When God’s Ways Don’t Seem to “Work”(Exodus 5)

Exodus 5:22–23 22 And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

God’s people must be motivated to serve God out of obedience, not effectiveness. Moses has been commanded by God to tell Pharoah to let Israel go. Yet, his first meeting (and many consecutive meetings) with Pharoah resulted in Pharoah hardening his heart and increasing the workload of the Israelites slaves.

In Exodus 5:22-23, Moses pours out his heart to God because he is doing what God told him to do and it is not working. God will remind him that He is in charge and, in His time, He will carry out His plan.

So Moses had to be faithful to obey God even when it looked like God’s commands were not working and the people were not responding. We too must be careful to not get discouraged when it looks like things are not working even though we are obeying God.

We must do what we do because He told us to and leave the results up to God. Amazingly, if we are faithful to obey, God’s Word will not return void and eventually, we will be able to look back and see that God’s plans were best and eternally effective.