CONFIDENT HOPE DESPITE FAILURE

Moses tried to do God’s work, man’s way—and that is a recipe for disaster.  He killed one Egyptian to deliver one Hebrew in one day.  God could do so much more through yielding to His almighty hand instead of Moses taking matters into his own hands.  God’s plan was to deliver a million and a half in a matter of minutes by drowning the entire Egyptian army in the Red Sea!

Moses took A LEAP WITHOUT LOOKING.

Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.  ‎So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  ‎And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?”   Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!”  ‎When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.  (Exodus 2:11-15) 

Remember the old axiom, “Look before you leap?”  Well, Moses did look around, but he failed to look up.  He looked before he took a leap of faith—he just looked in the wrong direction and his faith was in the wrong person—his own self-sufficiency.

I’ve done that.  Have you?  It never works.  But this always does, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”  (Prov.3:5-6)

How many times we end up in a mess because we run ahead of God!

Moses needed A LABORATORY FOR LEARNING. When Moses sat down exhausted by that well, I can imagine the Devil took a seat alongside him: “Boy, did you foul up!  God is through with you.  So much for your big plans!  There is no hope for you.” 

But God would use that very desert as a discipline in Moses’ life.  The scorching wind driving stinging sand would scour the self-sufficiency from Moses and polish him into a smooth surface that would reflect the glory of God.  He would spend 40 years in a laboratory laying aside his ways and learning to lean on God’s strength.  Satan may have said, “There is no hope!”  God said, “I’ll show you!”  God’s hope never fails!

 

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  (Rom.5:3-5)

Then there came that fateful day when God called his name and restored his hope.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  ‎And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  ‎Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”  ‎So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”  Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”  Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.  And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.  So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.  Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.  ‎Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”  (Exodus 3:1-10)

Maybe today God is calling your name.  Don’t listen to the voice of failure that brands you hopeless.  Failure need not be final!  Hope in God to cleanse and restore.  A dirty vessel can be cleansed.  A cracked pot can be mended.  Nothing is too hard for the Lord!