The Scrolls is a weekly Bible study written by pastors and other leaders at Central Bible Church, based on that week’s sermon topic. Use The Scrolls as a personal Bible study tool, for family devotions, and for small group discussions. You can read part of it below. The downloadable PDF also includes discussion questions, more in-depth commentary, end notes, and a kids’ page designed for families to study the topic together. This lesson goes with the sermon "God's People Pay a Price."
Faith and patience go hand-in-hand. After commenting on the faith of Abraham and his family, the author of the book of Hebrews writes: “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth” (11:13). “All these people” refers to Abraham and his family, and “the things promised” refers to the things promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. One commentator explains: “That ‘they did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance’ alludes to the content of God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3; 15:5; 17:1-8. The possession of the land, the multitude of descendants (including those who would be kings), and the blessing of the nations all would be fulfilled in a time after Abraham and his immediate family passed from the scene” (George H. Guthrie, The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews, 378). During his lifetime, Abraham did receive the son whom God promised, but only after the patriarch turned one hundred and his wife turned ninety, twenty-five years after the promise was given.
Another example of the link between faith and patience is evident in the opening chapters of Exodus. God told Abraham his promised descendants would be enslaved in a foreign country for four hundred years but afterward would be brought out with great possessions (Ge 15:13-16). That both Jacob and Joseph believe God’s promise—i.e., have faith—is evident in the fact that Jacob is buried in Canaan, not in Egypt (Ge 46:4; 49:29-32; 50:12-14), and in the fact that Joseph, although buried in Egypt, demands his bones be exhumed and taken to Canaan when God keeps his promise to emancipate the Israelites (Ge 50:24-25). But neither Jacob nor Joseph lives to see the Exodus.
And neither do the generations of Hebrews who die in Egypt, whose oppression is documented in Exodus 1. In fact, deliverance isn’t imminent until eighty years after the birth of God’s deliverer, Moses. Following his call (3:10) and after some negotiation, Moses returns to Egypt to meet with the elders of Israel to tell them about God’s theophany and his intention to rescue them. Everything is looking up until it isn’t. Moses and Aaron gather the elders, tell them everything the Lord said to Moses (3:16-17), perform the authenticating signs God gave (4:2-9), and they believe. Afterward, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, but he refuses to let the people go “a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord” (5:1-3). Instead, he decides if they have enough time on their hands to plan a festival, they have too much time on their hands, so he makes their work harder. He tells them in so many words, “Find your own straw to make bricks. It will no longer be provided.” By the way, “Neither will your quota of bricks be reduced.” Of course, when the Israelite foremen are unable to meet his unreasonable demands, they are beaten, which causes them to rail against Moses and Aaron: “May the Lord look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us” (5:21). Things get worse for the Israelites before they get better.
As one commentator observes, “Exodus 5:1-21 shows us that God’s direct involvement in the affairs of his people does not guarantee immediate results . . . The problem here is not so much that Pharaoh refuses to let the Israelites go. God said that would happen (3:19). Rather, the problem is that the people, whom Moses had just won over to his side (4:29-31), begin to grumble. They are worse off after the initial confrontation than before, and as a result the people begin to resist Moses, and the whole plan begins to unravel before his eyes. One would expect Pharaoh to be less than receptive to Moses’ words, but the Israelites’ reaction is disconcerting to say the least” (Peter Enns, The NIV Application Commentary: Exodus, 161). The people simply run out of patience.
Central Message of the Text
Don’t let unforeseen delays and setbacks shake your faith in what the LORD has promised to do.
Family Talk
Stuck in the weeds is an idiom that suggests you’re feeling completely overwhelmed with the task at hand and the pace is so driven you’re unable to keep up. Do you ever feel this way in parenting? There have definitely been times I have felt the insurmountable task of parenting, the burden of discipline combined with the push for discipleship, that I’ve just thrown my hands in the air and given up. High frustration plus low patience equals bad mommy (or daddy) in any parenting equation. Again, here are the weeds, threatening to choke me out of blooming as the parent God designed me to be. What makes it even more difficult is when you’re trying hard to follow the Lord. Soon after taking the role of Children’s Minister, I was faced with a giant parenting challenge and I remember crying out, “God, I answered your call and I’m doing what you asked of me. Why is parenting so hard?!” In reading about the Israelites being pushed to their breaking point, it’s easy for us to shout from the sidelines, “Hold on! God has a plan!” We know the end of the story; we know about the Red Sea parting and the great deliverance of the Israelites. We may not know the end of the story, what kind of adult our child will turn out to be, but God certainly does. He has an aerial view and is inviting us to come along with faith and trust. What’s causing you to be stuck in the weeds today? I’m praying your patience in parenting grows exponentially and God blesses your family.