The Lord repeated His promises to Moses in our passage yesterday because Moses was very discouraged. His first meeting with Pharaoh did not go well for him and Aaron. It didn't go well for the Israelites either; Pharaoh increased the difficulty of their labor while expecting just as much work to be performed every day. Today Moses goes back to his people and shares what the Lord said to him but no one wants to hear what he has to say. The Lord tells Moses to keep moving ahead anyway and to go back and speak to the king again.
After Moses has time in prayer with the Lord and the Lord reassures him, he goes to the Israelites to try to pass along the reassurance to them. "Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor." (Exodus 6:9) They're angry with him and we can understand why when we consider what they've been through in just a few short days. Moses and Aaron came and spoke to them and convinced them the Lord has seen their misery and is about to rescue them from Egypt. They believed this revelation. They got behind Moses and Aaron and expected something really big to happen quickly. Instead Pharaoh ridiculed the name of God and made the people's work harder than it ever was before. The Israelites feel like they were lifted to a hopeful high only to have their hopes crushed. It would be hard enough to accept such a huge disappointment but on top of their disappointment their circumstances are now worse than they've ever been. They don't want to get their hopes back up only to have them dashed again so they dismiss what Moses has to say.
The Lord tells Moses to keep going. Yes, the people are upset with him right now. No, they don't want to listen. But that doesn't change the Lord's calling on the life of Moses. He's in Egypt for a purpose and he has to keep working toward that purpose even when it looks like nothing he's doing is fruitful. "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.'" (Exodus 6:10)
Moses has just had his words rejected by his own people. He's not inclined to go immediately to see the foreign king again. "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 6:12) He says, "But, Lord, my own people rejected my words! It's only because we share the same heritage that they kindly allowed me into their presence again and let me have my say. If not for sharing the same ancestry I doubt they'd have ever allowed me to see their faces again. So why should an Egyptian king let me speak my piece? If people who actually care about me don't want to listen, why would a wicked heathen king listen? Lord, I told You once before that I'm not a good speaker. I don't have the ability to talk people into things they don't want to do. I'm not a charismatic, persuasive guy and I can't convince them with eloquent words to believe what they don't want to believe. If my own people aren't willing to consider what I'm saying, I hardly expect Pharaoh to be persuaded."
Moses is in a tough spot right now but the Lord has a purpose for it. It's my opinion that this is a training ground for Moses, just like the training ground of those forty years he spent leading fearful stubborn sheep in the wilderness of Midian. Moses has to learn how to negotiate with people. He has to learn how to keep leading even when people are resistant to his leadership. He's building the backbone to keep standing tall even when it seems like nothing he's doing is producing any positive results. For the next forty years he's going to be leading a flock of people in the desert and the skills he's developing right now are going to be necessary then.
We can compare what he's going through to athletic training. Nobody goes from being a couch potato today to running and winning a marathon tomorrow. Training is involved. Strength and endurance have to be developed. Moses has a long race ahead of him and he's got to get ready for it. Is it unpleasant at times? Sure it is. Are there days when he feels like he's not making any progress? Of course. But that's true of any big thing we try to achieve in life. There are going to be days when the work is hard. There are going to be days when we don't feel like we're moving ahead. But if we quit we'll never get there! We can't win if we quit. I think in our passage today Moses would like to quit and go back to herding sheep in Midian. The work appears hard and unfruitful. But he'll never win if he quits and the Lord is telling him not to quit even though he wants to and even though it seems like he's getting nowhere. The Lord isn't a quitter and He plans to be with Moses all the way. In his own strength Moses couldn't fulfill this enormous task, but he doesn't have to do it alone. He's not expected to do it alone. He has the power of Almighty God behind him.
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