Spend time in prayer and silence with God asking him to meet you and speak to you.
Bible Reading
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. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 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?”
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.”
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. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?” They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.” “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.” Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.
– Exodus 2:11-23
Devotion
Waiting can be incredibly difficult. Our world today is quickly eliminating waiting periods. We are rarely asked to wait for food, service, goods, and least of all information. It has become a daily occurrence for many of us to simply “google” the answer to a question that someone asks out loud. As a culture, we have become impatient.
In this passage from Exodus, Moses is dealing with similar impatience. He was born into a difficult time of oppression for the Israelite people. Through God’s providence, Moses ended up being raised in the household of the Pharaoh who was oppressing the Israelites. As he grew older, he began to identify with his people. He takes matters into his own hands and ends up committing murder. Moses decided to come to the rescue of the Hebrew people immediately instead of waiting patiently on the direction of God. Rather than rallying behind Moses’ leadership as the one who would rescue the Israelites from Egyptian oppression, the Hebrews responded negatively to his actions. Moses seems to have discovered God’s purpose for his life, but he failed to wait on God’s timing and he failed to use God’s methods. If you are anything like me, you probably grow tired of waiting for God’s timing. Perhaps you have been praying and you have not heard an answer. You may be seeing an injustice at work or in society that you want to correct, but you have been unable to gain traction. Maybe you are ready to lead, but God has not yet provided the opportunity. For Moses, his inability to wait on the Lord cost him 40 years of waiting in the desert. Refuse to take matters into your own hands. God’s timeline may not be the same as yours, but His plan is worth the wait.
The Big Question
Are there any areas of your life where you are trying to rush God’s timeline? What are some strategies for how you can slow down and wait for God’s plan to unfold before acting on your own?
Conclude in prayer and silence reflecting on what you’ve learned.