God's Desires

"We must always remember God knows all the details."

MOSES stood before Pharaoh with his brother, Aaron, who repeated the words God had spoken. Then Pharaoh gave a belligerent, devilish reply. “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go (Exodus 5:3).” We have to remember just a few days later, his magicians imitate God’s miracles. They practiced much witchcraft.

Rabbi Meir Solaveichik points out several interesting things about God’s judgments. One, that they are all God judging specific Egyptian false gods. At that time, he says, men did not believe gods worked outside of a nation’s borders. Except for the God of the Hebrews, who was greatly feared. Of course, this is because Jehovah is a living God, and all others are man’s deluded handiwork. Secondly, the Rabbi states that Moses’ rod did not turn into a snake or serpent but the word there means “crocodile” (Exodus 7:10). Boy, does that change the image!

But, backing up, we have paragraphs of instructions to Moses and Aaron about what to say and what will happen, then we find out when they said it, it had the opposite effect. Devils or unclean spirits have no interest in obedience. It is why they sinned. They will, in fact, thumb their noses, so to speak, at divine judgment and do what they want to, which is most likely worse. We see this here in Exodus 5. Now, Israel has to make the usual quota of bricks, but they must gather their own straw in what is Pharaoh’s bizarre reasoning. “You’re making them rest from their work (verse 5).”

God did many good things through foreign Gentile kings. He did not use them like pawns to accomplish His pleasure but actually cared about their spiritual health and the health of their nations. Just read Ezekiel slowly, and listen to the Spirit. We see Gentiles mixed into Jesus’ ancestry. There is Ruth, a Moabitess. She is well-known. But many others were of mixed Hebrew and Gentile cultures. So God’s judgment of Egypt and Pharaoh’s behavior was not because he wasn’t a Hebrew. Nor because God “felt like it” and so He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He wasn’t trying to make an example of Him and yet, He is God and knew Pharaoh would be an example.

We must always remember God knows all the details, all the motives of men’s hearts (Hebrews 4:12), all the words they didn’t speak, and the future that is beyond their point-of-view. We must remember He is perfect justice, without any unfavorably slanted opinion or favoritism (Proverbs 16:11). He is mercy today, and He was mercy then. He has never NOT BEEN mercy, but His will comes to pass. No word He speaks ever fails (Isaiah 55:11). He is patience and longsuffering. These are similar words. Longsuffering implies an even temperament and patience is joyful endurance. He is also against evil having its way.

So when it came down to this pivotal point in history, He knew all the facets of it and how men would react, what they would say, and how darkness would try to keep hold of men. He’d made Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob promises about their freedom. He did not make these promises like shots in the dark nor thinking that He would have to finagle things to accomplish them. The Word of God tells us Jesus was given a body before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). His life was planned, His parents chosen, the time of it perfectly decided, and His death and Resurrection accomplished before Adam every breathed. It was done down to the slightest detail.

We read this and then relax in our involvement in God’s desires. But it isn’t that we have no choice and become lazy. Judas had a choice. Instead, it is that nothing takes God by surprise. Consider this: He is perfect fairness, and meekness and humbleness, He is incredibly gentle, though He is all-powerful, to never force anyone to do what they do not choose. Even when it is wrong. The God, who is our Father, who loved us enough to send Jesus to die for our sins and raise to life for our victory, has never changed (Malachi 3:6). There is no pressure that can force His hand. But when it comes down to timing and what must happen, He is inflexible.

He is all wisdom. But what we do not understand we reason out, taking rabbit trails into the endless brush. Proverbs 3:5 says not to lean on our own understanding. Interestingly enough, Solomon spoke those words to his son, Rehoboam, who would go on to become king and worship on every high hill and under every tree. He paid no mind to what his father, the wisest man, had failed to learn. What we know is limited. What God knows is limitless and requires us to accept it and to let go of what we just don’t see yet.

Israel cried out at their new restrictions and shook their fists in Moses’ and Aaron’s faces. “The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us (Exodus 5:21).” They would rather be slaves with less hardship than take the beginning steps God had set before them to be free. They could only SEE their hardship and not their freedom. Our vision causes us to give up and die, and then to preach acceptance of it in others. But God’s Word never fails. He is life abundantly, far exceeding what we can ever ask or think. He is also aware of our suffering and loves us whether we push forward or sit down. He never removes blessings because His mood has changed. Heaven is ours whether we live to an elderly age or not. But sometimes, what God knows of what is happening, what will happen, and of all the intricacies of our situation is best accomplished at a pace different from ours. It requires our trusting Him.

See Israel’s freedom from Egypt, that they left with great abundance, in a miraculous way. That God guided them through the desert and performed what would be a miracle far exceeding anything people remembered of Israel’s God for many years. The inhabitants of Jericho were still frightened of what God could do over 40 years later.

“And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” (Joshua 2:9-11)

What God CAN DO we can trust Him TO DO. What we need to sustain ourselves for Him to do it, we can lean on Him and receive. No matter how hard it looks to us, we have favor with Him. And that makes the difference.

“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:3-4)

“Moreover we know that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good.” (Romans 8:29, Phillips)

“If you pray to a Father who judges men by their actions without the slightest favouritism, then you should spend the time of your stay here on earth with reverent fear.” (1 Peter 1:17, Phillips)

Image by Vilius Kukanauskas from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com