Past Promises Fulfilled

August 21, 2022

One of the hardest of life’s tasks comes when we know we’ve heard from God, did what he told us to do, and despite our best intentions and efforts, it all blows up in our faces. Disillusionment easily slips into despair as the tempter whispers in our ear just as he did with Eve, “Did God really say…?” Pastors quit ministry, husbands leave wives, young adults get stuck in a morass of doubt and confusion.

In Exodus 5, Moses faithfully obeyed God’s command only to have Pharaoh laugh in his face and throw him out of the palace. Even those beneficiaries of Moses’ efforts, the leaders of the Hebrews, turned against him. He strode in with confidence, and slunk out in defeat. It was a good time to tell God, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

God knew how Moses was feeling, and spoke again to him, reminding Moses of his ancestral history, how God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; promises that had been unfulfilled for 400 years, but which were about to become reality in and through Moses’ leadership. It was as if he was saying, “Be patient, Moses! It’s taken 400 years to get to this point; a few more days isn’t going to hurt.”

In vv. 3-5, God reminds Moses of four facts: He appeared to the patriarchs, he established a covenant with them, and now he has heard the groaning of his people, and  has remembered that covenant. It may have seemed that God didn’t know or care, but he was keenly aware and ready to move.

In vv. 6-8, the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises is laid out. He will bring his people out of slavery, will rescue them from harm, will redeem them (i.e. pay the price for them), will be their God, bring them into the land, and actually give the land to them. 

When failure casts its dark shadow across our path, we need to be reminded of God’s promises in the past,  that he is still in the search and rescue business, and that he has a goal for us far beyond our slave-mentality imagination. We dream of a softer bed and an easier life, but God has even more—a new and better land. It may not be easier, but it is always better.