Dearest Friends in Harvest,
Praise God from whom all blessings come and that you and yours are enjoying His blessings that he daily loads us with.
I love the story of Moses and how he was used by God to lead Israel out of slavery after 400 years. You have heard that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and for sure the Pyramids and the Sphinx were not either. Let me give you a peak at what Moses had to deal with.
Exodus chapter 6:
6 Therefore, say to the children of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will free you from their bondage. I will redeem and rescue
you with an outstretched (vigorous, powerful) arm and with great acts of judgment [against
Egypt]. 7 Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that
I am the Lord your God, who redeemed you and brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 I will bring you to the land, which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
(Israel); and I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord [you have the promise of My
changeless omnipotence and faithfulness].’” 9 Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did
not listen to him because of their impatience and despondency, and because of their forced
labor.
Have you ever considered that the job of a pastor is much like the job of Moses? Some may ask “how could that be possible?” It is possible that our responsibility is to lead those who have been slaves to sin into the promises of God. The people did not listen to what Moses reported to them because of their “discouragement and harsh labor”. The word discouragement in Hebrew is; GOTSER which is pronounced: (KOTSER)…it means to cut down, harvested or lack of spirit. In 400 years, generations had done and gone, they lived and died as slaves. Just like people who have been born into families who have been slaves to the culture they live in, they become slaves to what family after family have experienced. Do you think they prayed? Do you think that felt abandoned? The Bible says that, “God heard their prayers and saw their tears and came down to deliver.”
Then enters Moses, not from out of the blue but out of the backside of the desert, with a message of hope. But “hope deferred makes the heart sick”. The hearts of the people were “Kotsered”. They felt like they had been harvested and their souls had been harvested by Pharaoh. It was as though they had nothing else left which was still theirs, not even their souls. Did you know that the Giant Redwoods in California have a root system that only goes down four or five feet? You may have a hard time believing this, but although they have shallow roots, they are spread out four or five acres. The roots spread out and entangle around each other. What a beautiful picture of the church. The strength of the trees is in their connection with the other trees of the giant forest. Winds and storms cannot move them because they are connected. Ultimately, Israel, who had learned to work together producing something that has stood the test of time, has survived not only because they had worked together but because they were connected to God.
Yours in His service,
Pastor Cleddie