Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Have you ever prayed about a difficult situation, and the more you prayed and "obeyed" the worse it got? If your answer is No, then welcome to always-sunny skies. But some of us have met the storms that Moses met. For 40 years he had prayed for God to deliver his people Israel from slavery in Egypt, and nothing had happened. Finally the Lord met him at the burning bush and commissioned him to go back to Egypt and deliver them. "Face the king and demand emancipation for My people." The story is in Exodus 4, 5.
So, what happens? A miracle? Pharaoh suddenly collapses in front of Moses and says, "Let them go!"? No, far from it; the more Moses demands freedom, the meaner Pharaoh becomes, and in a fit of anger he actually makes their slavery worse, doubling their workloads.
The irate Israelite "officers" meet Moses and chew him out: "The Lord will ... punish you for making the king and his officers hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us" (5:21, GNB). Sunny skies? Not for Moses! His own people resent him for doing exactly what God has told him to do. The more he prays and "obeys," the worse the situation becomes.
Moses has asked God for a piece of "bread," and it looks like the opposite of what Jesus promises: God has given him "a scorpion" or "a stone."
What about your prayers when things get worse? (1) Don't go off in a huff and give up on the Lord. Moses did the right thing and so should you. The next verse says, "Then Moses turned to the Lord again" and laid the problem out before Him. "Ever since I went to the king to speak for You, he has treated them cruelly. And You [God] have done nothing to help them!" (vs. 23). (2) Next, listen to what God tells you then. "He that cometh to God must believe" (a) that "He is," and (b) that "He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6).
Thank God, we can learn from Moses!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 8, 1999.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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