Lessons #05 and 06
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Is everything against you?
(Intricacies of Outworking of Plan of God)
OUTWORKING OF GOD’S PLAN IN MOSES’S LIFE
We are continuing with our study concerning the intricacies of the outworking of God’s plan. However, as we stated in the introduction, I have given it a title in a question form: “Is everything against you?” Again, this is primarily because it is our goal to ensure that you will avoid such a question when you face one unpleasant event after another in your life. You will not say this because you understand the intricacies of the outworking of God’s plan as revealed in the Scripture. We indicated that there are three propositions to focus on in this study that help to expound on the intricacies of the outworking of God’s plan. The first proposition we stated is that we generally do not know what the outcome of God’s plan is as events unfold in our lives, but He does. The second is that the working out of God’s plan may appear messy that may lead us to think that everything is against us. The third is God’s plan usually involves events that to us may appear unrelated to each other in accomplishing His plan for us but not to Him.
We ended our last study as we were considering the outworking of God’s plan in Moses’ life, specifically with messy or unpleasant events that were part of God’s plan that concerned him but that unfolded even before his birth, as an illustration of the second proposition. The first event we considered concerned oppression and hatred of the Israelites by the Egyptians inflamed by the Pharaoh that the Lord raised up prior to the birth of Moses. So, we proceed with a second event related to the first.
A second event is Pharaoh’s instruction to kill at birth all the male babies of the Israelites. The instruction was first given to Hebrew midwives, as we read in Exodus 1:15–19:
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
We have noted that the hatred of the Israelites by the Egyptians was orchestrated by God in outworking of His plan for Israel. Thus, we can deduce that even this instruction of Pharaoh to Hebrew midwives is part of the outworking of God’s plan that involves Moses although he was not yet born at the time of this incident. The reason we can deduce what we said is because Pharaoh’s instruction is the quintessence of human hatred. Hatred could be classified as passive or active. Passive hatred is that resentment of an individual that is confined primarily in the mind of the one who hates. Another way of stating passive hatred is the bearing of grudge against someone as that sin that is forbidden in Leviticus 19:17:
“‘Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
The idea of hating a brother in one’s heart may be understood to mean bearing grudge against the individual. Thus, a person who has passive hate carries that hatred in the mind and may never express it in an action that hurts the object of hatred. On the contrary, active hatred involves an action that is intended to harm the object of hatred. A person who is involved in active hatred seeks to inflict pain on the object of hatred but the uttermost a person could do to an object of hatred is killing the person. When there is killing of another human being due to hatred that killing is to be treated differently from an unintentional killing. In this country, we hear of what is described in the law as “hate-crime.” Some think that such a law does not make sense but that killing due to hate should be treated the same way as every other killing. I do not know if those who enacted such a law base it on understanding of the Scripture, but they are correct because the Lord gave special instruction of dealing with those who kill out of hate. In Israel, when a person kills another unintentionally, the person was to flee to a city of refugee as instructed in Deuteronomy 19:1–5:
1 When the LORD your God has destroyed the nations whose land he is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their towns and houses, 2 then set aside for yourselves three cities centrally located in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 3 Build roads to them and divide into three parts the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that anyone who kills a man may flee there. 4 This is the rule concerning the man who kills another and flees there to save his life—one who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without malice aforethought. 5 For instance, a man may go into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and as he swings his ax to fell a tree, the head may fly off and hit his neighbor and kill him. That man may flee to one of these cities and save his life.
The instruction given in this passage implies that there should be protection for unintentional killing, but such protection should be denied to a person who kills another out of hate, as stated in Deuteronomy 19:11–13:
11 But if a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, assaults and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, 12 the elders of his town shall send for him, bring him back from the city, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. 13 Show him no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.
People do not realize that shedding of blood whether intentional or not, pollutes a land if the murderer is not punished by paying for it through death penalty or some serious punishment in case of unintentional killing but that is the case as stated in Numbers 35:33:
“‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Polluting of the land of Israel meant to render it ritually unfit for God to dwell in the land among His people. This will suggest more violence in the land. This aside, the instruction of Pharaoh to Hebrew midwives is an example of active hatred in that he wanted all boys born to the Israelites to be killed. God also worked in the midwives so that they defied the king’s order. This then led to extension of the decree of killing of Hebrew baby boys by throwing them in the Nile, as we read in Exodus 1:22:
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
We will return to this passage shortly. Meanwhile, as unpleasant, or messy as Pharaoh’s instruction was, we contend that it is part of the outworking of plan of God as it relates to Moses even before his birth as we will note when we consider the application of the third proposition to Moses.
The events we mentioned so far demonstrate the second proposition that the working out of God’s plan may appear messy that may lead us to think that everything is against us. However, in the case of the plan of God for Moses to be the agent of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt, God added series of messy events in form of plagues. The messiest event that led to Moses fulfilling his function of freeing Israel from bondage is the last plague of the death of the firstborn in Egypt as that was what finally forced Pharaoh to let Israel leave Egypt, as we read in Exodus 12:29–31:
29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. 31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.
Anyway, we have demonstrated the second proposition as it applies to Moses even before his birth an after it so we proceed to the applicability of the third proposition.
The third proposition we stated in connection with the intricacies of the outworking of God’s plan, if you recall, is that God’s plan usually involves events that to us may appear unrelated to each other in accomplishing His plan for us but not to Him. We are concerned about the demonstration of this proposition in the life of Moses. Therefore, we will examine some events in his life that confirm this third proposition we restated. The first event that may appear unrelated to God’s plan for Moses to function as the agent of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt is a decree that Pharaoh issued even before his birth that we cited previously, that is, Pharaoh’s decree to kill the Hebrew babies who are male by throwing them into the Nile as stated in the passage we cited previously, that is, Exodus 1:22:
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
This decree was different from that given to the Hebrew midwives of killing boys at the birthstool. If this decree of Pharaoh was not issued, then what transpired in the life of Moses would have been impossible. In effect, if this decree did not exist at the time of the birth of Moses there would have been no need to preserve him in the way his family did as we will note shortly. The point is that this decree to kill the Israelite baby boys by throwing them in the Nile prepared the way for what unfolded in the life of Moses. So, we are saying that the decree to throw the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile is the first event that seemed unconnected with God’s plan for Moses, but it is, as the events that unfolded reveal.
The second event that may appear unrelated to God’s plan for Moses to function as the agent of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt is the birth of Moses in the time when Pharaoh’s decree to kill Hebrew baby boys at birth by throwing them into the Nile was issued. If Moses was born at the time the decree was only to the Hebrew midwives, we will not have the narrative of Moses as we have it in the Scripture since he would not have been raised in the Royal palace of Egypt. That aside, we have the record of Moses’ birth and his family’s effort to preserve him as described in Exodus 2:1–4:
1Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
The clause of verse 2 When she saw that he was a fine child should be understood that Moses’ mother perceived something more than the physical. Therefore, we contend that God enabled Moses’ mother to perceive that there is something special about the child she had given birth. The point is that God worked in Moses’ mother so that in a visionary manner she perceived that she had given birth to a special child who no doubt was also physically attractive, but the emphasis was on the fact that Moses was a special child. The God who is sovereignly in control of all things and who works out His plan in human history acted in a way on Moses’ mother to help her perceive that she had given birth to a special child. Our interpretation is indeed correct because the Holy Spirit affirmed this fact first through Stephen in his sermon when he described Moses as not being an ordinary child in Acts 7:20:
“At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit through the human author of Hebrews affirmed clearly that Moses’ parents perceived he was a special child, as we read in Hebrews 11:23:
By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
This recognition that Moses was a special child was in a sense the beginning of God’s preservation of Moses for use as His special agent of deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt. It is because God was working out His plan that Moses’ mother devised the scheme of how to preserve him by placing him in a basket so that the sister could watch what would happen to him. If the decree of Pharaoh did not include killing the Hebrew baby boys by throwing them in the Nile, his mother would not have gone the length she did to place Moses at the bank of the Nile. Her scheme led to the third event described in the second chapter of Exodus.
The third event that may appear unrelated to God’s plan for Moses to function as the agent of His deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt is Pharaoh’s daughter finding and having pity on the baby Moses, as recorded in Exodus 2:5–6:
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.
You see, without the decree of Pharaoh to kill Hebrew baby boys by throwing them into the Nile, Pharaoh’s daughter would not have recognized baby Moses as a Hebrew. Baby Moses was not eaten by an alligator or a crocodile because God’s plan for him was unfolding. Therefore, God worked out His plan so that it was not Pharaoh himself that found Moses but his daughter. Fathers are usually fond of their daughters that they often bend backwards to accommodate them. Thus, in God’s plan, it had to be Pharaoh’s daughter that found Moses. Her founding of Moses led to the fourth event that illustrates the third proposition we are considering.
The fourth event that may appear unrelated to God’s plan for Moses to function as the agent of His deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt is the dual upbringing of Moses as narrated to us in Exodus 2:8–10:
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. And the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
The dual upbringing of Moses was part of God’s plan for him to accomplish His plan for him. The fact that Moses was raised by the mother meant that he was instilled the truth about his true identity as a Hebrew. His understanding of his identity was necessary for him to carry out God’s plan for him in that as he grew older, he identified himself with his people instead of the Egyptians that were his adopted people, as we read in Hebrews 11:24–25:
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
It is the upbringing of Moses by the mother that enabled him to recognize that although he was brought up in the royal family of Egypt that he was not an Egyptian but a Hebrew. Unless Moses understood this truth, he would not have led Israel out of Egypt. Anyway, Moses’ upbringing as a member of the royal family of Egypt was necessary for him to accomplish God’s plan for him as it relates to delivering Israel out of Egypt. His upbringing gave him a first-class education so he learned a part of the necessary skills that he would use in leading Israel in the desert. That Moses received first-class education that served him later in his life’s work of being Israel’s leader is mentioned by the Holy Spirit through Stephen in his sermon, as we read in Acts 7:22:
Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
The upbringing of Moses in the royal palace of Egypt was part of God’s plan for him to be able to carry out God’s plan for him to be the agent of Israel’s deliverance. It is his background in the royal family that God used in the various times He instructed Moses to confront Pharaoh of the time of exodus while he was going to take a bath or to perform some ritual to his god in the Nile. Take for example, the instruction the Lord gave to Moses in Exodus 7:14–15:
14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.
It is doubtful that any other Israelite would have known the time that Pharaoh went to Nile in the morning for bath or religious ceremony or the part of the Nile that was frequented by the Pharaohs. However, because Moses was brought up in the royal palace, he knew the approximate time that Pharaoh went to the Nile in the morning. Thus, when the Lord instructed Moses to meet Pharaoh at the bank of the Nile, he knew the time he was to do so and the place in the bank to station himself. Again, he would not have known the approximate time or location on the bank of Nile that Pharaoh would have gone in the morning except that he was brought up in the royal palace. It is possible that Moses as a boy would have accompanied either his adopted mother or his adopted grandfather, Pharaoh, to the Nile. If so, he knew the location that the Pharaohs went for their morning ritual at the Nile. Thus, his upbringing in the royal palace that might have seemed unconnected with God’s plan for Moses to be His agent of Israel’s deliverance in Egypt is indeed connected with God’s plan. The upbringing of Moses in royal palace of Egypt would not have happened if Pharaoh had not decreed the killing of Hebrew baby boys by throwing them in the Nile. Thus, although the decree of Pharaoh did not at first appear to be related to God’s plan for Moses but because of the relevance of Moses being brought up in the royal palace to the function God assigned him, we can see how what seemed unconnected with God’s plan for Moses is indeed connected to it. By the way, we should recognize that God’s plan for Israel included Egyptian Pharaohs. Joseph was brought to a Pharaoh through his interpretation of dream while Moses was brought to a Pharaoh through adoption.
The fifth event that may appear unrelated to God’s plan for Moses to function as the agent of His deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt is Moses’ killing of an Egyptian followed by his rejection by a fellow Hebrew. It is this event that is given in Exodus 2:11–14:
11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. 12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” 14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
Moses’ upbringing by his real parents, as we have noted, left him with the understanding of his identity as a Hebrew. So, it is because of his upbringing that he realized that the Egyptians were oppressing his people. Furthermore, the Lord must have worked in him in such a way that he had the sense that he could help his people in a little way of killing an Egyptian but that was not the way God’s plan through him was to play out. Killing is messy but it is part of God’s plan that was necessary to bring Moses to where the Lord wants in order to unfold His plan to him in a more direct manner than He did with Joseph. We are saying that although the killing of an Egyptian is messy, it was still part of God’s plan for Moses to accomplish His plan for him. For without this killing of the Egyptian, the next event would not have happened. By the way, the rejection of Moses by a Hebrew was a prelude of how the Israelites would blame him when things did not go well so that we can say that such rejection is to prepare him for what laid ahead of him as he carried out God’s plan of freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Anyway, the fifth event that may appear unrelated to God’s plan for Moses to function as the agent of His deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt is Moses’ killing of an Egyptian followed by his rejection by a fellow Hebrew. It is this fifth event that paved the way for the sixth.
The sixth event that may appear unrelated to God’s plan for Moses to function as the agent of His deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt is his flight to Midian. This event together with what happened to him once he got there is narrated in Exodus 2:15–22:
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. 16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?” 19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.” 20 “And where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.” 21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become an alien in a foreign land.”
Moses’ flight to Midian is intended to advance God’s plan for him to carry out the function of deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt and to help set up the religious life of Israel. In other words, God’s plan includes Moses being a military and a spiritual leader of Israel. In effect, he was to serve as a priest to Israel. It is often not recognized that Moses was a priest but he was as we may learn from Psalm 99:6:
Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel was among those who called on his name; they called on the LORD and he answered them.
Moses while in Egypt did not know that he would serve as a priest to God. Furthermore, he did not interact with any true priest of God while in Egypt since the priests he would have heard of were those of the pagan gods of the Egyptians. Consequently, he would not have known what a true priest of God does. To ensure that Moses understood what a true priest of the God of creation does, God sent him to observe Jethro who certainly was a true priest of God. We know he was a true priest of God because he praised God and offered sacrifice to Him in the time of Israel’s exodus, as we read in Exodus 18:9–12:
9 Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the LORD had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. 10 He said, “Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.
Hence, there should be no doubt that Jethro, the Midian priest, was indeed a true priest of God. That aside, we are sure that if Moses had stayed in Egypt he would not have known a true priest of God. Thus, his flight to Midian was included as part of God’s plan for Moses to learn about what a priest does although fuller understanding of a priest’s function would be communicated to him directly by God. Again, without Moses killing an Egyptian, he would not have left Egypt; so, while killing of an Egyptian is a messy event that does not appear to be connected to God’s plan for Moses’ function as both Israel’s military and spiritual leader, but it is, because of what we have said about Moses’ learning what a priest did from his father in law, Jethro. Think about it for a moment. Why did God not send Moses to any other family in Midian? I submit to you that the answer is that God’s plan required for Moses to be exposed to a true priest of God.
Another reason the Lord sent Moses to Midian via the messy event of killing an Egyptian is to prepare him for the kind of leadership skill he would need to shepherd Israel. It is true that Moses had sound education in Egypt, but he probably would not have had the opportunity of leading people so as to gain the experience of leadership that would be necessary to lead Israel in the desert. God provided him this kind of experience by his function as a shepherd, something he would not have done in Egypt since he was an adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. It is probably that the Holy Spirit wanted us to connect Moses’ stay in Midian and his training as a shepherd that before the Lord spoke to him, we are informed that he was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law, as we read in Exodus 3:1–6:
1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
As we stated previously, Moses was brought up in a privileged position that did not include the occupation of shepherding flock since it is unlikely that one raised in the royal palace of Egypt would have been involved in such a task, knowing the attitude of the Egyptians to shepherds, as we may gather from Genesis 46:34:
you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”
Therefore, God included in His plan for Moses to gain experience as a shepherd that he needed to carry out God’s plan for him. A shepherd had the function of leading, feeding, watering, and protecting the flock. These functions require patience and continuous determination to carry them out. Moses was going to be a leader of a people who would, like sheep, want to go astray at every turn of the way. So, the Lord had to prepare him to be a shepherd, to gain the experience of leading animals that often have no sense of direction and to learn the lesson of the importance of patience as that is an important quality a good leader of a people must have. By the way, it is interesting that the greatest king of Israel, David, was prepared to be a leader through similar experience of shepherding flock as we can gather from Psalm 78:70–72:
70He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; 71from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. 72And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
David’s experience as a shepherd enabled him to develop the attitude of trusting the Lord to do that which is difficult. It is because of his experience as a shepherd who rescued his sheep from wild animals that enabled him to have confidence in the Lord to deliver him from the head of Goliath, as he stated in 1 Samuel 17:34–37:
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”
David’s experience of caring for the sheep prepared him to be a good leader of Israel so that we can say that God qualified him first as a shepherd of sheep before making him shepherd of Israel. This was true of Moses. That aside, there was no way Moses would have acquired the experience of shepherding of livestock if the Lord took him straight from the royal background into being a leader of Israel. No! The Lord had to prepare him to be a leader of his people by training him with the occupation of a shepherd. So, you see, that the killing of an Egyptian by Moses was part of God’s plan to send him to Midian to prepare him to be a leader of Israel by gaining experience shepherding flock. The point is that although the messy event of killing of an Egyptian by Moses and consequent flight to Midian seemed to be unconnected with God’s plan for Moses to be the agent of Israel’s deliverer from slavery in Egypt, but it is, as we have noted.
We have been applying to Moses the three propositions that help to expound the intricacies of the outworking of God’s plan. However, like Jacob and Joseph, Moses still expressed the sentiment that Jacob stated in the sentence of Genesis 42:36 Everything is against me. Jacob and Joseph did not know directly what God’s plan for them was regarding His preservation of Israel in Egypt. For sure, Jacob knew the overall plan of God for him and his descendants, but he did not know how that plan was concerned with losing temporarily his son Joseph and Simeon. Moses knew that God’s plan for him was to be the agent of Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt but that did not keep him from having the same sentiment as Jacob and Joseph. In effect, Moses as he was executing God’s plan for him in Egypt, he had the sense that everything was against him when things did not go smoothly as he thought. His sentiment of everything being against him is conveyed in his complaint to the Lord after he first went to Pharaoh to deliver God’s message to him. The message he delivered to Pharaoh instead of leading to Israel being freed, made their suffering in Egypt worse. Pharaoh intensified the suffering of the Israelites by making their work harder on them in that he demanded the Israelite brick makers to produce the same quantity of bricks as they did when they were supplied with straw as when they were to fend for straw. Add to this, the Israelite foremen who unsuccessfully went to Pharaoh to plead for lightening their load complained and blamed Moses, as we read in Exodus 5:20–21:
20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, 21 and they said, “May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Consequently, Moses felt that everything was going against him, leading to his complaint to the Lord, as recorded in Exodus 5:22–23:
22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”
Moses recognized that the Lord is sovereignly in control of all things that is why he asked the Lord in verse 22 O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Bear in mind that it was Pharaoh who made the life of the Israelites difficult by changing their working condition of requiring them to meet the same daily quota of bricks without supplying the straw needed. Nonetheless, Moses did not credit Pharaoh with bringing trouble to the Israelites in verse 22. Of course, he later credited Pharaoh with bringing trouble to the Israelites in verse 23 he has brought trouble upon this people. You may say that Moses was confused that is the reason he seemed to have contradicted himself. No! He recognized that Pharaoh was the agent of the Lord in bringing trouble to Israel. Moses recognized that although God could directly bring hardship but that He used an agent, Pharaoh. Thus, Moses recognize that while the Lord is absolutely in control, He often uses human agents to bring about His purpose. No human being can do anything unless the Lord sanctions whatever it is. It is this reality that Moses recognized when he complained of the trouble Pharaoh has brought to bear on the Israelites. In effect, Moses recognized Pharaoh as immediate cause of Israel’s trouble but that the Lord is the ultimate cause. The point is that Moses felt that everything was against him because of the worsening working condition of the Israelites and their blaming him for it. To him, God was not acting fast enough as he stated in the last sentence of verse 23 and you have not rescued your people at all. Of course, because of how things were stacking against Moses, he forgot that he had not performed any miracles before Pharaoh as the Lord had instructed him, and that the Lord told him he would render Pharaoh stubborn as we read in Exodus 4:21–23:
21 The LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”
Anyway, we should be mindful that regardless of how messy things appear, God’s plan is still working out for us. This truth is even evident in how God worked out His plan for Saul. It was God’s plan for Saul to be the first king of Israel, but He used messy event to bring this about. The event the Lord used in anointing Saul king of Israel is the missing of the donkeys of his father and his being assigned to find them, as we read in 1 Samuel 9:3–4:
3 Now the donkeys belonging to Saul’s father Kish were lost, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys.” 4 So he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and through the area around Shalisha, but they did not find them. They went on into the district of Shaalim, but the donkeys were not there. Then he passed through the territory of Benjamin, but they did not find them.
Although Saul proposed returning to his father since their search for the animal was unsuccessful, God worked in his father’s servant to suggest going to Prophet Samuel, as in 1 Samuel 9:5–6:
5 When they reached the district of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, “Come, let’s go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us.” 6 But the servant replied, “Look, in this town there is a man of God; he is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let’s go there now. Perhaps he will tell us what way to take.”
The suggestion of the servant that went with Saul to look for the missing donkeys is included in God’s plan to get Saul to Prophet Samuel to anoint him king. This truth is confirmed from God’s message to the prophet in 1 Samuel 9:15–17:
15 Now the day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed this to Samuel: 16 “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him leader over my people Israel; he will deliver my people from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me.” 17 When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, “This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people.”
You should note that the Lord said in verse 16 About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. The Lord sent Saul via the missing donkeys. In effect, it may not appear that a missing donkey has anything to do with anointing Saul as king of Israel, but it is since the Lord is responsible for causing the donkeys to go astray until God’s purpose of sending Saul to Samuel had been accomplished. Thus, it should be clear that God used a messy event to bring about His plan for Saul.
We considered in considerable detail the three prepositions that help us to expound on the intricacies of the outworking of God’s plan. So, I return to the original goal of this study which is to help all of us to put in proper perspective the events that happen to us as God unfolds His plan for us. Recall, that our aim is that through this study none of us should ever express the sentiment of Jacob in the words of Genesis 42:36 Everything is against me when we face one unpleasant event after another in our lives because we understand the three propositions that we have considered. Let me review them before we conclude our study. The first proposition we stated is that we generally do not know what the outcome of God’s plan is as events unfold in our lives, but He does. The second is the working out of God’s plan may appear messy that may lead us to think that everything is against us. The third is God’s plan usually involves events that to us may appear unrelated to each other in accomplishing His plan for us but not to Him.
How can a believer ensure that when faced with one painful event after another that the individual would not say that everything is against the person, you may ask? Well, it begins by recollecting the command of the Lord that requires you to recognize that He is sovereignly in control of all events of this life, as we read in Psalm 46:10:
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Many claim the command Be still, and know that I am God as a promise to act reverentially and to meditate on God’s blessings. This is not what the command means. This is firstly, because of the context that describes what God does, including stopping wars and bringing disaster on the planet. Secondly, the expression “be still” is translated from a Hebrew word (rāp̄āh) that has several meanings such as “to sink” or “to relax.” But in Psalm 46:10 it means “to cease, be inactive” or “to stop” or to desist” as reflected in some of our English versions. The context of Psalm 46:10 indicates that the command addressed to Israel should be understood as a command to Israel to stop entering into military alliances with other nations or to stop resisting God and recognize that He is in control of everything, including all military conflicts. It is because of this understanding that some English versions translate the Hebrew command to reflect cessation of hostility, as for example, the TEV renders it Stop fighting, Anyway, the command is simply to stop fighting God and recognize that He is in control of all things as that is what is implied in the sentence I will be exalted among the nations. The Hebrew text may be understood not merely as God saying that He would be honored by the nations but that He is supreme over the nations. Thus, the NJB rendered the sentence I will be exalted among the nations of the NIV as supreme over nations while the NJV translates it as I dominate the nations. That aside, the application of the command of Psalm 46:10 is that once you face one unpleasant event after another then stop and recognize that God is in control of all things, including the various unpleasant events taking place in your life. Stop questioning God concerning what He is doing but submit to the fact that He is in control of all that happen in this planet.
Admitting that all the events in your life are under God’s control should lead you to recognize that the omnipotent God is in your corner as Israel was to confess in Psalm 46:11:
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
The phrase The LORD Almighty is more literally The Lord of hosts that is a military title that portrays God as the commander of the armies. Thus, the phrase speaks to the fact that God is all powerful. Thus, you should admit that the God who is all powerful is for you and your protector as the word “fortress” speaks to His protection. The implication is that God has the power to fulfill all that is in His plan for you. If you admit this truth, you should then claim the promise given to Israel in Jeremiah 29:11:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
This promise is given to Israel regarding what God would do after the seventy years of exile. He wants His covenant people to recognize that what happened to them was planned by Him and in the end, He would carry out His plan that is not intended to hurt them but to give them a future. This being the case, when you claim this promise you should recognize that the series of events in your life that would cause you to think that everything is against were not unplanned events but planned events not to harm you but to fulfill God’s plan for you. Add to this understanding that God does not intend to harm you, to the thought that He is all wise and so knows how best to bring about events in your life to carry out His plan for you. In fact, you should share the understanding of Apostle Paul that the Holy Spirit gave him, as recorded in Romans 11:33:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
If you follow the approach we have advocated here, you should never follow the example of Jacob by using the words he stated in Genesis 42:36 Everything is against me.
All the same, we have considered the outworking of God’s plan in detail in the lives of Joseph and Moses, but we should recognize that the ultimate outworking of God’s plan is with our salvation that involved the work of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The three propositions we have been considering do not all apply to Him because of His person. He is God and man in one person forever. This alone means we cannot apply the three propositions that we have considered to Him. Nevertheless, there is an element of the propositions that we have considered that apply to the Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity. It is that the outworking of God’s plan may appear messy to us but not to God as He works out His plan. There could have been nothing messier than God leaving heaven to take on human form to die for our sins. Nothing could be messier than the fact that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross so that the righteous died for the unrighteous. People who watched Jesus Christ crucified in weakness, so to say, could not have made sense of His death as the only way God has chosen to provide salvation for us. Today, people still reject this plan of God that appears messy in that the Son of God was crucified on the cross for our sins but that is God’s plan, and that plan was shown to be true through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He who conquered death provided eternal salvation for us. So, we see that God used messy events of Jesus’ humiliation and death on the cross to provide us salvation. We cannot fathom the outworking of God’s plan, but we can always be certain that God knows what He is doing. Again, let me say to you that you should never allow unpleasant events of life that come one after another to cause you to think that everything is against you. May the Lord help us to understand and apply this study!
11/20/20