Obedience in the Face of Resistance

This powerful message from Exodus 5 confronts us with a truth many of us struggle to accept: obedience to God doesn't always lead to immediate comfort or relief. We journey with Moses as he finally steps into God's call, facing Pharaoh with the famous declaration, 'Let my people go.' But instead of victory, Moses encounters fierce resistance—Pharaoh not only refuses but makes life exponentially harder for the Hebrew slaves. What strikes us most is the raw authenticity of Moses' response. He doesn't offer polished prayers or pretend everything is fine. Instead, he cries out to God with brutal honesty: 'Why did you send me? Things are worse now than before!' This passage challenges our consumer approach to faith, where we expect God to be a divine vending machine dispensing blessings when we push the right buttons. The central tension revolves around a question Pharaoh asks that echoes through our own hearts: 'Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?' We discover that God's call is fundamentally about worship, not comfort. The Hebrews weren't being freed simply for an easier life—they were being freed to worship. When we face our own 'Exodus 5 moments,' when obedience seems to bring more problems than solutions, we're invited to turn to the Lord as Moses did, not back to our own 'Pharaohs'—those comfortable, known quantities we relied on before. The beauty is that unlike the Hebrews in that moment, we can read ahead. We know the Red Sea parts, we know deliverance comes. Our challenge is trusting God in the middle chapters of our own stories.