us. It is human nature.

Here in Exodus 3, we fully expect to ask or even demand that Yahweh prove that the mission on which he was embarking would be successful. After all, going to confront the Pharaoh was no simple matter. Demanding the release of all the slaves in Egypt was a laughable proposition. No one in a right state of mind would believe that the leader of the world superpower would simply allow for a slave workforce to be liberated on the basis of a simple request.

Can you imagine me walking into the Walmart headquarters to demand $25/hour for the employees, expecting to get an audience with the decision-makers, and knowing they would comply simply because I asked nicely or said “God told me to tell you to raise your workers' pay to a base of $25/hour”? How likely would that fly? How likely would I be able to march into the headquarters of Wells Fargo to demand they stop charging overdraft fees to their poor clients and cut their relationship with predatory lenders because I said “God said so”?

Moses had no more reason to believe that he could gain audience with the Pharaoh or that the Pharaoh would listen to him. Yahweh was sending him on an impossible mission. And yet, Moses did not ask for proof. Yahweh offered it.

What kind of proof? Oh, yeah, after you have accomplished everything I am sending you to do, then you will worship me on this mountain. What?! Yes, after you have accomplished the mission, then you will have proof that I sent you.

Umm, in my book that completely violates the human call for proof. We want the proof on the front end of taking a risk. God promises it here on the back end. He wanted Moses to go forward, not on the basis of proof, but in faith that it was the right thing to do. He wanted Moses to fulfill the mission at hand in full reliance upon Yahweh's empowering him for the mission ahead.

Are you waiting for proof before tackling what needs to be done? Determine that you will act as Moses in fulfilling the mission set before you by trusting God.


"Lord, help me to trust beyond my being risk averseness, living in faith that you make what seems impossible possible."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
My latest books can be found here on amazon

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