Moses has three different audiences – God, Israel and Egypt.
This is all new to him. He has previously understood about the people that he belonged to and the people who adopted him. He was in a position of privilege, but as he discovered he was not in a position of desired influence. Years away from all that had led him to have a greater understanding of leading sheep than leading people.
Now here he was thrust in the middle of the action. And he had these three audiences to deal with. The One who called Him. The people who he was to lead and the power that he was supposed to speak to.
It had been a tussle for him to follow the One who called him. If he thought that was going to be difficult, it was a mere foretaste of what awaited him as he faced the people and the power.
The positive feedback from the people was understandable. Hearing from the God who they cried to for generations was bound to lift spirits. The trouble now was approaching the power. Moses had already been warned in advance that Pharaoh would not yield easily. Yet the reaction to the request to liberate the people was brutal and clinical in snuffing out any of those positive vibes the people had before.
With the conditions of slavery worsened after the power did not take kindly to the request to depart, now the people would turn their anger to the guy who had showed up to say things were about to get better. Moses was facing opposition from power and now he faced resistance from the people. All for just doing what he was called to do.
He was the one getting it in the neck from the various parties. He was the guy stuck in the middle having to take all this. He was not just going to roll over and accept all this from the power and the people. This was not his project and it wasn’t his idea, so the one who sent him had a lot to answer for.
To his credit, then, Moses wasn’t just going to bottle up how he felt about the setbacks, he was going to take it up with the Lord. There is no sense that Moses was totally reassured by what the Lord said, but he still went through and carried out the mission in obedience to the instructions of the Lord.
His position as a leader of the people was only in line with fulfilling the call of God on his life. He was no longer presumptuously taking matters in his own hands. He wasn’t the one running things. He was the one in the middle. The one with the experience of the Egyptian court to talk to power. the one of Hebrew stock who could talk to his people. The one who had an encounter with God and so could at least relate to Him as things developed.
Moses was ideally located as the man in the middle to get the job done. This did not guarantee him favour and positive outcomes with every development. His focus on God through it all, however, kept him on track and on mission. That focus whether people were complying or not would make a difference for all parties concerned.
You may be strategically located to face different audiences to fulfil a calling. That will not be easy. There is no guarantee of positive responses for what you do. Setbacks can lead others to doubt and ignore you. The key to completing your calling successfully is based on that commitment to be obedient to the one who called you. That obedience gives you room to give feedback to God in whatever happens. In all that, however, there must still be that commitment to see the bigger picture of the calling and the difference it will make for others and the glory it will bring to God. This obedience, indeed is the quality that marks out Jesus Christ. It’s not an obedience based on dreary obligation. It’s an obedience grounded in relationship and appreciation of just how awesome the one who called you is.
This appreciation – as Moses would discover – is something that grows over time and intentional encounters with what God is doing. The One who calls you is there with you to bring about everything He said.
It’s not always an immediate comfort when the setbacks happen, but it’s still a consolation to encourage during those tough moments when you’re stuck in the middle.
(Photo by Erik Witsoe on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 