Men have a somewhat notorious reputation for not liking to ask for directions.  Deserved or not, I suppose, depends on the man. 

This man, Moses, wasn’t afraid to ask God for direction. So, the forty years of wandering about the wilderness weren’t Moses’ fault.  Moses was going exactly where God was leading the Israelites.  

Maybe aimless geographically, but with a very clear and direct purpose. 

Thousands of rebellious Hebrews were wandering all around the Sinai Peninsula killing time, or being killed by time.  This was the end for any of the ingrates who could only think of their stomachs and their safety even after God brought them out of Egyptian slavery… on dry land… miraculously…through the Red Sea and refused to enter the Promised Land because of unbelief in God.

How easily they and we forget!

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.'” 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” 16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

What about us?  Where are you?  Are you wandering around in unbelief?

Have you thought of asking God for directions?  Have you been grumbling in the wilderness of your life?  How often do we imagine that all this aimlessness is pointless?  When is God finally going to act?

God’s ways involve a circuitous route to a straight line destination.  Life is what happens while we’re busy planning; and it is life, true life, that He desires to give us by taking us on the scenic route, building our faith..

On the scenic journey, we will see things and experience things that prepare us for the Promised Land ahead.  The scenic route is a journey of relationship and of formation and of purification.

Be Still.  I see the straight line because I’m in heaven.  The only reason you see pointlessness is because you can’t see My point. 

Be Still.  I have things planned for you along the journey.  You don’t need to take out a map as long as you have My guidance.

Be Still.  I’m not making you make your own way.  I’m asking you to seek My way.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I’m perfectly serious about how you view Me.

Questions for reflection:

1. Are you still in the hand of God, seeking His direction by faith?  Or are you wrestling, squirming, and wandering in your unbelief?
2. Are you trying to make your own way in this life?  Or are you seeking God and His kingdom first?
3. Read  Jude 1:5 “Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.”  All of the ones who crossed the Red Sea alive were Israelites.  Not all of those ethnic Israelites entered the Promised Land.  What does that say to those of us in the Church and our responsibility to be faithful to God?  Is it enough to call yourself a Christian?  Why or why not?

I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to be up on the mountain top for 40 days with Moses while God was giving him the Ten Commandments. 

Was the view of the surroundings–both the panoramic view and God’s presence–so amazing that it made it hard to concentrate for that long? 

Was God visible in some way or was the scene like a giant fog? 

Was Moses frightened? 

What made Moses’ face shine?

Scripture doesn’t answer any of those things for us.

Exodus 34:1 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.” 4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming,

The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. … 28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant– the Ten Commandments. 29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

Take some time today to remind yourself of the privilege of being in Christ.  How we can access the presence of God because of His work on the Cross–for us!  Remember that we were once on the outside of this special relationship with God.  Separated by our sin.  But that God, in His goodness, chose to make Himself known to us by both His Living Word and His Holy Spirit.  We, too, can know what it’s like to be still in the radiant knowledge of God.

Be Still. You’ve been privileged to hear from Me in special ways: in prayer, in Bible reading, and in song.

Be Still.  My presence is an amazing place.  Enjoy every minute of being with Me.

Be Still.  When you’re in the habit of worshiping the LORD and Me alone,  I will bless you.  This light of life will show in your eyes and on your face.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  Knowledge of Me makes you radiant.

Questions for reflection:

1. Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights with no bread or water.  Read about Jesus and His disciples in John 4:30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. 31 In the meanwhile the disciples were requesting Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  What about the presence of the Father must be sustaining?
2. When is the last time you were still in His presence and knew that amazing place?
3. Have you ever been there?  If not, how might prayer and Bible reading take you to that place?

Herding cats is a good image for how Moses must have viewed his function in leading the Israelites.  They resisted his leading them.  They went their own way at every opportunity.  They didn’t listen to what he said.  They promised to obey and then promptly did what they wanted instead.  They forgot any allegiance to him or to God.  Their independence and finicky nature caused them to be grouchy and picky eaters.

To make matters more difficult, he was outnumbered. Yet, he was place in leadership over them and told to lead them.

Exodus 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?” 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”

At times, leadership is a seemingly impossible task. 

But we can be still in those times knowing what it says in Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said,

With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Be Still.  I put you in leadership and I’m prepared to bring you through it.

Be Still.  Leadership is a privilege and a gift.  I gave you both.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I specialize in the impossible.  Your testimony will shine when you are still even while others who don’t know Me would panic.

Questions for reflection:

1. What task seems impossible today?
2. How can God minister to you when life seems out of control and you feel outnumbered by the rebels you’ve been called to lead?
3. How does a testimony shine more as a genuine Christian is squeezed?

In over your head.  Woefully inadequate for the task.  Feeling really tiny.  Up against the rich and powerful.  Don’t have a prayer if it’s all up to you.  Have you ever felt that way?

Many people called to leadership can relate to how Moses and Aaron must have felt.  Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the world with riches and chariots and a great big army.  Moses was a Pharaoh’s-court-educated-turned-murderer-fugitive-shepherd who didn’t like public speaking.  Aaron was his older brother, another Hebrew, who got roped into being his sidekick.

So they show up and tell the Pharaoh that the LORD wants him to let the Israelite slaves go so they can worship the LORD and be free.

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 5:2)

That went well, Moses, must have thought.  He’d heard that God was going to harden Pharaoh’s heart, but there didn’t appear to be any negotiating room left for Moses here.

Exodus 5:22 Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

Moses came to the LORD with his inadequacy. 

What did God do?

Exodus 6:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”

God reassured Moses that it wasn’t up to him. 

God would take care of Pharaoh and it would be His mighty hand times two…which would leave Pharaoh feeling like he’d waded in over his head.

Be Still.  It’s not all up to you.

Be Still.  I’m working miracles.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I’m bigger and more powerful than anything you’re up against.  You’re not in over your head if you’re in My hand.

Be Still and Know—truly Know—that I AM God.

Questions for reflection:

1. What limits do you place on resources at your disposal when confronting a seemingly impossible situation?
2. What are some factors that cause leaders—more than others—to feel really in over their heads?
3. When things don’t initially go as planned, what do you typically do?  What should you do?

Have you ever been minding your own business, then “BOOM!” –God shows up?  Or maybe you’ve been going about your daily routine and you have a “God Moment” when all of a sudden you’re powerfully aware that He’s really real?  Or perhaps you’ve had a growing sense that some big event is ahead, you turn a corner, see it, and it scares the socks off of you?

That’s the kind of place Moses was in (Exodus 3).  One moment he’s tending sheep.  The next moment—theophany: A visible manifestation of God’s holiness, presence, and glory!

Note Moses’ reactions and how they progress from simple curiosity (Exodus 3:3)…to a servant’s acknowledgement (Exodus 3:4)…to fear (Exodus 3:6)…to self-doubt (Exodus 3:11)…to begrudging obedience (Exodus 4:10-14).

How is it possible to Be Still when you’re scared stiff? 

When your heart is racing and you feel like you’re in a near panic?

Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

Be Still.  I know you’re panicking, but I AM loving as well as holy.  You’re near enough to Be Still so you don’t need to come any closer.  Stay calm.  I AM your place of stillness.

Be Still.  I will guide you through what it means to be My servant.  I AM only asking you to respect that I AM God, there is no other.  Listen to My instructions.  Follow them, and you’ll find yourself experiencing stillness.

Be Still and Know that I AM God. Respect My boundaries and My holiness. The distance between us is not a sign of My disinterest, but of My love for you and protection of you.  My boundaries are not to keep you from Me, but to bring you as close as you can get while keeping you alive in My presence.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I AM not the bush and I AM not the flames.  Let your curiosity draw you close.  Listen to Me and learn from Me.  I want you to know Me as I reveal My character, My ways, and My will to you.

Questions for reflection:

1. How close are you willing to come to God in order to hear Him speaking to you?
2. How willing are you to obey what He tells you?
3. What are some strategies you can take to acknowledge His holiness and your willingness to serve Him?
4. How might understanding God’s holiness and love keep you still when your heart is racing?  Imagine yourself resting in His hand…

As we continue in our series Be Still and Know that I AM God, we look today at protection and vulnerability.  Most of us prefer a place of obvious protection to clearly being vulnerable.

Moses was in a basket floating among the reeds.  If the basket had a leak, he could have drowned.  A fish, a bird, or an Egyptian could have tipped it over and the vulnerable baby Moses could have died.  Had a crocodile had been swimming near, Moses easily could have been the happy meal in a picnic basket.

Dangers abound.  Death is just a ripple of water away.  Moses was hidden there by brave women, including his mother, to protect him from the Pharaoh who was the most powerful man around.  Also a man who wanted Moses dead.

God wasn’t about to let that happen. 

He had big plans for Moses. 

But sometimes big plans have their genesis in humble beginnings. 

Vulnerability, that sense of human frailty, can turn someone into a worrywart who sees the world out of control.  Or it can be powerful instrument in the hand of God to build trust in Him.  Vulnerability is the kind of environment in which humility is born.  Scripture tells us that Moses was a humble man–Numbers 12:3 “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)”–and a helpless infant in a basket qualifies as humble beginnings.

Vulnerability says you have nothing with which to protect yourself. 

Depending on God is your only real option.

Have you ever been in a place of being vulnerable?  What did it feel like?

Be Still.  I’ve got the situation under control

Be Still.  Your life is always in My hands whether you’re feeling vulnerable or not.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Be Still and Know that I AM God. Know what My Word says about Me.  Psalm 72:12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. 13 He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. 14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.”

Questions for reflection:

1. What types of things make you feel vulnerable?
2. What is your reaction to that vulnerability?
3. What strategies can you take to Be Still and Know that He is God?  In Psalm 72 :12-14, there is only one thing we do.  In Psalm 71, we see this in action.  Read Psalm 71 and note the different ways we can cry out.

There are a few scenes from the movie Les Miserables that are firmly planted in my mind.  Jean Valjean, the ex-convict who had served hard labor for stealing bread, has been arrested for breaking parole and stealing silver from the Bishop of Digne.  Brought before the Bishop, he expects retribution and to pay the price once again for stealing.  Instead, the Bishop shows him grace.  Fast-forward a few scenes, we see this same grace played out as Valjean begins to live as a man who knows he had been redeemed from the power of evil.  Over and over again, Valjean exhibits grace to others even while he is confronted with the law in the person of Inspector Javert whose obsession with the law simply cannot understand grace.  It’s a powerful movie and an even more powerful book.  The book’s author, Victor Hugo, wrote this about Les Miserables:

The book which the reader has under his eye at this moment is, from one end to the other, as a whole and in detail, whatever may be its intermittences, exceptions and faults, the march from evil to good, from the unjust to the just, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. Point of departure: matter; point of arrival: the soul. The hydra at the beginning, the angel at the end.

Grace is hard to understand.  Most of us expect retribution.

Such is the case with Joseph’s brothers.  Genesis 37:2 This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

The brothers knew they had sold Joseph into slavery after hating him for giving their father Jacob a bad report.  They thought Joseph deserved it though.  After all, he was a snitch, an arrogant dreamer, and their daddy’s favorite son.  Where are you, sons of Jacob?  Selling your own brother, because of what?  Jealousy?

Fast-forward a few chapters (Genesis 45) and Joseph is powerful in Egypt.  He recognizes his brothers right away.  Eventually Joseph reveals himself to his brothers.  Where are you now, sons of Jacob?

The 10 brothers feared retribution. 

Joseph taught them grace.

Had Joseph not had the prison time, success and power could have gone to his head, and retribution would have been all too easy.

After all, Law is always easier than Grace.

But grace is a jewel of the heart, cut in stillness.  It is formed in the fire of time alone with God when human desires for retribution and self-vindication are purged and what’s left at the end is the kind of love God has for His enemies.

Where are you?  Are you still fearing retribution and punishment?  Or do you know this jewel of the heart called grace?

Be Still.  I AM with you.

Be Still.  I will avenge and restore.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I AM known by My love and I AM known for My grace.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I AM bringing you by the hand, through the valley of the shadow of retribution’s death and into the light and life of grace.

Questions for reflection:

1.  Read Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  How does this show grace?
2. Do you agree with the statement, “Law is always easier than Grace?”  Why or why not?
3. Have you ever been in the painful place of stillness as God cuts the jewel of grace in your heart so that you will be able to truly love your enemies?  If yes, what has that been like?  If no, would you want to enter that painful place in order to learn grace?  Why or why not?

Genesis 42:1 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?” 2 He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” 3 Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. 5 So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also. 6 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. 7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.” 8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 9 Then he remembered his dreams about them…

Well, well, well.  A mighty interesting predicament you’re in.  You’re starving.  I have grain.  You’re here on a mission because you’re in want.  I’m here in charge of everything you need and are looking to gain from me.

Where are you, Joseph?  I’m in a position of great power over my brothers…and with great power, period.  I’m at the pinnacle of success and among men, only Pharaoh is greater than I.

Had Joseph not spent plenty of time in prison, a chip may have remained on his shoulder.  But the loneliness and forgotten years of prison had been fruitful.  Tears and time had softened his heart, eroded his pride, and made him malleable in the hand of the God who never left him.  He was truly at the pinnacle of earthly success because he had power and wealth and wisdom, too.  He was wise enough to know the God who had been with him in the pit, who was with him in Potiphar’s house, who was with him in prison, and who was the same God who put him at the pinnacle for a while.

Fame, success, power, wealth—all these things are ones the world treasures as signs of a great life.  One quick look at all the child stars who end up really mixed up, athletes who make awful and unlawful decisions and act as though they can’t be touched, rock stars who overdose on drugs, as well as politicians who break laws they have written and face just punishment—all of this testifies to how success can really, truly ruin a person.

Or as Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

Not Joseph.  He valued his relationship with God over all this power.  What poses a stumbling block to stillness in so many people’s lives—success—was for Joseph the high point from which a life of faith can shine.  That pinnacle can be a place of stillness, but only if one meets God there and humbly remembers that God is still higher.

Be Still.  Value your relationship with Me above all else and you will be rewarded. 

Be Still.  I want for your faith to shine from the highest places. 

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I raise up and I will keep you humble.  Trust in Me.   Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.”

Questions for reflection:

1. What successes have been your proudest achievements?  To whom did you give the credit?  What have these done to your relationship with God?
2. Read Paul’s words.  Philippians 4:11 “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”  How does his perspective show he understood stillness before God?
3. What are some positive steps you can take today to put achievement in perspective and be still at the pinnacle of success?