Here is a false premise you have more than likely heard before: Because there is pain and suffering in the world, there must be no God. Such a skeptical stance is rooted in a deeply broken purview. Furthermore, there is a revealing and incriminating problem found within that false premise: If we remove God from the equation, whom do we blame for all the pain and suffering? Since there is still pain and suffering, that means humanity must own up to being part of the grave issue. The reality is that it is easy to settle for becoming inactive blame-shifters instead of being purposefully proactive.
In Exodus 3:1-15 we see the extraordinary exchange between Moses and the theophanic burning bush (God appearing in a visible form). Being drawn by curiosity after forty years of tending sheep and hiding in the wilderness, Moses and his divine encounter teach us some wonderful truths and insights about God and His character.
#1: God is always motivated by love. God’s motivation and essence are always fueled by love. Psalm 145:8 declares, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” God’s love is not a limited commodity. God is love and He is infinite; therefore, He is eternally concerned for you, me, and all of humanity. Psalm 119:64 states, “The earth is filled with your love, Lord.” The psalmist reveals the world to us as a place where the space is filled, not with anger and wrath, but instead with God’s magnificent love.
Have you ever flown to Los Angeles during the daytime and seen the shocking layer of thick smog? Astonishingly, as you drive along the city’s coastline, you will see people exercising and working out (and subsequently breathing heavily) in an attempt to stay healthy, but they are seemingly unaware of what they are breathing into their lungs.
Is it possible that the earth is filled with God’s love, but most of us are just completely unaware of it? In our main passage from Exodus, God clearly tells Moses that He has seen His people’s pain and He is going to respond. God then informs Moses that His response is to cause Moses to action. Verse 10 shares, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
#2: Love requires action. Our love is revealed in how we act and respond to others. Scripture reveals in 1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” In other words, don’t just say that you love; you must actually show it! We can talk a good act, “I love God and I love people,” but do we really love them? Love is demonstrated in how we act toward people.
In light of all that God reveals to him, Moses responds by giving excuses (unfortunately, many of us can relate all too well to this). Despite his ill attempts of deflection, God redirects him toward action. Exodus 4:1-2 reveals, “Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A staff,’ he replied.” The same staff that Moses had used to tend sheep in the wilderness became the very tool God uses to display His miraculous power. The unique challenge is we must respond missionally with what we already have and not settle for amounting and disabling excuses.
#3: God chooses people to be the instruments of His love for the world. God selects individuals like you and me to reach, serve, and impact humanity. It is mind-blowing to realize that God, to whom nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37), chooses to use us despite all of our limitations, failures, and excuses. As God chose and used Moses to change the world, He also has chosen and wants to use you to change the world that is all around you.
A dear friend and personal mentor, Dr. Mark Rutland, shared with me that when he was ministering in Thailand back in the 80s, he received a late-night knock on the door of the hotel where he was staying. Standing at his door was a Thai man with three preteen girls and, assuming Rutland was from Germany, began to speak to him in German. Rutland told the Thai man that he was American to which the man immediately switched and spoke to him in perfect English. He told Rutland that he had these three girls and offered them to him “for a good price” to do “whatever he wanted with them” for the night. Rutland was horrified and completely aghast at the vile proposition and instinctively replied, “This is awful! I am going to call the police on you.” The Thai man shoved him back and said, “I own the police. Go ahead and call them. They won’t throw me in jail, but they will through you in there.” Having the door then slammed shut in his face, Rutland was left incredulous and speechless at what transpired. Mustering some sense of courage in the moment, he opened the door to try and track the man down again; but, alas, they were nowhere to be found in the hotel. The next morning while having breakfast with a local pastor, he was still reeling from the vile encounter, and he kept bringing up the atrocity of it all. The pastor just kept saying things like, “You know, it happens. It is a rampant issue here.” Finally, Rutland was so put off that he blurted out, “Somebody ought to do something!” The pastor gently looked up at him and said, “Well, you are somebody.”
We live in a broken world filled with all kinds of unimaginable pain and suffering. It is easy to look around at it all and become overwhelmed to the point where we begin to blame others or settle for doing nothing assuming somebody will eventually do something. May I remind you that you are somebody? Following that haunting event and subsequent challenge, Dr. Rutland returned home to the States and then endeavored to launch a girls’ home in northern Thailand called “House of Grace” that rescues little girls before they are sold into human trafficking and the slave trade. They are sponsored from kindergarten all the way through college and are also given housing, food, and constant care. Currently, over 90 girls are at the Thailand House of Grace, and one of the recent graduates, who went on to Law School, was just appointed as the first female judge in northern Thailand.
It is time to get going.Look at what is in your hands and start right where you are byreaching the onearound you.