God Working Through Us

There are consequences when we take things into our own hands instead of waiting on God to work through us. Moses is an example for us. In his younger years, God saved him from being killed as a baby and placed him in Pharaoh’s household (Exodus 2:1-10). He was strategically positioned by God to save the Israelites, but instead Moses chose his own plan of action: When “he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren…he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (11:12, NASB).”

The consequence? Word got out about the murder and Pharaoh sought to kill Moses, but he fled to Midian. Yet God did not give up on Moses. Years later he called him as he was pasturing a flock for his father-in-law. “The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed (3:2).” It’s interesting that God called Moses only after he took note of the burning bush and Moses responded, “Here I am (3:4).”

At this point Moses is a humbler man. Yet he still faces doubts about his ability to serve God. However, he still goes to Egypt with Aaron and they follow God’s commands to call plagues on Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. The result? “The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people (11:3).”

When we wait on God and don’t take things into our own hands, we can trust it will have more impact than we can imagine. What God did in the land of Egypt was noticed not just by the Egyptians, but other lands. Years later the residents of Jericho and the surrounding area still remembered what God did and feared him:

For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath (Joshua 2:10-11).