Missions Paul

We know exactly what should rule us out. God, it seems, works from a different pattern altogether.

“Now when the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt, he said to him, “I am the Lord. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Since I speak with faltering lips, why would Pharaoh listen to me?” “Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 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. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 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. 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.” Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.” Exodus‬ ‭6‬:‭28‬ – 7: 7

Moses is like a stuck record. He has already reminded God that he cannot speak well in the previous chapter. God repeats Himself and points to Aaron who will be his mouthpiece. Interestingly He doesn’t offer to heal Moses’ stutter. Surely He could have done that but He doesn’t. Yet that doesn’t discount Moses from the mission and this is our encouragement. We know our weaknesses more than anyone and we know what discounts us from the mission of God. But God seems to have another pattern for who He uses. 

God tells Moses it will not be easy because Pharaoh will not listen. 

Even when we obey God, it doesn’t mean we will not experience tough times. 

These men were not in the prime of life. We are told of their age. Sometimes we can feel not ready because we are too old as well as being too young. Moses obeyed, falteringly and aged and someone else has to do the talking. He was not the exception to the rule for this is generally the rule. 

Obedience was never a guarantee of an easy life.

We can feel unready for many reasons; too young, too old, too broken and sinful. Moses obeyed anyway, falteringly, aged, with someone else doing the talking for him. 

So if you’re waiting to feel qualified before you obey, you’ll wait forever. 

You’re too old and maybe too slow but go anyway. 

The story stops and we are reading one of those passages that are quite boring – the genealogies, we find them throughout the Bible and we often skip them. Before Moses and Aaron stand before Pharaoh, before the plagues fall and the sea splits, God gives us a family tree. 

You may feel very ordinary today, if you do, this should encourage you. 

“Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. These were the heads of their families: The sons of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel were Hanok and Pallu, Hezron and Karmi. These were the clans of Reuben. The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon. These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived 137 years. The sons of Gershon, by clans, were Libni and Shimei. The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived 133 years. The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi according to their records. Amram married his father’s sister Jochebed, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years. The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg and Zikri. The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri. Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. The sons of Korah were: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans. Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan. It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—this same Moses and Aaron.” Exodus‬ ‭6‬:‭13‬-‭27‬ 

Perhaps before God moves Israel out of Egypt, He wants us to see exactly who Moses and Aaron are. 

Their family are far from perfect but they have been held together, even through slavery, for generations. 

Even those who will lead a rebellion are mentioned, like Korah. 

God doesn’t edit out the ones who will later resist Him. 

But it is the last verses that catches my attention. “…It was this Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—this same Moses and Aaron.”

This Moses, son of Amram, brother of Aaron, descendant of Levi, part of a family God had been shaping since before the Egypt years. He was as real as anyone.

Before God does the extraordinary, He roots it in the ordinary. Before the plagues, before the sea splits, He shows us a family tree, flawed, named, ordinary people whom God has been preparing all along.

Your name is in a story too. His story.

You may not feel special and that is why God is and will use you.

God doesn’t build His story on the extraordinary alone. He builds it on ordinary families, shaped over generations before anyone knew what they were being shaped for and importantly, broken and sinful people.

You don’t have to feel special to be used by God, you just have to be His.

Moses had the best news anyone in Egypt had heard in four hundred years. Yet when Moses preached freedom no one listened. 

Sometimes people struggle to accept the promises of God, not because they are not true, but they haven’t seen Him move, His silence has silenced them. 

“Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.” But Moses said to the Lord, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?” Exodus‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬-‭12‬ ‭

See what happened:-

1. Moses brought good news. 
2. Freedom was coming. 
3. God had spoken. 
4. The Israelites didn’t hear a word of it.

Why?

a. Discouragement. 

They had heard the message but when your circumstances haven’t changed for a while it is possible that your heart is numbed to the promises of God. Discouragement has become the norm for you.

Moses stood there with a word from God, and it bounced off people too discouraged to receive it.

 b. Difficult circumstances.

Obedience doesn’t wait for discouragement to lift or for feelings to change.

Moses is sent straight back into the same response from Pharaoh.

God doesn’t change the circumstances before He sends Moses back into them. Obedience doesn’t wait for things to become easier. 

c. Doubt.

Moses starts rehearsing the failure. “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh?” He’s taking yesterday’s discouragement and using it to calculate tomorrow’s impossibility. Obedience will beat this doubt. You never out-think doubt, you can only out-walk it.

d. Negative rumination.

At some point we all have known the impact of this. We go over the same conversation, we draw up the same conclusion and each time we go lower into the pit of despair. This is what rumination does. It replays the same conversation and situation. 

How do we get out of this?

We will soon see how Moses wasn’t asked to feel differently about the Israelites. Some assignments don’t wait for us to feel more confident. In fact often we are being asked to trust despite a lack of confidence in our ability. 

Good news falling on deaf ears.

Moses had the best news anyone in Egypt had heard in four hundred years. Yet when Moses preached freedom no one listened. 

Sometimes people struggle to accept the promises of God, not because they are not true, but they haven’t seen Him move, His silence has silenced them. 

“Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.” But Moses said to the Lord, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?” Exodus‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬-‭12‬ ‭

See what happened:-

1. Moses brought good news. 
2. Freedom was coming. 
3. God had spoken. 
4. The Israelites didn’t hear a word of it.

Why?

a. Discouragement. 

They had heard the message but when your circumstances haven’t changed for a while it is possible that your heart is numbed to the promises of God. Discouragement has become the norm for you.

Moses stood there with a word from God, and it bounced off people too discouraged to receive it.

 b. Difficult circumstances.

Obedience doesn’t wait for discouragement to lift or for feelings to change.

Moses is sent straight back into the same response from Pharaoh.

God doesn’t change the circumstances before He sends Moses back into them. Obedience doesn’t wait for things to become easier. 

c. Doubt.

Moses starts rehearsing the failure. “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh?” He’s taking yesterday’s discouragement and using it to calculate tomorrow’s impossibility. Obedience will beat this doubt. You never out-think doubt, you can only out-walk it.

d. Negative rumination.

At some point we all have known the impact of this. We go over the same conversation, we draw up the same conclusion and each time we go lower into the pit of despair. This is what rumination does. It replays the same conversation and situation. 

How do we get out of this?

We will soon see how Moses wasn’t asked to feel differently about the Israelites. Some assignments don’t wait for us to feel more confident. In fact often we are being asked to trust despite a lack of confidence in our ability. 

If God is your Lord and Master then it means you have to receive His promise and believe.  

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’ Exodus‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭

Because He is Lord you have to believe:

1. He will bring you out of that circumstance.
2. He will free you from what traps you.
3. He will redeem you.
4. He will take you as His.
5. He will be your God.
6. He will bring you into a new place.
7. He will give you what He promised. 

Because He is Lord.

No conditions. Not even if you don’t feel much has changed yet. Israel was still in Egypt as slaves when He said it. Israel didn’t feel free. 

He’s not waiting on you to feel free before He acts. He’s not waiting on you to believe it perfectly.

Just an answer to a simple question. 

Is He Lord?!

All my life I have had a fascination with the story of other people. Especially how they have overcome against the odds. I have met incredible people of many cultures. I have also learnt so much from people I have never met and I have often wanted to travel back in time to ask them some questions.

Moses has spent 40 years in Midian looking after sheep. That may have seemed a long time to him, it does me. God was waiting all that time and then steps in with the assumption that Moses would consider having Him as his God, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, his family line had.

“Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” Exodus‬ ‭3‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God is bigger than your own experience of him. That’s the message to Moses. Abraham knew the God of promise. Isaac as the God who provides. Jacob as the God who wrestles and doesn’t let go. Moses is about to need all three. The God of the fathers is the God of the moment, because he was never confined to the moment that came before.

Moses’ response was to his face. He was not going to treat this sacred moment as ordinary. 

Whatever God is doing in your life, a recognition of who has walked this path before us is crucial to understand that He will never ask us to do what others haven’t also been asked to do. The mission is a shared one across history. 

Before Moses can lead a nation out of slavery, he first has to cover his face before the God who was with his fathers and who was, all along, with him too.

The God who called him was not confined to the present even to the newest supernatural sign of the burning bush. He is the God of the fathers and the God of the moment.

Whatever is happening today know that He has already walked with those before you. He was with them and He is never far from you either.

Abraham never owned the land God promised him. 

That ancient reality is applicable to us in 2026. 

We are to live as foreigners where we are. We do it as we continue to walk with God. 

“I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.” Exodus‬ ‭6‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭

Does this sound familiar to you? We are still navigating through a world that we still don’t belong to. We do it holding on to the promises of God we are yet to see fulfilled. 

This doesn’t make us insecure but rather the opposite. We are held securely. 

Living with eyes on the covenant of God give you a settled heart in an u settled place. 

However, there are times when we don’t feel we are held securely. We can experience the taskmaster’s whip. 

So how would you summarise what’s going on for you?

The important truth to remember is what God says: I have heard. I have remembered.

Maybe your very life is groaning for change. God will not ignore this. 

You may be living as a foreigner. What I mean is you could still be waiting for your life and situation to begin to feel like home. 

We can all feel like a foreigner in some way. Whether it be physically in our body or with people, like our marriage or ministry. 

We are just not in the right place. But God will not forget you. Just because it’s very difficult for you this is not the indicator that He has forgotten you. 

He has heard you and He will.

God had a name He’d been saving.

All 3 patriarchs knew Him, but there was a name they had never heard; a name for a redeemer and for a people about to be set free. It was Moses who needed to know God in a way they hadn’t. 

“God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them.” Exodus‬ ‭6‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ 

What stirred the Apostle Paul after all he had seen and discovered of God to say: I want to know Christ?

Did he not already know Christ?

We know the truth that though we know God we also don’t. 

 

Whenever God reveals Himself in the Bible story, He reveals His name, but this is not only an aspect of His character but that of His intention. Foretelling of the coming Messiah Jeremiah says “A king will reign wisely and do what is just and right, he will be called The Lord Our Righteousness” 23:5-6. 

“This is who I am Jehovah Tsidkenu, but this is also what I intend to do.”

Exodus 6:1-3 I appeared as El Shaddai God Almighty but my name Lord/I AM/Yahweh I did not make known.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have never known this name but I am revealing it to you. I am God the redeemer.

Is it possible that you have carried around in your life a picture of God, a revelation of His nature and intention that has not changed since it was first revealed to you?

It is also possible for a whole church to be locked into one aspect of God’s nature eg. The judge. Judgment of sin occupies their preaching, their prayers and principles for ministry. But because of a lack of revelation of God they do not grow in grace, love and mercy.

As revelation changes so does our prayer life. We pray differently, expect differently, we step out in faith to do what we would never have done. We talk about God in ways that use a whole new vocabulary. And our world changes, our home, work or personal lives change. This is because God has given revelation of who He is and what He intends to do.

Revelation is never just information. It’s an invitation.

God doesn’t just want you to know His name. He wants you to know what He’s about to do.

So ask Him. 

Sometimes obedience makes things worse before it makes them better. Moses obeyed, and Pharaoh’s answer was to make things far worse with more bricks and more cruelty.  When obedience seemed worthless, God was about to say the one word that would change everything.

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.” (Exodus 6 v 1-2)

Pharaoh had refused Moses’ request. The people were groaning under heavier bricks and harder taskmasters.

God’s answer to Moses’ why question was a promise. “Now you will see what I will do.”

God lets Pharaoh say no before he shows his mighty hand. He points to His mighty hand twice. The rescue will be all from God. It will be all of Him.

Since you made the decision to obey God, perhaps your situation hasn’t changed, and it could have got worse. But hold on, it is often the exact moment before God says ‘now’. He hasn’t forgotten you; rather, He is about to show you His hand.

Moses did what God asked and it backfired. We have all felt this at some point and we wonder if being obedient was worth it.

“Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” Exodus‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭

Some prayers we pray don’t sound nice. They are not polished. Here is one such prayer. Moses has done the right thing but it is all going wrong. He is now confused about what God is doing and seeks an explanation. 

Obedience doesn’t come with a guarantee that things get easier. Sometimes obedience is the very thing that stirs up the opposition. You forgive someone and the relationship gets colder. You take the step of faith and the money gets tighter. 

Moses assumed obedience should produce immediate relief. Scripture tells us this is a wrong assumption. 

If you’re in a season where doing the right thing hasn’t made things better for you then this is the experience of Moses. Hang in there God hasn’t finished His work. 

The overseers turned on the two men sent to save them. If you have ever led people through hard ground before reaching promised ground, you know exactly how this feels.

“Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way? ¹⁶ Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.” ¹⁷ Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸ Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.” ¹⁹ The Israelite overseers realised they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.” ²⁰ When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, ²¹ and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (Exodus 5 v 15-21)

The overseers did everything right. They went through the proper channels of appealing to Pharaoh with respect. They stated the facts plainly: no straw, same quota and servants beaten for someone else’s failure.

They walked out with nothing changed. There was no merciful adjustment; it was what it was.

Then they found Moses and Aaron waiting.

And instead of anger at Pharaoh, they turned it on the men who’d come to deliver them.

But neither Moses nor Aaron had caused the suffering. They were there in support of the people.

But this is what pressure does. It makes people misdirect their pain toward whoever’s closest.

If you’ve ever led people toward something better and been resented for the discomfort it caused along the way, you can relate to this part of the story.

There are times when even though the answer to prayer is on its way, you are not feeling or seeing it yet.