Then 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.” (Exodus 5:22-23 ESV)
It’s not difficult to sympathise with the plight of Moses.
You felt inadequate to do the task, anyway, you asked God to let someone else do the job, you knew the people wouldn’t accept you, you’re up against the might of Egypt. So much to go against you and now this happens..
You ask Pharaoh to let God’s people go, but Pharaoh believes your people are lazy and so unreasonably, harshly and maliciously enforces even worse working conditions on the people with no respite on the output expected. When the supervisors of your people enquire they are roundly denounced for their laziness and who do they bring their complaints to? To you, of course, because it’s your fault.
So who can you go and take these issues to? Who can listen? Who can understand?
The only one who can understand is the one that sent you. The only one who can listen is the one who called you.
So no wonder in his situation, Moses took the negativity of the people that weighed heavily on him and passed it on to God. Reminding God that after all, he didn’t ask for this.
It’s commendable that Moses takes that approach. Others would have grumbled to themselves. Others would have lashed out against the people and tell them what to do with their complaints. Others would have thrown in the towel at this apparently significant setback. Others would have bottled in the frustration until it ate away inside them to their demise. Moses did none of those and neither did he mask what was going on with words of piety.
God says quite a lot and the pleasant bits of what God says are the bits that get our attention; the bits we latch onto and expect God to live up to immediately. We’re told about the promises of God like they’re gift vouchers that we cash in any time we like and should expect the good times to roll in. When it doesn’t, when instead of things getting better, things get worse, it’s understandable that we question the value of the promise. It’s understandable that we murmur, complain and grumble.
Yet when the going gets tough, it’s worthwhile adopting the Moses approach and taking the issue back to God. It may be, that, just like Moses, we forgot ALL that God said. It may be that in the hype of the delight of the response of the people to being delivered, we get hung up on the hype and don’t remember the basis for the hope.
It may be the case that as in life sometimes we forget that sometimes before things get better things has to get a little rough.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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