{"id":21390,"date":"2017-05-19T00:10:46","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T07:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10844"},"modified":"2017-05-19T00:10:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T07:10:46","slug":"may-19-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/05\/19\/may-19-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"May 19, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“‘Now therefore, go, and I (God) will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.’ But he (Moses) said, ‘O my Lord, please send by the hand of whoever else You may send.’ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses\u2026\u201d<\/em> Exodus 4:12-14b<\/span><\/p>\n

Missed Opportunities<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

While growing up, I knew just how long I could wait before I obeyed my parents, how long I could stall doing chores, and how long I had before the absolute last acceptable moment for responding to their call. I heard what they said. I knew what they wanted. But sometimes I felt like sneaking in just before the moment when I could expect punishment. I\u2019d plaster innocence all over my face and saunter in as if I hadn\u2019t heard them. This was pure naughtiness on my part. But I knew exactly where the breaking point was. If I waited too long, my father would make a move toward the spanker and I knew I was in for it. He was mad. (On the other hand, if I knew they were calling me over to give me a treat, I\u2019d have gone running to them.)<\/span><\/p>\n

This tendency to hide from things we don\u2019t want to do carries into our adult lives, and this was Moses\u2019 problem in our passage today. He made excuse after excuse to God as to why he should not have to do what God was asking. God patiently answered every excuse with a good reason. Back and forth they went with Moses questioning God\u2019s call, and God answering back how He would take care of everything. Moses should have had no worries\u2014God had his back.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Moses, probably full of fear at what he was being asked to speak to the people, would not quit arguing. And finally God\u2019s anger was kindled. Now, God\u2019s anger is not the same as man\u2019s anger. He is not prone to pouting when He doesn\u2019t get His way. He is slow to anger (Psalm 145:8). With occasional exceptions, His vengeance waits for Judgment Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

What God did in this case was to change the chain of communication. God wanted Moses to speak to the people, but Moses begged God to choose someone else, so God chose Aaron. Moses missed a big opportunity to be used by God in the ways God intended. The people would still hear the messages of God\u2014God took responsibility to be sure it would still happen\u2014but Moses missed the blessing of doing it. He missed his destiny. He ended up with less than God wanted to give. When God \u201cflashed His anger\u201d* to get Moses\u2019 attention and \u201cprovoke him to obedience\u201d*, God was showing how much He loved Moses and that He didn\u2019t want him to miss his opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Has God spurred you to action by some means we consider unpleasant? Embrace His correction, and grow. He is loving on you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur great God, forgive us for obstinately missing Your best. Teach us Your ways. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

*Spirit-Filled Life Bible<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“‘Now therefore, go, and I (God) will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.’ But he […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5z0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}