God is Steadfast in His Love

What did you expect? I found this to be a very valuable question for all of life. I can't remember all the circumstances, but I remember hearing this question from my father a lot, and it typically followed some foolish decision that I made. I was suffering the consequences of foolishness, and he would ask me, what did you expect would happen? I found this to be an extremely helpful question, and I always find myself asking it in counseling situations. When folks come for counseling, it's usually because they're disappointed. They haven't gotten what they felt they deserved. Life isn't as happy as they expected, and so I always want to ask them, well, what do you expect? What are your expectations? Because we all have expectations. We have marriage expectations. We have family expectations, we have vocational expectations. We are always hoping. And one of the keys in life of wrestling and working through disappointment is really having proper expectations. Life rarely, if ever, really delivers on our expectations. This is why it's important to have proper expectations. Our message this morning is this. We must trust the promise of God to persevere in a fallen world. We must trust the promise of God to the promise of God to persevere in a fallen world. We must know what he expects. We must expect him to be faithful. We'll be looking at a large chunk of text this morning, so we're going to have to be somewhat patient. We'll be looking at all of chapter five and half of chapter six, and I'll explain why we're going to take that large of a a text of the text, and it's also going to have an unusual organization. The organization of the text is going to follow the plot line. The narrative, the story is rich, and so we're just going to follow the plot line, and the plot line always has a setting. It has the introduction of tension, and then it has the tension rising, and then it has the climax of tension, then there's a resolution, and so we're going to follow how the story unfolds, because this is a rich story that has tension heightening greatly as we go along. One of the key questions we have to ask any time we're approaching a story is, who is the primary tension between? Every story is complicated with a number of characters and, well, a number of centers, and so the tension is always multilayered. There's multiple levels. So we have to ask, what is the primary tension? Well, there's one here that's very clear. There's the tension between God Almighty, holy and just and Pharaoh. That's really what begins the tension. There's also God in Israel, his abuse of them. There's Moses and Pharaoh, there's Moses in Israel and there's God in Israel. So we're going to walk through and analyze and think through. What is God doing in this passage? What is the sin? What is the problem? And how is God resolving it? So let's first look at the setting. And it's one word, chapter 5, verse 1, afterward. So obviously we need a little context here. Afterward. God is called Moses out of the wilderness. He's continued to wrestle with him. Moses has continued to deny God, he's continued to resist God. God finally had him submit. And he's gone to Israel, he's proclaimed the word of the Lord and Israel believed. Just flip over. You can see there, they believe, they bow their heads, they worshiped him. So Moses and Aaron were able to go to Israel, proclaim the good news that God had heard their groaning. God had said, I'm going to stretch out my mighty right arm, my mighty right hand to deliver, and the people believed. Now he's going to Pharaoh, and this is where the tension is introduced. Verses one to three. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord. The God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. But Pharaoh said. Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go. Then they said the God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with a sword." Moses is very direct. He goes into Pharaoh's presence. Thus says the Lord. This is one of the great ways of declaring the prophecy of God. This is the word of the prophet. Thus says the Lord. I am not speaking on my own behalf. I am speaking on behalf of Yahweh, God Almighty. And Pharaoh responds, Who is the Lord? Now there's some echoing here. There's some illusion. How did Moses respond to God's calling? What is your name? Who shall I say you are? That long dilemma, that long wrestling with God began with a question. And so here a question sets us off into another story, another whole problem. Who is the Lord that I should obey him? Do not know this God. This is disrespectful rhetoric. Pharaoh himself, who believes himself to have divine attributes and divine powers. He's saying, I don't recognize this God. He believes there are many gods, but he does not know this God. He does not see this God as sovereign and authoritative over him. It's interesting, we have to see what's happening here because this is going to set the trajectory for the next few chapters. God's picking a fight. God's picking a fight with Pharaoh. He's going to start working at showing Pharaoh who he is. The nine plagues, they're not necessary for the deliverance. The next few chapters, they're not necessary for God to deliver Israel. That is a long process of God showing Pharaoh who he is. God's letting his name be known. Remember, this is the mission of God. This is the purpose of God for his name to be known among the nations. And Pharaoh here is saying, I do not know this God, I do not recognize this name, I will not obey his voice. God's beginning the fight. Now, when I say fight, it's not a competition. There's no competition here. God's going to win there. There's no real competition. The God is beginning the process by which he is going to demonstrate that he is alone worthy of worship. He alone is the one true God. He is going to make his name known to Pharaoh. But the tension is introduced because God presents himself and Pharaoh rejects him. We see the tension rise in verses four through five. But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many and you make them rest from their burdens. Well, first we can see this Pharaoh is different from Pharaoh who preceded him. The Pharisee was trying to kill off the Israelites because he did not like how numerous they were becoming. This one boasts in how numerous they are. He sees the value of the labor. He likes the large workforce. We see here the main focus of verses four and five, this particular part of the conversation is that it's focused on the work. Let them get back to their burden, let them get back to their work. If we go back to chapter 4, verse 23, part of the message of what God said was, let them go out so they may serve me. Pharaoh saying they work for me. Same root. It's the same word here that our English translations really lose. God saying, let them go out and serve me, and Pharaoh saying, no, they work for me. Their allegiance is, to me, the major issue here is who is Israel going to serve? See, work is caught up in the idea of worship. This same word is the word used for Adam in the garden to work. It's the same word used for the Levites when they worked in the temple. It's bigger than just the freedom. It's who is Israel going to serve? Who are they going to worship? So this is why Exodus is really such a great metaphor for salvation that we know in Christ. They're being freed from a slave master who puts a burden upon them to destroy them. And they're being saved to a new master who loves them and cares for them. Romans 6 speaks of this, but thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin. who have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, having become slaves of righteousness." They're not saved just from slavery. They're slaved to be God's workmanship. They're not saved from not working anymore. They're saved to a new kind of working. This is the beauty of the gospel. We're saved from having the taskmaster of sin. We're saved to a freedom found only in Christ. Our next section, verses six to nine, the tension continues to rise. The same day, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foreman, you shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw themselves. But the number of bricks that they made In the past, you shall impose on them, and you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore, they cry, let us go and offer sacrifice to our God. Let heavier work be laid on them, that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words." Pharisees, the problem is that they're not working hard enough. They're too idle. They have too much time to listen to these hopes and dreams, and so he wants to make their burdens heavier. Now the issue of straw here, he takes away straw, which makes the brick making process much more difficult. The clay was a fine grain of dirt. The clay took a longer time to dry in Egypt. And so you put straw, you would use straw to make bricks so that it would air internally. That way they would dry quicker and stronger and that way you can make bricks faster. That's why it is a burden to have to go find their own straw. If they don't have straw, the bricks do not dry as quickly, and so the number they can make is smaller, and if they have to go find straw, now they are using extra time. Pharaohs really made their task impossible. The tension rises as the taskmasters execute this order. Verses 10 to 14, so the taskmasters and the foremen of the people, the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, Thus, says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it. But your work will not be reduced in the least. So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, Complete your work, your daily task each day as when there was straw. And the foreman of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past? The taskmasters execute the order. And the people cannot complete the order of bricks, so they're beaten. Notice it begins, thus says Pharaoh. That echoes Moses' great declaration. Thus says the Lord. Now thus says Pharaoh. They're speaking as if he has greater authority. They accuse them of being idle, they accuse them of being too idle to... The idleness is what has caused them to want to go out. And so they try to crush them. The goal here is to break their will. The goal here is to break them into submission. Let's look at verses 15 and 18. Then the former of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servant, yet they say to us, make bricks and behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people. But he said, you are idle, you are idle. That is why you say, let us go and sacrifice the Lord. Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. There's a. fault-giving mission. Whose fault is this? Israel wants to point out that you're irrational. You cannot expect us to make the same kind of bricks. And, well, the Egyptians are keeping their stance. It's your own fault. You need to work harder. That's why you're in trouble. The tension rises. Verses 19 to 21. The former of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day. They met with Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them as they came up from Pharaoh. And they said to them, the Lord look on you and judge because you have made a stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and put a sword in their hand to kill us. just the end of the last chapter, just days ago, they had bowed down and they had worshipped God because they believed Moses' words that God had heard their groaning and he was going to deliver them. But now, after the salvation plan had begun, after deliverance had been executed by Moses, thus says the Lord, Pharaoh responds with a hardened heart, as God said he would. And immediately Israel, they're faltering. They're worried about the fact that they're a stench before Pharaoh. They're accusing Moses all over again. May the Lord look on you and judge you because you have made us a stench. Notice they're much more concerned about the relationship with Pharaoh than they are with God Almighty who has promised to save They've forgotten about God's eyes upon them, looking at them, caring for them. They've forgotten about God's ear to them, who listens. They don't remember God. They don't recognize that they're being a stench to God. They're more worried about their relationship to Pharaoh. Here they've made a strong accusation against the man that God has appointed to be their deliverer. But here's the climax of tension. They broke Moses. Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, Oh, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me for since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name? He is unevil to this people and you have not delivered your people at all. This section begins with Moses boldly going in and saying, thus says the Lord, deliver my people, Pharaoh. And it ends with him turning to the Lord in fear and in shame, saying, you have not delivered my people at all. How quickly we change. How quickly this whole sort of event has changed Israel and their hopes and their expectations. How quickly it has changed Moses. Moses, has he forgotten that in 319 he said Pharaoh will resist? Has he forgotten in 421 that God said I'm going to harden his heart? What did Moses expect to happen? The problem is that His faith in God has failed. The problem is he actually thinks God has failed. He had wrong expectations. Now as we look at this, let's first apply before we look to God's resolution. Israel believed. Then Pharaoh starts fighting against them with more and more harsh treatment. Their backs are broken, they're enslaved, their burdens are heavier, and so now they turn against God, they turn against Moses, they stop worshipping, they stop believing, and they're just worried about getting right with Pharaoh. They accuse, they judge Moses. Well, this reminds us of Jesus' parable of the seeds. In interpreting the peril of the seas, Jesus says this, and these are the ones thrown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution rises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. They're very much like that sea that falls on the rocky ground. They have no root to endure the persecution, they have no power, they lack faith, they become discouraged. And this is how over and over again, we need to see that Israel is a warning to us. God has set up Israel to be a model for us, and by modeling for us, it means that they are a warning to us and how not to respond. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, they're an example for us, they're a warning, they're a caution. How are we supposed to deal with discouragement? No, I don't want to diminish the great burden that Israel had to experience here. I don't want to diminish that it was distress, it was fearful. All of a sudden your burdens are so heavy you cannot do them. But we also recognize that they had the word of God. So the warning here is that we cannot let our immediate circumstances overwhelm what we hear from God. This leads us to that key question. What do we expect? Or further, a better question, what are our expectations based upon? See, why did Israel expect that it was going to be a nice, easy exit? Why did Israel expect that Pharaoh was not going to put up a fight? Why did they expect that things weren't going to get harder before God released them? Do we need to learn to have our expectations properly defined by God's word? The key to living a Christian life faithfully is having God's word define our expectations. Here's some things that God has not promised. God has not promised that a chicken will be in every pot and a car in every garage. God has not promised that our children will prosper more than us. God has not promised us that we will have a life of ease, leisure, and happy retirement. God's promised us that he's with us. God's promised us that he is with us in our suffering and that our suffering has purpose. If we look at scripture, we should actually see that what God has promised us is suffering. That he's with us in our suffering, that he cares for us in our suffering, and that he is going to use our suffering to glorify himself. Let's walk through a few passages in the New Testament that point out the promise of suffering and how God uses it to glorify himself. The words of Jesus on the Mount, Matthew five. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The word blessed, by the way, is happy. You can easily translate the word blessed to be happy. Happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Blessed, continuing verse 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. We can look to first Peter two, verse 21, for this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow the steps. If they killed our savior, why wouldn't they seek to persecute us? If we believe in the one that they sought to put to death, why would we think we receive anything less? Beloved, 1 Peter 4.12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as if something strange were happening to you. There's two passages that really stretch us. James 1. Count it all joy, my brothers. When you meet trials of various kinds. That's an expectation shaping verse right there. Because by nature, we do not expect suffering by nature, we expect a happy life by nature, we do not expect that we can rejoice in our suffering. We can only do this when we see that it has a proper end, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Paul says the same in Romans 5, not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering. Knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. We all expect to be happy. We should all expect to be happy. The key issue for a Christian is defining what is happiness. Truly defining what does it mean to be happy. To be happy, according to God and his word, is knowing that you have peace with God. To be blessed, to be happy, is to know That your sins are no longer counted against you because you believe in Jesus Christ, who has died on your behalf so that the wrath of God is poured out upon him and your sins are no longer counted against you. To be happy is to know that God is a judge. To be happy is to know that God is a judge who is just and holy and punishes sin. That means vengeance is no longer mine, it's the Lord's. That's a happy state to know God judges sin and sinners. That's only happy for Christians because they know that their sin has been judged in Christ. Happiness is knowing this world is not all that there is. Happiness is knowing this world is not the way it's meant to be, which keeps us from building our hopes here. Friends, happiness is trusting God. Happiness is being able to look beyond the suffering, beyond our circumstances and seeing that God is good, that God is with us and God even has a purpose in our suffering. We're looking here is the doctrine of perseverance. I remember when I was a new believer, a youth pastor was talking to me, I don't know why this came up, but he shared a metaphor for me. He said, you know, Christianity, a lot of people begin the race, but not everybody finishes. And he compared it to a zip line. He said that the Christians that persevere, they're the ones that hold on the tights. I thought, well, that's helpful. And that got me through some trials to know I must hold on. But as I've wrestled with that metaphor that really penetrated deeply, I don't think it's completely right. Because for those who persevere, they know that sometimes we want to let go and God will not let us go. That's trusting in your own strength, that's trusting in your own life, whenever we realize we are weak sinners. What we have to do is trust that God is true to his word, that God is faithful when we are faithless. So we have to expect God to keep us. We have to expect God to be faithful. We have to let God trump and overcome our circumstances. Now, let's go to chapter six, the reason I can't stop at chapter five is because it leaves us in despair. You have to hear the word of God. You have to hear God's response to this problem. Israel is in despair. Israel is suffering. They're lost. They're accusing God. They're accusing Moses. Moses has accused God. Chapter 6, verse 1. But the Lord. We're so thankful that God changes everything with the but the Lord's. But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand, he will send them out and with a strong hand, he will drive them out of his land. This is, first of all, encouraging to Moses, now you're going to see what I'm going to do. He doesn't rebuke Moses. He's gracious. He lets Moses make an honest complaint while it was not a proper complaint. He lets Moses do this and he responds with grace. Now you will see what I will do. And notice what he is going to do. You're going to see what God is going to do because Pharaoh is going to drive Israel out. This shows an absolute sovereignty over Pharaoh, what he's going to do. The actions in the second part of this verse, the second part of this problem are all Pharaoh's actions. He is going to push Israel out. And that's what God is going to do. He's showing that he is sovereign over Pharaoh. Then verse two, God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. Notice that in verse two, it begins with I am the Lord. Verse 6, the word he says to tell Israel, I am the Lord, and then the section ends with I am the Lord. I am the Lord, the name of God. It's all about His name being proclaimed. I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I appeared to your fathers as El Shaddai, God Almighty. But by my name, I did not make myself known to them." Now, this creates somewhat of a dilemma. Because he's saying, I did not let them know me by the name Yahweh. They knew me by El Shaddai, but we can go back to Genesis and we can see Yahweh all over the text. God or Abraham himself calls God Yahweh. So what does it mean that they did not know me by my name? God is speaking of the name is a first time revelation that Genesis, the believers in Genesis, the patriarchs, they didn't know that name, but that name is used in Genesis. Do you understand the dilemma? Well, how is it that they use those letters in that name, but God is not saying they don't know that name? Well, the simple answer is this. There's progressive revelation. God is revealing more and more about himself. The name is not just the four letters. The name is not just the letters that make up that name. The name is not the syllables. The name is God's character. When God says, they don't know my name, God is saying they don't know about me as much as you do. They knew the letters, they knew the name, they knew the syllables. But God is saying that because of progressive revelation, because I continue to reveal more and more of myself, those men in Genesis, they do not know me as well as I'm going to make myself known to you. So what's amazing about this is we actually know more about God now than Moses knew then. Because we have more revelation. God continues to work. God continues to reveal himself. And one of the things we really should recognize is that we know God's faithfulness even greater than Moses, because we can see over and over and over again how God remained faithful when his people were absolutely faithless. We should be able to see that he is faithful. So one answer to how we, how The Exodus believers know the name more as simply progressive revelation, but there's also a clue in the text. God said, they knew me as El Shaddai. They knew me as Almighty God. This was the primary revelation of God in Genesis. Now the primary revelation of God is Yahweh. In Genesis, Yahweh said he was El Shaddai. In Exodus, El Shaddai says he's Yahweh. The primary focus is not that just he's God Almighty, but he's the personal, intimate, powerful God. The focus of Exodus is that God is present and powerful. It's not a new name in that Abraham did not know that God was Yahweh, but it's more that his character has been revealed. The I am is the present, powerful and particular redeemer. of Israel. So he says, I have revealed myself anew. Now, first, we continue to look at this in verses four and five. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they are sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel and the Egyptians hold of slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. I appear to Abraham, I appear to Isaac, I appear to Jacob. I am now revealing more of myself to you than to them. I establish my covenant. I am keeping my covenant. That's what it means to remember the covenant. What's interesting here is that he says, I hear their groanings. Israel's grumbling. Israel's in the middle of grumbling against God in the midst of his salvation. And God doesn't point that out. He says, I hear you're groaning. I hear you call for help, and I'm going to help. If we think of ourselves and how we respond, we would hear the grumbling and say, I'm going to smite you. Quit complaining, quit grumbling. God is rich in grace. He says, I have established my covenant. To really appreciate the faithfulness of God, we have to recognize that God is not spontaneous. God just doesn't act spontaneously, God is active and faithful throughout all history, he doesn't change his mind, what he has said is going to happen is going to happen, he's going to make it happen. God is faithful, he commits himself and he is faithful to that commitment. Too often we think God must act unpredictable. No, the pagan gods are unpredictable. That's why they had to make worships, make sacrifices to them. No, the God of the true God who created all the world, he amazes us with how predictable he is. He has given us his word and he is true to his word. We should expect him to be faithful. He says, I am the Lord, Establish my covenant. I am keeping my covenant. Let's look at the message that he gives to Israel. Verse 6. Again, recognize the bookends. I am the Lord. I am the Lord. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. Listen to these future promises. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will deliver you from slavery. to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people. I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for possession. I am the Lord. This first person pronoun, this declaration who I am, I am with you, I am for you, I am your God. I am the Lord. Look at verse six. There's three different ways that God says he's going to save them. It's parallelism. These are not three different actions. These are three different ways of describing the same action. I will bring you out. I will deliver you. I will redeem you. He is the God of salvation. Yahweh is the God of salvation. He is mighty to save. The same God that made these promises is the God that we worship today because we know his salvation more than Israel. We know Jesus Christ. We know his death for our sin. We know his resurrection for our life. He is the God of salvation. Now, notice these are our future promises, this is what I will do. Church, we have better promises and we have a different direction. We're looking back to the cross, we're looking back, not just what God has promised you will do, we're looking back to what he has done. We look back to the cross when we are faithless, we look back to what Christ has done, we look back to the resurrection while also eagerly expecting salvation to be completed in Christ's return. Now, verse seven. I don't want to say it's the most important verse in this text, but it's one of the most important verses in the text. I will be your God, you will be my people. This is what theologians have called the covenant formula. This is kind of your most basic building block for theology. This is your most basic building block for reading all the scripture together. This is not the first time the covenant formula has been given. Genesis 17, starting in verse 7, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your offspring after you. God is saying, I am your God. There wasn't an election, so Israel chose God to be their God. No, God said, I'm your God. and you're my people. The covenant even more explicit here in the Exodus text. It's a string that runs through all of scripture. I don't have time to show them all, but let me end with this one. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I'm making all things new." It's from Revelation 21. From the beginning of the covenant to the end of the covenant, God has chosen us to be his people. And there in verse 21, it's the great hope, it's the great promises that we have to expect. He's going to wipe away every tear, death shall be destroyed, there will be no more mourning or crying. We will be with God because he's completed salvation. See, this covenant formula, it's important because it defines who we are. We're gods. And if God is for us, who can be against us? If God is force, nothing can separate us from his love. We are freed in him. We are only happy in him. We will not be happy anywhere else. Because God has claimed us to be his own. Verse eight speaks to the future inheritance, I will bring you into the land, I will give it to you as your possession. God responds to Israel's grumbling by hearing their groaning. and making the promises, continuing to remember the covenant that he's established that obviously is not based upon their faithfulness. It's all about God and his faithfulness. Let's look to how our passage concludes. Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel. But they did not listen to Moses. The cause of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. So the Lord said to Moses, Go in, tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the people of Israel go out of this land. But Moses said to the Lord, Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me? For I am of uncircumcised lips. But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt again. We can appreciate Israel's despair. They shouldn't have been in despair, but we can appreciate this. Their backs have been broken. They do not understand what God is doing. They don't understand why God is doing it. They can't hear the promise of God. Now, what's sad about that situation is the only thing that could possibly Solve their dilemma. The only thing that can actually bring healing to their brokenness is to listen to God. What a horrible situation that they can't bring themselves to listen to God, but that's the only thing that can bring them peace. They can only lift their drooping hands and strengthen their weak knees if they hear the promises of God and believe them. And because they cannot bring themselves to hear it now, they will see the mighty hand of God act in the next few chapters to reveal to them and to all the nations that Yahweh is the one God. God's persistent. God's faithful. He doesn't give up on his people. Notice here again, Moses tries to get out of the job. He tries to get out of the calling. Israel won't listen to me. How can you expect me to go to Pharaoh? I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm a man of uncircumcised lips. Notice God doesn't correct him. Doesn't say, no, you're doing a good job, Moses. Keep it up. He just says, go be faithful. Do what I have said to do. Trust me to do what I have said to do. Friends, we have to ask ourselves, what are our expectations? Do we expect God to be faithful? Do we expect God to hear our prayers? Do we expect God to be faithful to us when we pray? Do we expect God to be with us in the midst of our suffering? Do we expect God to forgive us as we confess our sin, as we believe in Jesus? Because there's one thing that we There's so little things we can truly trust and depend upon. God alone is the one who is faithful to his word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you that you are faithful. Even though we reject you, we grumble against you, we are unsatisfied with the way you have led our lives to be. Help us, Lord, to find the happiness that only comes in Christ. Help us, Lord, to truly be faithful, to put our faith in Him. Lord, keep us while our hearts wonder. Teach us, Lord, that you are the one rock upon which we can build our lives. You are our solid foundation. Teach us to trust in your promises. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.