Total Obedience To God’s Will
BRD REFLECTIONS:
Exodus 7:1-13; Psalm 56 (NIV)
(Yeo Su Chen, Chairperson, Communications Ministry)
READ:
Exodus 7:1-13; Psalm 56 (NIV)
I am led to do my Lectio Divina on Exodus 7:1-13 for this devotion.
OBSERVE:
This passage speaks of Moses’ and Aaron’s obedience and the mighty power of God. Here, I also read about one of the most inscrutable mysteries of God: when He hardened the Pharaoh’s heart: “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it. Moses and Aaron did just asthe Lord commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh” (Ex &:3-7).
Here, Moses’ and Aaron’s roles are also clearly defined by God, with no ambiguity: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet'” (Ex 7:1).
God’s instructions to them are also crystal clear and specific in verse 8: He told Aaron to take his staff and “throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.”
In this chapter, I see a very powerful God. Yet, He is also organised and His message to His servants is clear. He guides them down to the last detail. God wants to use His mighty ways to save His people and bring them out of Egypt at the same time as letting the Israelites remember for eternity His grace and goodness.
APPLY:
Although there are many things in Scripture and my life that are beyond my human understanding, what I do know is that God is sovereign: His thoughts are not mine and neither are His ways mine (Isaiah 55:8). I also know that God works all things “together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
He calls me to total obedience for my own good. He wants to save me with His redeeming grace so that I do not have to keep on losing myself in life’s “wilderness”, like the Israelites.
Like Aaron and Moses, who God instructed to pay attention (v1 “See”), I have to pay attention to what God wants of me because sometimes, His instructions for me are very specific.
Like Aaron and Moses, who trusted and obeyed God completely, I have to continue to be steadfast in my faith and obey Him wholeheartedly.
DO:
I have to:
- Obey God wholeheartedly even when the decisions, choices, and actions He wants me to take are sometimes incomprehensible and inscrutable to me
- Pay attention to God, to be attuned to Him
- Trust Him because He only wants the best for me
PRAY:
Lord, attune my heart to You so that I can pay attention to your leading. Help me to abide in You so that even when times are hard, and your instructions and directions to me are beyond what my human mind can grasp, I will still stay obedient and trust in You. Help me to remember that sometimes I have to learn things the hard way, to wait patiently, or to trust that even when I do not get what I ask for it’s because You want me to have the best in your Kairos timing. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.
