When God called Moses to be his spokesman to Pharaoh, Moses was already afraid and lacking confidence. But after the first approach to Pharaoh any remnant of confidence that Moses had was dashed. You will recall that God had prepared Moses for the eventuality that Pharaoh would not listen. But, with the situation of the Israelites greatly worsened by his first meeting with Pharaoh, Moses could well have been completely crushed. Remember this is no small thing that Moses is doing, and he had caused a great deal of extra suffering for the Israelites by his apparent failure to convince Pharaoh. So now God directs Aaron to speak on Moses’ behalf. It seems like a convoluted way of doing things, but God did this to accommodate the fact that Moses was not coping with the disappointment of apparent failure. So now, with Aaron to do the talking, God again sends Moses to Pharaoh and again he forewarns Moses that Pharaoh would not listen. As before, God explains to Moses that Pharaoh’s refusal would not be an indication of failure on Moses’ part but would occur because God himself would harden Pharaoh’s heart. God was saying to Moses, in other words: “What you see as a failure in the plan is actually all part of the plan, so just keep going.” This is a message we all need to hear when faced with life’s disappointments. Be careful what you call failure. It is probably all part of the plan. So just keep going.
Share your disappointments and struggles with God and ask him to produce perseverance and hope within you.
Read Exodus 6:13-7:7
