I AM the LORD! ∙∙

I AM the LORD! ∙∙

They did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. – Exodus 6:9

Exodus 6:1-9

1 Then the LORD told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave his land!”

2 And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh – ‘the LORD.’”

3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai – “God Almighty” – but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them.
4 And I reaffirmed my covenant with them. Under its terms, I promised to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as foreigners.

5 You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. And I am well aware of my covenant with them.
6 Therefore, say to the people of Israel: “I am the LORD. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment.”

9 So Moses told the people of Israel what the LORD had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.

Dr. Shane Lopez, a Senior Scientist at Gallup and one of the world’s foremost experts on hope, dedicated his life to understanding and spreading this vital emotion. He believed that hope is both contagious and life-changing. Here are some of his observations. “The tiny ripple of hope you set in motion can change the path of someone’s life. Hope is created moment by moment through our deliberate choices. It happens when we use our thoughts and feelings to temper our aversion to loss and actively pursue what is possible. How we think about the future – how we hope – determines how well we live our lives.”

Dr. Lopez identified several ways we can foster hope in ourselves and others:

• Modeling hope by treating others with the compassion, love, and kindness we also wish to receive.
• Caring enough to support others who are in need of help.
• Becoming a Super-Empowered, Hopeful Individual, someone who believes that the future can be brighter and who works to make it happen despite the obstacles in their way (psychologytoday.com).

Hope, however, does not mean the absence of struggle. The late Billy Graham once said, “The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’”

Similarly, Joyce Meyer observed that “Depression begins with disappointment. When disappointment festers in our soul, it leads to discouragement.” Yet, the spark of hope allows us to endure.

As James Whitcomb Riley put it, “The most essential factor is persistence – the determination never to allow your energy or enthusiasm to be dampened by the discouragement that must inevitably come.”

Hope also requires trust in God’s promises. When the Father makes a promise, the children of the King can rest in the certainty that it will be fulfilled. But often, before a promise comes to fruition, the Father shakes up the status quo. When He revealed Himself at Mount Sinai, the earth shook. In the future, when He shakes both the heavens and the Earth, as Hebrews 12:26-27 explains, God’s purpose in this shaking is to remove what can be shaken—to strip away what is temporary—so that only the eternal things remain.

This process can feel unsettling, but it’s also where hope thrives. Through the trials, disruptions, and changes, God calls us to focus on what is unshakable. And it’s in those moments of challenge that the ripple of hope begins to grow, transforming us and those around us. When we choose hope, we align with the Father’s eternal plan, trusting that even in the midst of the shaking, He is preparing something far greater than we can imagine.

Just as the Father shakes the heavens and the earth, He often shakes His children—not to harm them, but to refine and prepare them. Yet, we rarely welcome such moments of upheaval. We tend to see them as interruptions or sources of discomfort, especially when they make things feel worse before they get better.

When Moses returned from Mount Sinai, he approached Pharaoh as God had commanded him, boldly asking that the Israelites be set free from their slavery. But instead of liberation, Moses faced rejection. Pharaoh refused and, in retaliation, increased the burden on the Israelites. Now, they were tasked with making bricks without being given straw. Misery deepened. Moses, disheartened by Pharaoh’s response and the people’s suffering, felt he had failed. He blames himself and questions why the Lord asked him to do it in the first place.

Many of us can identify with Moses. He started his mission with zeal, full of faith that the Lord’s plan would succeed. But when everything crumbled, he fell flat on his face. Frustration and self-doubt kicked in, and he complained and whined. Why would God choose someone so inadequate for such an important task? But that was precisely the reason the Father chose Moses. His inadequacy left room for God’s power to be revealed.

Sadly, Moses wasn’t the only one consumed by negativity. After 400 years of backbreaking servitude and making bricks, what could be worse? Try making bricks without straw.

Exodus 6:9 tells us that the people wouldn’t even listen to Moses because of their crushed spirits.

The word translated as crushed is qotser. Qotser has the sense of “broken,” “discouragement,” or “despondency”—literally means “shortness.” When paired with spirit (ruach), it conveys impatience, exhaustion, and utter defeat. The Israelites were overwhelmed by despair. Beaten down, discouraged, and depleted, they became heartsick and just gave up.

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is like a tree of life.

The Israelites’ hope had been deferred for so long that they couldn’t imagine anything changing. Their current pain blinded them to the future promise of freedom. Charles Stanley captures the moment. “When we feel oppressed, and our spirit groans, it is difficult for us to believe the good promises of God regarding our welfare.” Instead of being long-suffering, they figured they had suffered long enough. They had had enough. All hope was lost.

But just as God’s shaking strips away what is temporary to reveal what is eternal, He was working behind the scenes to fulfill His promise to the Israelites. Though they couldn’t see it, their liberation was near. Sometimes, the darkest moments aren’t signs of God’s absence—they’re the moments just before His greatest work is revealed.

When our spirits feel crushed and victory seems impossible, by faith, we remember that the Father’s promises never fail. He has a way of using the storms of life to prepare us for the blessings ahead.

In the heat of the moment, sadly, we are blinded and lose hope.

REFLECT & PRAY

Physical suffering pains our bodies, but emotional suffering and discouragement bring leanness to our souls and ravage our hearts.

Father, remind me again and again and bring to my mind that no matter what my circumstances are or how gloomy and dire my situation seems to be, your answer always begins, “I am the LORD!”

INSIGHT

The irony is that initial failure lays the groundwork for ultimate success. Pessimism and doubt are the fertile soil in which promises are fulfilled.

Matthew 19:26 With God, all things are possible.

The Scriptures are filled with examples of the Father accomplishing the impossible, especially when all hope seems lost. Consider a few awe-inspiring events: raising Lazarus from the dead, protecting the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace, parting the Red Sea, sending angelic armies to defend Elisha and Gehazi, and the greatest miracle of all—the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The issue has never been with the Father’s power or faithfulness. The difficulty lies in our discouragement and lack of faith. The Father desires for us to know and believe that He is the answer to all our problems and circumstances. Our physical, emotional, and eternal well-being depends solely on His unchanging character and attributes.

Why did the Father allow Moses to fail at the very beginning of his mission when he first approached Pharaoh? Perhaps if Pharaoh had released the nation of Israel the first time Moses asked, Moses would have received most of the credit. Instead, his attempt completely backfired, and he had to shoulder all the blame.

The people became convinced that Moses was incapable of leading them to the Promised Land. Only the Father could bring them out of Egypt by His mighty hand (Exodus 32:11). As Moses and Pharaoh quarreled over the release of Israel from bondage, it became increasingly clear that the Father was teaching His people to place all their trust in Him. In due time, they discovered that when all else failed, the one thing they could count on was the One who declared, “I am the LORD” (Ryken and Hughes).

“Exodus is a God-centered book with a God-centered message that teaches us to have a God-centered life. Whatever problems we have, whatever difficulties we face, the most important thing is to know who God is. We are called to place our trust in the One who says, ‘I am the LORD.’ . . . When nothing seems to go right, and it is not certain how things will ever work out – even then he says, ‘I am the LORD’” (Ryken and Hughes).

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© Dr. H 2024