In these times of extra-giving, His Word has been, too. And it's amazing how a Word from Him, a touch from our Lord, can change everything. Everything.
Even when nothing is different.
I'm so thankful that this same truth is TRUE. For EVERYONE. For Haiti, for His World. I'm thankful that we've got nothing else to offer but Him, no word outside of His to give.
I'm in Acts right now, but the girls and I are reading through Genesis, now Exodus, a chapter a night. We're up to Moses and the Exodus, and I NEVER realized before what a HUMAN Moses was. Completely and utterly. Down-right difficult, disrespectful, stubborn, impossible.
Here's Israel, crying out. Groaning. "God heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant, and took notice of them, and it was time to act." Exodus 2:24.
You know what it would have taken God to free His people? NOT even the flick of His wrist. One word. A whisper.
Know what He did instead? Put up with THIS complete insolence from a people-less, murderous shepherd.
But Moses said, "who am I?"
I will be with you. I will give you signs.
But Moses said, "What if they ask who you are?"
I am who I am. Go.
But Moses said, "What if they will not listen?"
I will give you signs to show them. See?
But Moses said, "I am not a good speaker."
Who made your mouth? I will tell you everything you are to say.
But Moses said, "Oh please, just send someone else.
Why in the world God didn't do exactly that and turn Moses into an ash heap...seriously. I have no idea. Even Lily and I were impatient with Moses by the end of the conversation, and we're not God of the Universe.
Not long after, Moses has the audacity to question again. "Why have you hurt your people? Why did you ever send me? You have not delivered your people at ALL."
And yet God used Moses so much that his name is in God's Word over 700 times. He faced down a King, brought an entire people out of captivity, was used for miracles. He is a father of the faith, appears with Elijah and Jesus. God led, and saved, His people by the hand of Moses.
Worked around an equally stubborn and powerless Pharaoh. Stuck with an utterly ungrateful, unfaithful people group, wandering around in circles complaining.
MAN ALIVE.
WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD HE DO that?
Why does He still?
By Deuteronomy, the Bible calls Moses a man of God. Says that the Lord knew him, face to face. He made His way known to Moses.
"Moses, the servant of the Lord, such-and-such..." A hundred times.
I don't even begin to pretend to understand our God.
But we learn who He is throughout time in His Word and in our lives, and who He IS is God of Moses. God of Jacob. God of Israel.
God who sees, God who hears, God who responds, and God who does all of that through PEOPLE. Dumb, stubborn, disrespectful, hard-hearted, slow, messin' up people.
As I read through Moses's faith journey with my children, I am finding such great HOPE.
Because it's not about who I am, or what I can do. It never was.
It was never about Moses, his shortcomings nor his steps of faith.
It was always about GOD. Who He is. What He can DO.
What He can do through me. Through you.
And as He worked, Moses went from Moses, begging God to find someone else, to Moses, the servant of the Lord.
The World is a dark and broken place. Groaning. Crying out.
And He has heard and is ready to ACT.
He could end it. Less than a flick of the wrist.
Instead, He's burning up the bushes, bending down in love, just wanting to walk with, speak to, work through and t-r-a-n-s-f-o-r-m His children...for the freedom of the captive world.
Sign me up.
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