OF GODS AND OLD MEN

• Exodus 7:1-7 (NIV) 1 Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 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. 5 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." 6 Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

"I have made you like God to Pharaoh"

In order for Moses to communicate with Pharaoh (who was considered a god in Egypt) God made Moses like God to Pharaoh. Isn't it cool that God gives us the credentials we need to minister to the people He calls us to? It is not that Moses was a god, but he was God's apostle - a sent one who performed miraculous acts and spoke with great authority, because God had authorized him and empowered him to accomplish what God had called him to do.

God does the same to us today. We are not gods, but we have God living in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are empowered and authorized to perform the works of God so that God would be glorified, His message preached, and His will accomplished here on earth as it is in heaven. Let us do so with boldness and great authority.

"But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you"

Imagine that God sends you to speak to a person and then tells you that the person He is sending you to speak to will not listen to you because God is going to make them deaf to what you are saying, what would be your response? I think that I would say, "What is the use then? Why would God send me to do what seems like a useless task?"

Except it is not useless! God's plan goes way beyond Pharaoh just listening and responding. There is so much more going on than what we see and understand. So often we can't see the forest for the trees. We know that God has called us to go and do something, but you are not seeing any results. It gets discouraging and disheartening, but the truth is there is a bigger plan of God at work, and we must be willing to "fail" for him. Whether we understand it or not, in our "obedient failure" we are advancing the plan of God.

And don't let the failure discourage you. God gives Moses the worst of it and then gives him a glimpse of the bigger plan - Israel will be delivered and God will be glorified. So, if I must fail for the greater good then bring it on because God your will is what I live for and glorifying your name by my "failure" is my success.

It is satisfaction enough to God's messengers that, whatever contradiction and opposition may be given them, thus far they shall gain their point, that God will be glorified in the success of their embassy, and all his chosen Israel will be saved, and then they have no reason to say that they have labored in vain. (Matthew Henry Commentary)

"Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded"

What a great testimony. Knowing that hardship and failure laid ahead, Moses and Aaron still did as the Lord commanded. I believe that obedience is the highest form of worship to God. To simply say yes to Him and do as He commands even when we do not understand. In that moment we are worshipping God at the highest level because it is more than just words declared, we are demonstrating our trust and surrender to Him in our actions. Actions speak way louder than words and I believe that nothing pleases God more than our obedience in faith to His Word.

"Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh"

Age is not an issue with God! In our youth-obsessed culture, we all need to be reminded of this. Moses is old because of all the preparation that God had to take him through for the task that was yet ahead. Thank you, God, that you use the young and the old alike. I am not done yet!

Moses was eighty; both of them men of great gravity and experience, whose age was venerable, and whose years might teach wisdom, v. 7. Joseph, who was to be only a servant to Pharaoh preferred at thirty years old; but Moses, who was to be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified until he was eighty years old. It was fitting that he should long wait for such an honor and be long in preparing for such a service.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible.

So what is God speaking to you in this moment?

• You have been authorized and empowered by God (through the Holy Spirit) to do what He has called you to do.

• God's definition of success is many times different than yours, so don't measure your effectiveness based on your definitions of success because that may discourage you and deter you from finishing what He wants of you.

• Will you say yes to God regardless of what the outcome may be? Will you worship Him with your obedience? Even if your obedience promises a hard and lonely road ahead?

• Will you stop thinking that you are too old to do anything of significance for God? Your best and most effective days are yet ahead of you and all that you have experienced has been training for what yet lies ahead! The best is yet to come!