The Business of Being Sent

"Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."   - Ex. 3:10

The word of God to Moses as he stood there on his bare feet in the sands of Midian was something surprising.  Moses is not seeking this encounter with God when he happens upon this burning bush.  He is engaged with the duty of looking after his father-in-law's flock.  Moses though wasn't about to take this news as something sad.  Indeed some 40 years prior he saw firsthand the oppression of his own people and tried to alleviate some of the oppression and deliver his own race by killing an Egyptian.  Moses would have most definitely received such a word of deliverance for his own people from the Egyptians as great news.  And now to think he would be involved in it.  

It seems simple.  All he has to do is go to Pharaoh and bring these people out of Egypt.  This one verse gives the objective of God's design.  It is very simple.  Or is it?  In just 20 words (fewer in the original language) God lays out this design of His, and yet it is far more weighty than we might think.  Moses has no clue of the when of this.  He has no clue as to what Pharaoh's response will be like.  He has no clue as to the difficulty of leading these people.  He has no definitive instruction on how long he will lead them and to where they will go.  He doesn't at this stage know just how God will bring them out.  He doesn't know the ensuing crossing of the Red Sea as a result of their exodus. 

This has ever been the conundrum in which we as humans find ourselves.  God lays out a plan.  We stand firm in conviction that it will be every bit as He said.  But then there comes a time in which we have to face the unspoken details of His design.  But there is something to be learned from guys like Moses who went before us.  He eventually learned and saw the 10 plagues.  He eventually saw and dealt with the obstinate heart of Pharaoh.  He eventually saw and dealt with the opposition of his own people as they journeyed.  He eventually learned where they were going.  

We think we would rather read this story and see God lay it out all at once, but He didn't do that.  He gives us the big picture, but no insight into details of this one early on.  That came though, over time.  The reasons for this are endless.  I'd briefly conclude that God's purpose for not showing all at once is: 1) for the development of our faith, 2) to surprise us and cause awe to fill our hearts when in His perfect timing He does what we never imagined.   

And so again my resolve is no less to plant the gospel here in Lee's Summit and watch God establish a church.  My heart has been burdened as such.  It was to this end that God moved us here.  Since then though He hasn't revealed a lot, but still I find: 1) Every day I depend upon Him and my faith is growing, 2) He is surprising us and causing us awe as we see things that He does as we go.  We press on in hope.  God spoke to my heart and convinced me to move here to Lee's Summit.  But rather than get down and worry about people, provision, a place to meet, souls to be won, when, how, where it will all transpire, I find myself rather saying, "I have all I need for now and in His timing He will unveil more, and so I will just keep on doing as He convicts my heart."

So press on believer.  Christ is coming back.  I don't know when, and in the meantime I don't know all the details of what this world, your life, my life will look like.  But I know He is coming back.  Let's help people get ready and get right with God through Jesus Christ.