Believed

DEVOTION

EXODUS

BELIEVED

Ex 4:27-31

27 The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform. 29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

NIV

So we now have both Moses and Aaron back in Egypt, or at least Moses. We cannot be certain where exactly Aaron had been all this time. If he was among the other Israelites, how did he get out of Egypt undetected? For that matter how did they get back in? Weren’t the Israelites slaves and under guard of the Egyptians? Well our lesson is not in that matter anyway, but in the response of the people to Moses and Aaron. We have a people who have the heritage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They certainly had the stories handed down to them about Joseph and all he did, bringing them into Egypt to save them from famine. Now it has seemed they have sort of forgotten about God until their misery was so great, then they cried out and he heard their cries and so here is Moses with his brother Aaron. Aaron does the talking and Moses does the miracles and now the people believe and bow down to worship. Why did it take a miracle for them to believe God was concerned about them? God had certainly given Moses the miracles to perform so they would not doubt, but believe what they were being told what he was going to do. There is no question this man was given a miracle in order for him to believe. Does God give everyone some sense of a miracle in order for them to believe? We know Jesus said that we are blessed because we believe and have not seen. But was he talking about seeing himself or just seeing the miracles he did? Nevertheless, God is still in the miracle business, in fact he has gifted his people with doing miracles as part of the gifts of the Spirit. Yet God does still perform miracles so people will believe. But is that what it takes in order for us to truly bow down and worship? Shouldn’t we bow down and worship just because he is God? We have all the history of mankind and their interactions with God to know he is who he is and that alone should cause us to bow down and worship. Yet he continues to prove he is God, so some of us will believe. The miracles Moses did in the presence of the people gave them hope even in their misery. Although we might experience some form of misery in our lives, we too can have hope because God is concerned about us. If we are not certain of that hope, God might just show us another miracle, or he may not. But the fact remains, he is concerned about us. The greatest demonstration of his concern is Jesus. But he continues to show us his power in order for us to believe. Those who believe and have never experienced any of his power or miracles in their lives are truly blessed for their faith must be far greater than those of us who needed a miracle to believe. Nevertheless, there it was and here they are, miracles done so people will believe God was concerned about them and about us. We believed.