Terry Rae delivered a fantastic message on March 15 on Moses and obedience, After the initial shock of hearing God’s voice in a “burning” bush, I can imagine Moses listening to God (Exodus 3:6-9) and thinking, “right on, you know it’s tough back there, it’s about time You did something about it.” Then God adds one more phrase, “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh” (Exodus 3:10). Now it gets personal.
Then Moses asked some important questions about his mission, and he brought up some fairly reasonable concerns as to why God would want him to be the deliverer of God’s people. What’s the bottom line? God is calling Moses to obedience.
One of the problems I have constantly faced as a follower of Jesus is the mistake of believing God owes me some sort of an explanation every time He commands me to do something. This has caused me at times to expect God to explain Himself instead of me simply trusting Him enough to do exactly what He says.
I am learning that if I am to be the follower God wants me to be, then I need to be obsessed with obedience rather than expecting an explanation from Him! Imagine if there was an explanation every time God wanted you to do something. He could say, “You need to do this…and when you do it, the following will take place…”
But, I believe one of the reasons He doesn’t waste time with an explanation is because it would lead to negotiation on our part. We would hear His plan and try to “improve” it because, after all, we’re smarter than He is, right?
God’s plans are so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9, Ephesians 3:20) and if He were to try to explain Himself to us, our limited human minds could not handle it. There’s another misconception about God. That His work is all about us! In reality it is all about Him and His Kingdom. That’s why He owes me no explanation.
When we want an explanation, and try to enter into negotiation, it seems reasonable that it will always lead to frustration. There are lots of frustrated believers out there, and it could be because we refuse to obey His voice for no other reason than it doesn’t make sense.
God’s commands don’t always make sense, and we may never know why He asks us to do certain things, but, if we believe He is in charge, then we must believe that every single one of His commands are right. We must believe that He is holy, just and good; and whatever comes from my obedience must also be holy, just and good. God doesn’t owe us an explanation. The fact that He commands us at all or even uses us to do anything amazes me.
So, what is it that you have been putting off? Anything you’ve been asking God for an explanation about? What is it that you know He’s commanded you to do, but it absolutely makes no sense? Stop expecting an explanation. Listen to what He says and then do it!
Saddle up your horses for the great adventure! What a way to live!
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