February 11 - Nº 42 Exodus 4:19-31; 5:1-23; 6:1-12; 7:1-13
Moses left Midian and met his brother Aaron at Mount Sinai. Together they traveled to Egypt. Along the way, Moses shared God’s plan to free the Israelites. When they arrived in Egypt, they brought all Israelite leaders together. The leaders grew excited as Aaron told them everything and showed them the miracles God had given them. Not long after this, Moses and Aaron showed up in Pharaoh’s court and told him that the God of Israel had said: “Let my people go so that they may hold a festival to Me in the wilderness.” But Pharaoh was not impressed. He wanted to know what kind of god thought he could tell the ruler of Egypt what to do! He wasn’t about to let his slave laborers out of sight. What if they never came back? He was angry. He told the slave masters, “All this talk about going off to worship their God is keeping my slaves from getting their work done. You know all that straw we provide for them? Well, if they have time for this foolishness, let them gather their own straw for making bricks.” So, each day the Israelites had to scatter across Egypt to find straw. Since they still had to make the same number of bricks as before, there was no way they could keep up with their quotas. The slave masters started beating them, and the Hebrew overseers became angry with Moses and Aaron. “This was your fault,” they hollered. “If you hadn’t interfered, the Egyptians would still be supplying the straw we need.” Moses poured his heart out to God. “Why, did you even send me here, Lord?” he cried. “I’ve done exactly what you told me to do and look at all the trouble it has caused everyone. Why aren’t You doing Your part?” God responded, “Moses, watch! You are about to see what I can really do. By the time you have finished showing Pharaoh my power, he will beg you to take these people out of Egypt.” Moses went back and reported this to the Hebrew leaders, but they refused to listen to him. Then God told Moses to talk to Pharaoh again. “Tell him to let the people leave,” He said. But Moses was discouraged, “If the Hebrews won’t listen to me, why would Pharaoh? I am just not a good enough speaker for this job.” “That’s why Aaron is here,” God replied. “You tell him everything I command you, and he will tell Pharaoh.” So, Moses and Aaron obeyed. They went to the palace again and told Pharaoh that God wanted him to let the Hebrews go into the desert to worship. Pharaoh demanded a sign to prove that their message was from God, so Aaron threw his staff on the ground, and it became a snake. But when Pharaoh’s sorcerers and court magicians did the same thing, their staffs became snakes, too. Suddenly, Aaron’s staff swallowed all the other snakes. But Pharaoh still refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.
Have you ever wondered why God uses people like us to tell the world about Him? Couldn’t He have chosen a more efficient way—like sending angels with ultimatums? But God wants to use us, and He promises to be with us when we obediently share the Gospel message. The outcome won’t always be what we want or expect, but the results are up to God. Our job is to obey.
