Title: Obstacles to Obedience
Contents
obstacles to obedience
Exodus 7:1-7
Verse 6 of today's text says, "Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them." Moses listened carefully to God's word. It was obedience to the word of God.
In fact, from today's text onwards, Moses thoroughly obeyed God's Word.
Moses was a man of obedience enough to set a model for us believers.
However, Moses did not obey God's word that way from the beginning.
I put up with God's word and said that I couldn't, and I put conditions on God, and I really upset God, and even made him angry.
Then, I came to the text and obeyed God's command without arguing.
Just like a dog returning from hard training at the training camp and finally obeying its master, Moses just finished the training course and obeyed God's word.
So, verse 6 is the same word as the declaration that Moses finally became a man of obedience.
Then why had Moses not been so obedient until now? What prevented Moses from obeying?
Perhaps we have the same problem and it is difficult to obey. Let's look at this point and find a lesson to obey before God.
First, because of a misunderstanding of qualifications.
In Exodus 3:10, God commanded Moses, “Now I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses answered, “No!”
3:11 “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” In a word, you can't go. The reason is that he is not qualified.
There is nothing wrong with Moses. Although Moses was a Jew, he was the son of Pharaoh's princess and grew up in Pharaoh's royal palace. Of course, he received religious education in secret from his mother, but his education was that of royalty in Egypt.
And he lived for 40 years as a royal family in Egypt.
Not only that. For another 40 years, I lived with the Midianites in the wilderness of Midian, married a Midianite woman, had children, started a family, and lived a Midianite lifestyle.
It seems impossible for him to come out in front of the people of Israel and lead them out of Egypt with more than 600,000 men as a leader.
So Moses refused because he was not qualified to go.
Today, there are many times when we think like Moses, but sometimes when we do the Lord's work, we give up on ourselves by setting our own qualification standards. "I've only recently believed in Jesus... I'm a layman... I haven't saved my husband yet... I don't know how to pray properly..." Often times.
Sometimes, I think that it is appropriate to raise my own qualification criteria. “Because I have believed in Jesus for the longest time... Because I have a unique gift... I am always in a position to look like this...” There are many people who misunderstand God's calling because of the qualifications they have set for themselves.
However, it is my standard and my thoughts, and the important thing is that God's standards and thoughts are different.
Then, in Exodus 3, Moses gives an excuse that he cannot go before God, and God answered that excuse.
In God's answer, we can find the true qualifications that God considers.
One is in Exodus 3:13, when Moses gives excuses to God, saying, “If I go to the children of Israel and say, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you, they will ask me, ‘What is his name? Is it hari?” I mean who sent it to do this.
In Exodus 3:14, God said, “I am who I am, and he said, ‘Thus you say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.” Simply put, it is the condition of qualification that God sent.
The necessary and sufficient qualifications for us to do the Lord's work are that God has called us, God established us, and God has entrusted us with the work.
Another is the fact that God is with us.
In Exodus 4:1, Moses gives this excuse to God again, “But they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.
In Exodus 4, God shows two signs. The first is the sign of turning a staff into a snake and then turning a snake into a staff. The second is the sign that He changed the hand to the hand of a leper and then restored it back to normal.
Simply put, what God is with us is the condition for our qualifications to do the Lord's work.
When we do the Lord's work, a sufficient qualification is faith in the conviction that God is with us now.
If we can experience that God hears my prayers, opens the way for me, and is personally intervening and working in this work, we will be able to think that we are qualified to do this work.
Second, because of a misunderstanding of ability.
In Exodus 4, God made a promise to Moses that He would be with him and also told how to show specific signs.
Then, I would have to go ahead and obey, but Moses still says “No!”.
The practical reason for Moses' refusal is also found in 4:10, "Lord, I am not fluent in words, and even after you commanded your servant, I am a stiff-mouthed and dull-tongued one." Because he is not good at speaking, it is difficult to convey God's will to the people of Israel properly and it is difficult to convey God's commands to Pharaoh.
There are times today when we think like Moses. When I think of the mission I received from the Lord, I am not confident enough to bear it. Because he doesn't have that kind of power. So I make excuses. “Lord, I am not in good health… Lord, I have not learned anything… Lord, I am not good at talking…” He uses his incompetence as an excuse.
All the great ministers of the Bible confessed their incompetence before God.
“I am a small child. I can't even be a worm. I can't even do a dry stick. I am a sinner…”
In Exodus 4, God answered Moses, who endured that he could not go because he had no power.
From that answer, we can discover what kind of ability we need to strengthen and move forward.
One is the fact that we do it by the power of God, not by our power.
Exodus 4:12 says, “Go now, and I will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what to say.” This means that when we do what the Lord has entrusted to us, we do not do it in our own strength, but in His power.
That's right. When David went before Goliath, he shouted that he was going out in the name of the Lord of hosts.
It is not that we go out by our own power, but that we go out by the power of God.
When we carry out the work the Lord has entrusted to us, we must not forget that we do it with the Lord's strength, not our own.
The other is that God fills it.
But fear, God said in Exodus 4:16, “He will speak to the people for you, and he will replace your mouth, and you will be like God to him.”
That's right. we lack We try to bear with the gifts we have been given and the abilities we have been given, but we always feel inadequate. But God makes up for that lack.
The Lord touched the small amount of food that only one person could eat, including five fish and one barley loaf, brought by Philip. You filled that gap. Yes, even after 5000 people ate, there were still 12 Gwangjuli left We should not look at our shortcomings, but look at the hand of the Lord who fills us.
Third, because of the fear of failure.
In Exodus 4, Moses reluctantly decided to obey God's word and went to the people of Israel.
Thankfully, they followed Moses well.
They did what God told them to do, and they accepted Moses and decided to follow Moses' leadership.
But a problem arose. In Exodus 5, Moses went straight ahead. I obeyed what God said and told me what to say. But Pharaoh's reaction is very cold.
On the contrary, it was counterproductive, and Pharaoh treated the Israelites even more harshly, thinking that the people of Israel were lazy and leisurely and asked them to go to the wilderness to offer sacrifices.
The people were astonished and asked why they were making it so difficult, saying that it was because of Moses.
In 5:21, “They make us an abomination in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, and they put swords in their hands to kill us.” Moses again refused, saying, “No!” to God.
Exodus 5:22 says, “Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have you made this people oppressed, and why have you sent me?” Moses received and obeyed God’s command, but it did not go as he intended.
I have tasted failure.
So they are complaining to God. He refused obedience.
Today we have times like this. You experience failure while doing the Lord's work.
There are times when we run into an unexpected reef and run aground while following the Lord's command.
So there are times when that experience of failure makes us disobey God's Word.
This is what God said to Moses.
Verse 5 says, “The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand upon Egypt and bring the children of Israel out of the land.”
It may fail many times in the future, but it will eventually succeed.
That's right. When we do the Lord's work, we should not be afraid of failure.
You have to believe and obey in the end. We are the ones who see the ultimate victory.
A person who overcomes momentary failures and advances toward the final victory. So, in the end, he is the one who gets the ultimate victory.
Dear all! There are many times when we do not obey the Lord's word even after we hear it.
Misunderstandings about qualifications, misunderstandings about abilities, and fear of failure stand in the way.
I hope you overcome these things and obey the word of the Lord.