The Promise and the Plan

We know how good God is. When we trust him as our personal savior he enters our life and we have the Holy Spirit and the promise of God. When disaster comes our way we think of the promise of God. Let us take as an example the life of Moses. From the time Moses left the burning bush, he listened to God, he was absolutely stunned about what he heard and what he saw. Moses left the burning bush fully committed to do exactly what God wanted him to do and in fact he did do it. Moses was to tell the pharaoh that  he was to let the people of Israel go. Well, instead of pharaoh listening to Moses, he doubled the work of the Israelite. Now Moses by doing so actually became the enemy of the Israelite, because pharaoh had doubled their responsibility in his retirements. Moses was sure that he did what God had said to him in the burning bush, but the outcome was not as Moses expected it to be. We have all had similar experiences in life. We also end up judging ourselves, condemning ourselves and accuse God. What is the solution to this problem?

Let us read the third chapter of the Book of Exodus,

10 Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and then bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 

12 And God said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve and worship God at this mountain.”

13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers (ancestors) has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 

14 God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am”; and He said, “You shall say this to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”

[Exodus 3:10-14]

Let us note here at this point seven things:

I. When trouble comes we have to remember His promises. Those promises are a vital part of the belief system. We read in the letter to the Hebrews,

Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word];

[Hebrews 10:23]

For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised.

[Hebrews 10:36]

We have lived the life of sin and disobedience to God, just because we trust Christ as our savior does not mean God has wiped all the consequences away, only our sins are forgiven. So when trouble comes we have remember His promise and hold fast to the promises.

II. Listen carefully to the Word of God.

In the book of Exodus, chapter six we read,

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see .what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will [not only] let them go, but under compulsion he will drive them out of his land.”

[Exodus 6:1]

In the chapter seven we read,

And I will make Pharaoh’s heart hard, and multiply My signs and My wonders (miracles) in the land of Egypt.

[Exodus 7:3]

Well, now that changed the whole story. Sometimes when we are going through difficulty it looks like God is working on the other side (on behalf of the enemy). Remember God always wants us to look beyond the immediate circumstance, because God does not just work in a tiny circle, He works for the big picture in mind. This is why we should learn to listen to God carefully. God does not make any mistakes. Sometimes we assume that we misheard God's voice, while actually we have misinterpreted what He said. We know from the scripture that hardening of pharaoh's heart caused great havoc among the people of the Hebrew nation. When God makes us a promise listen carefully. 

III. Remember, God does not give us the details but His goal for us is always good. God's purpose in our life will bring goodness and joy, but at times it brings us difficulty, hardship, pain and suffering. Always remember who you are dealing with when acting on a promise. We are to remember that we are dealing with a God who loves His people unconditionally, who saves His people from sin and slavery, who never leaves nor forsakes His people and who answers the prayers of His people. 

God is working to accomplish His purpose and we do not even see it nor we understand it. In the seventh chapter of the Exodus we read,

The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

[Exodus 7:5]

God unleashed on Egypt plagues from turning the rivers into blood to the death of pharaoh's son. How did that fit into the promise? Sometimes we see the evidence of God at work and sometimes we do not see any evidence, and we do not always understand how God does that. Hence, faith in God's work is vital here even though we do not understand Him. God never mentioned the plagues and the death of Pharaoh' son to Moses in the burning bush. God only mentions that He is going to set His people free. Eventually, Moses sees for himself what happens naturally. In our day-to-day life when God promises us something good, our mind jumps from promise today to the good tomorrow. We often tend to forget what is the difference between the promise today and the good tomorrow. Lot of things can happen in that space of time. From the scripture we learn that it took the death of pharaoh's son to convince the pharaoh to let the people of Israel go. Well, that is exactly what God had planned, God knew exactly what would have to happen yet He did not handover to Moses any of these details.

It is always good to remember that God accomplishes His promises for us, but not always in the ways we expect.

IV. We have to trust God to keep our promise. Our responsibility is  not necessarily to understand how God would work but only to trust in God's faithfulness. Thus, it is a requirement to trust in God's faithfulness with all your heart and lean not to our own understanding. We need to acknowledge God in all our ways and He will direct our path straight. At many difficult times all that have is His Word, the Living Word of God. It is the same God, the God of Moses, who is guiding us today and He never changes. Like Moses, we may be put in a tough spot as we go through God's plan. Like Moses, we only have to remember one word that God gave him, 

And God said, “Certainly I will be with you,...

[Exodus 3:12]

This is the exact words that we should hold on to as we move from God's promise today to the good tomorrow. If we forget this word, we will be lost. As a believer the presence, the power and the love of the Living Almighty God is all we have as we move forward in God's plan for His promise. This is all that Moses exactly had when he went to see the pharaoh to free more than a million slaves building the Egyptian cities.

V. We must remember that God is the sovereign of the universe and everything is within His power. We read in the book of Psalms,

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens,

And His sovereignty rules over all [the universe].

[Psalms 103:19]

Before Moses left to see the pharaoh, God told Moses "I will be with you". Today God tells us the same things we wait for His promise become a reality in our lives. [15mins 47 sec]