HIGHER STANDARD (Exodus 4)

God said to Moses in Midian: "Go. Return to Egypt. All the men who wanted to kill you are dead." (Exodus 4:19, MSG)

God repeated the order He had already given to Moses at the burning bush: It's time for you to go back to Egypt. He had answered all of Moses's questions and sent Aaron to meet him. Moses had taken the first step: telling his father-in-law Jethro that he was leaving. 

After Moses had taken the first steps, God stepped in with the reassurance, "all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." 

Why didn't God say so in the first place? Why did God wait until after Moses obeyed to offer reassurance? 

All along, God seems a little abrupt with Moses. If I wrote dialogue like occurs between God and Moses, when He says "And who do you think made the human mouth?", I might say he snapped. God got downright angry when Moses said, "Please send someone else." 

On top of all of that, God didn't deliver that piece of vital information until Moses was packing his bags. 

Purely a guess: But I think God wanted to toughen Moses up. You know that verse that says God won't give anything more than we can handle? I have often retorted that I wish I was weaker, so I wouldn't have to endure so much. (You've read bits and pieces of it in this blog. If you want to read a fuller story of my travails, starting with my daughter's suicide, check out my other blog, http://darlenefranklinwrites.blogspot.com/)

In the near future, Moses would face off with the most powerful ruler of his time, the Pharaoh of Egypt. He would spend 40 years (and not the maximum of eight years afforded to an American president) leading the people of Israel through the desert, their security and well-being resting on his shoulders. Moses had to have absolute, clear-cut, no-questions-asked kind of faith in God to fulfill his calling. 

Of course God supernaturally enabled Moses.

But along the way He toughened him up. Starting with calling him back from Egypt. 

If it ever seems like God has given you more than your fair share of trials--maybe God has something extraordinary He is calling you to do.