Strength to Move Mountains Part 2 "Stronger, Braver, Bolder, & Tougher"

To learn to trust God can be a difficult task.  At times, there is an expectation that by choosing to follow God and making right choices that all will fall into place and there will be less of a struggle.  My husband and I have always sought God’s assistance when we faced a job change and/or move to another state. We wanted to do what God would have us do.  But so many times, we would struggle with selling a house and finding the right house.  Plan A became plan B, followed by plan C, until at times, we simply stopped counting the number of changes we would make in planning a move.

It could have been easy so many times to give up on God and believe he didn’t care about our family, but with every move, every struggle, every changed plan, we would always find a way through, and would witness God’s guiding hand creating miracles on our behalf.

The story of Moses’ efforts to free the Israelites from Egypt is a similar story.  God asked Moses directly to go to Egypt, speak to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land.  Knowing that Moses was following God’s will, he may have hoped for a quick resolution, and that with a little persuasion, he could convince Pharaoh to let the people go. But the task proved to be very difficult.

The Israelites were not so quick to believe Moses could free them and following Moses’ first request to Pharaoh, they were weighed down with heavier burdens. Pharaoh refused to let them go, and to exert his power over them, he requested they make the same number of bricks as usual, but they were also required to gather their own straw first.  They blamed Moses for the extra demands placed upon them. Moses felt discouraged that he was unsuccessful, but God assured him that he would find success and the Egyptians would see the power of God and eventually, the Israelites would be freed from bondage.

Moses tried again, unsuccessfully, ten more times to request that Pharaoh free his people.  Pharaoh refused and would go back on his promises. Serpents, blood instead of water, frogs, lice, flies, the death of the cattle, boils, hail that rained fire, locusts eating all the fruit, and thick darkness affected the Egyptians because Pharaoh refused to grant Moses’s request. Finally, Pharaoh threatens Moses that the next time Moses sees Pharaoh will be his last. But it wasn’t Moses who would die, but all of the firstborn sons in Egypt, including Pharaoh’s son. And finally, Pharaoh could take no more, and demanded that Moses and all the Israelites leave. Moses gathered up the vast number of Israelites and led them safely away from Egypt.

There are many lessons to be learned from this story, including that there will be times in our lives where we know we are doing what God would have us do, but the path is difficult and we feel like we have failed ourselves or others.  We may feel that we can’t compete with more powerful people. We may even fear that we will never succeed. But as we see in the story of Moses freeing the Israelites, God will make all things possible, even the impossible. We can learn from Moses to be willing to trust God and have faith during great challenges, and though we can’t always see the eventual outcomes, we can remind ourselves that we need not fear, for God is in charge and He will help us find a way through our most difficult trials. Moses had feared the task was too much and he couldn’t stand before Pharaoh or the Israelites and make this happen. But if God can take Moses with stammering lips and a slow tongue more powerful then a great king of Egypt, then He certainly can take each of us and make us stronger than our weakness, braver than our fears, bolder than our enemies, and tougher than our trials!