출애굽기 3장 1-12절

These verses in Exodus 3 represent the first steps in God’s great work of
deliverance for his enslaved people in Egypt. This is a beautiful story of
redemption and how God works in us and through us when we least expect it.
The same is true in our own lives. God is doing things. He’s doing things in your
life. He’s doing things in this church. He’s doing things in his world. He’s up to
amazing things!

And though God is doing amazing things in our lives, many times we can’t see
what he is doing. We see this at work in the life of Moses. It is surprising that God
would act after seeming to be absent for such a long time. To show just how
humble Moses has become, he is working for his father-in-law, far away from
Egypt, where he once was a kind of prince. Now he is tending to the flocks.

God’s timing is rarely our timing, which is why one of the most frequent cries in
the Psalms is, “How long? How long? Why not now, God? What possible reason
could you have for making this protracted suffering even longer?” Faith is at least,
in part, the ability to trust that if you knew everything God knew and if you
understood everything that God understood and if you could see everything God
sees, you would say, “That is right.” It takes faith to believe that, because our
vision is so limited and our pain can seem so long, but if we knew what God knew
and could see what God sees, we would say, “Of course! I see why things
happened the way that it did. I understand that decision. God knew what he was
doing!”
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We are reminded in this passage that God’s delays are not necessarily God’s
denials. And as we endure what seems like a long period of God’s delay, know
that it is not necessarily his denial. They had languished in Egypt for four hundred
years, but now, on this day, God would publicly call a man to go and initiate their
deliverance. And in similar ways, God will deliver us in his perfect timing when we
least expect it.

Prayer: Father God, thank you that you have a perfect plan for our lives. Even
though we can’t see you working or understand everything you do, help us to
trust in you and respond in obedience to your will. In Jesus’ name, amen.