Exodus 5: The First Step of Obedience

¹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”

² Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”

-Exodus 5:1-2

You would think that God would call Moses, let him announce freedom in Egypt, and the people would walk out on day one. Not so. When Moses and his brother Aaron told Pharaoh God wanted his people free to worship, Pharaoh said no. Even worse, Pharaoh made the work of his slaves more difficult, leading to a backlash against Moses and his freedom plan.

We like to think God’s plans are like landing on free parking in Monopoly. Yet the road God leads us on often lands on the property of others, taxes, jail, other problems in the process of accomplishing his plan (to use Monopoly terms). There is no promise of success or fame in this life. Instead, we are often simply told to “go” without knowledge of whether we will be successful or not. The goal is not success; the goal is obedience.

Today, something will go wrong. You can count on it. When it does, realize it is part of God’s plan. He is not surprised. Rather, it is part of the journey. Regardless of the outcome, our goal must be to take the first step of obedience.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.