“When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave this land!” (Exodus 6:1)
Have you ever wondered about God’s will in your life? Maybe you pondered a new direction. Maybe you lost a loved one. Maybe you got some bad health news. There are countless moments in life where we wonder where God fits into whatever might be happening. This is not a new thing; in fact, this is exactly what we encounter in today’s readings.
Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites are all trying to find where God fits into the struggles that they are having in Egypt. This story of the Exodus starts easily enough with Moses asking Pharaoh to let the Israelites go into the wilderness for three days to hold a festival to the LORD. (Exodus 5:1) I don’t know about you, but when I think of the exodus, I think of Moses going to Pharaoh saying “Let my people go” not asking for three days off. Here we see a simple request from Moses that Pharaoh completely rejects. Not only is Moses rejected, but all the Israelites are also punished! (Exodus 5:7)
But wait a minute. Didn’t God tell Moses to go and ask for these three days off? Why did it not go the way it was planned? Because God had something bigger for the Israelites. God was not just interested in three days of freedom; God was interested in a life of freedom.
It is so easy to settle for something small, isn’t it? When I was a child, I would try to save my money for some big toy or video game, but any time I went to the store with my parents I inevitably would spend all the money I had been saving on candy or gum or baseball cards. The candy aisle always got me! I still suffer from this nearsightedness as an adult, although I have become better at keeping my eye on the goal.
In the Exodus story, God knew that the goal was not a three-day festival, but it was freedom. God knew it was going to be a journey, but often that journey is just as important as the destination. God reveals the plan in Exodus 6:1 referring to Pharoah’s eventual reaction, “When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave this land!” Here God is making a promise of deliverance and one thing that can be said of God is that God is a promise-keeper. Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites just needed to keep their eye on the prize and not get distracted in the candy aisle.
We have all been made a promise of redemption from God through the sacrifice of Jesus. And now it is up to us to love as God loved. To live as Jesus lived. And to keep our eye on the prize.
Questions for reflection:
- What is one time you wondered about God’s will in your life? How did God show up in response?
- What distracts you from receiving and living out God’s promise of redemption and reconciliation?
- What can you do in your faith walk to not get “distracted in the candy aisle?”