Serving God Despite The Opposition

God's people will have opposition from many different sources.

Exodus 4:31 Then the people of Israel were convinced that the LORD had sent Moses and Aaron. When they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Exodus 5:3-5 But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the LORD our God. If we don’t, he will kill us with a plague or with the sword.” 

4 Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work! 5 Look, there are many of your people in the land, and you are stopping them from their work.”

We found out in my previous post that the unqualified get called by God into ministry that is way over their head. We learned through Moses that a lack of skill or specialized training seems to be what God is looking for in the people that serve him.

It must have been a great relief to Moses when he returned to Egypt and the people of Israel were convinced that he is on a mission from God to help his people. They seem to be thrilled that out of nowhere, after God's promise seems to be on the edge of failure, God finally sends a rescuer to put an end to their suffering in Egypt.

Wouldn't it be great if ministry was always this easy? Isn't it a beautiful thing when God sends a leader, the leader goes to God's people and the people agree to their leadership and their program that the leader wants to implement. So far their isn't any opposition and all is well but Moses hasn't been to see Pharaoh yet.

Suddenly the Israelites situation has gone from bad to worse, Pharaoh decided that he had been too easy on the Israelites by providing them with the materials that they needed to make bricks, so for now on they had to produce the same quota of bricks without any help getting the material they needed to make them.

Exodus 4:21  And the LORD told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.

The blame game started up immediately despite the fact that they were so sure of God's plans and God already told they wouldn't be released and allowed to go until God steps in and forces Pharaoh to let them go.

God's people don't like opposition and they are quick to let their God appointed leaders know about it. It is a shame that God's people treat their leaders this way but it may be worse that the leaders run back to God and complain to him when God already warned them there would be opposition to his work.

Exodus 5:22-23 Then Moses went back to the LORD and protested, "Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people, Lord? Why did you send me? 23 Ever since I came to Pharaoh as your spokesman, he has been even more brutal to your people. And you have done nothing to rescue them!"

We should expect that difficult days are going to come our way when we are serving God. When we are God's friend and we are being used in ministry then we are an enemy to Satan and he will start working overtime to oppose us.

Satan is already actively opposing God's plan to bring the Messiah to the world to redeem his people. The chances of the Lion of the tribe of Judah surviving all of the opposition to God's purpose and his people are extremely small but that's just how God works.

God allows his promises to come to the edge of failure for a purpose, God's people have to wait until there isn't any human ability to accomplish God's promises so that God is the only one that can get credit for making them happen. God knows that we will try to steal his glory if there is any way to explain away his miracles.

When God's people are doing what he ask them to do they should expect opposition from the world and also from God's other children that don't understand how he is working. We know that the world has a great reason to oppose you but Satan will convince some of your church friends to also go against you.

Serving God requires that we remember:

• How strong and how desperate our enemy is.
• The helpless, desperate condition of the people that you are serving.
• Your own weakness and inability for the task.

We must rely on God's strength and his timing in order to accomplish his work.

Promise Keeping God

God's promises are sure in the most difficult situations.

Exodus 1:5-8 In all, Jacob had seventy descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there. 6 In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. 

7 But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land. 8 Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.

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The last few chapters of the book of Genesis seem like a story where the good guy and his family are rescued and you might think that they all live happily ever after. But if you keep on reading your Bible you will see in the very next book that this idea couldn't be further from the truth. 

It looks like God is blessing his people as they settle down in Egypt, they have political favor, the Egyptians are thankful for the contribution that Joseph has made to their country, they are living in the best part of the country, have plenty of food and they are making plenty of babies. What could go wrong?

It didn't take very long before they lost favor politically and then it was all down hill from there. The memory of the goodness of God to Egypt through Joseph eventually faded away and the good times and blessings that God's people enjoyed in Egypt had all disappeared. 

God's people will soon learn that when our lives are full of comfort and we feel like we are blessed with the things that the world has to offer it can make us willing to settle for lesser blessings when God is attempting to move us up to his best.

That's where Satan wants God's people to live, just short of the full promises of God, he doesn't want them to enjoy all of God's promises that he made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The pleasures and comforts of Egypt were a sure way for God's people to be okay with living short of their full potential.

Genesis 3:15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

The promises of God have been attacked by Satan since the original promise back in Genesis 3:15. Throughout the rest of Genesis there was always opposition to the promise but it became worse after God committed himself to one person's descendants, after God chose Abraham's family to be his people, Satan knew where to focus his efforts. In the book of Exodus we see the attack continue.

As soon as God's people multiply enough to become a great nation they become persecuted. But Pharaoh doesn't realize who is in charge and he certainly doesn't believe that his actions are being used for God's purposes. Pharaoh doesn't know that he is going to be used by God to accomplish God's promises to his people.

As life in Egypt becomes uncomfortable the people will long for God's promised land where they would be delivered from their oppression. As we study the book of Exodus we will see that their wait will last for hundreds of years without a word from God. 

What if you waited your whole life for God to do something? What if your children and grandchildren passed away and God still hasn't spoken and things continue to get worse? It reminds me the words of the prophet in my post "Why Doesn't God Do Something?":

Habakkuk 1:2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. 

More often that we want, God's people must wait for him to keep his promises in his timing and through the means that he wants to use. It has been 400 years since God promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan and it would be 80 more years until Moses led them out of Egypt. But after all of that they still wouldn't get to the land on the express route.

We want God to work on our timetable, the only time we like God to be slow is when we want him to be "slow to anger" when we sin. It is very difficult for those of us that are stuck in a finite world to deal with the perceived slowness of an infinite God. From our point of view, his promises seem to be failing in so many different areas that we begin to lose hope.

Psalms 33:10-12  The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes.  11  But the LORD’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.  12  What joy for the nation whose God is the LORD, whose people he has chosen as his inheritance.

Satan has used circumstances, things and people (even Godly people) throughout the ages in a failed attempt to outdo God. A famine, an evil government and the false gods of Egypt will not be enough to stop our promise keeping God. God's people that were stuck in Egypt could count on the covenant promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We have no reason to doubt the promises of God for our future as well. God's word is very clear that he is in charge, he has a plan and his plan will not fail despite all of Satan's efforts.

Hebrews 10:23,35 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 35 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you!

Since God protected his promise to redeem us by protecting the lineage of our Savior, I can be sure that he will also come again to take me to my eternal home.

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