“The Darkness Deepens” – FBC Morning Light (1/28/2025)

Well, a good morning to you. I'd like to encourage you for the journey ahead today with a few thoughts from the book of Exodus in chapters 5 and 6. Maybe you've had this experience that you get some message of hope, and you're excited about what you think is coming, but it doesn't work out that way, and things get darker and more difficult and more challenging instead of better.

Israel’s Hope Before the Exodus Turns to Suffering

Well, this is where Moses and the children of Israel find themselves in chapter 5. At the end of chapter 4, Moses has returned to Egypt, and he gathers people together, the leadership of Israel together, and he says, God's appeared to me, and he's told me that he knows what's going on, he sees your plight, and he's going to deliver you, and he sent me to deliver you from this bondage in Egypt.

The people hear this message, and at the end of chapter 4, it says, the people believed when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and he looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and they worshiped.

It's like the momentum is now in our favor, and God is with us, and God is going to deliver us, and all we have to do is just look forward with joy and hope and anticipation, because this deliverance is coming, it's right around the corner, we can smell it, we can feel it, we know it's here.

Pharaoh’s Refusal Makes the Darkness Deeper

Chapter 5 opens with Moses going in before Pharaoh and telling Pharaoh, Lord said to me that you need to let my people go. Pharaoh says, what do you mean, let your people go? I'm not going to let your people go, there's no way, I'm not going to go, why would I do that?

He refuses to do it, and Moses leaves, and as soon as he leaves, Pharaoh gets the taskmasters of the Hebrews, and he says to them, you need to make their work more difficult. Instead of giving them straw for the making of bricks, let them go find their own straw, and don't change the tally for the number of bricks they do.

In other words, you're going to make their lives more miserable, make their task much more difficult. This is often the case in life, isn't it? Often things get far worse. The darkness deepens even more before deliverance comes, and in that darkness, and as things get more difficult, it seems like the deliverance is not going to come, that it is elusive, that the promise of that deliverance was a pipe dream, it's not real, it's not really going to happen.

It is here where our faith is tested, when it seems that the Lord isn't working at all, that his promises will not come to pass. Even Moses succumbs to such despair. At the end of chapter 5, he says to the Lord, why have you brought this trouble on this people?

Why is it you've sent me? Because Pharaoh hasn't done anything to deliver the people, instead he's done nothing but evil to this people, and you haven't delivered your people at all. The Lord comes to Moses and he says, hang on, I'm going to bring these people out with a strong hand, you're going to see it, and with a strong hand, Pharaoh and the people of Egypt are going to drive my people out of the land of Egypt.

He's encouraging Moses with what's going to happen, this is going to happen, I promise you, it will happen. Moses is encouraged, Moses believes that God is going to do this, and so he goes back to the people in verse 9 of chapter 6, and he tells the people what God came and said to him.

The Promise of Deliverance and the People’s Discouragement

Moses is excited again, Moses has just heard from God again, and God's promised that the deliverance is going to come. Moses goes back to the people, says, hey, hang on, God's going to deliver us, he's going to deliver you, be encouraged.

But the end of verse 9 says this, they did not heed Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. Again, I wonder, have you experienced this in your own life, that when the burdens are unbearably heavy and your spirit has been crushed with disappointment and despair, someone comes along and puts their arm around you and tries to encourage you with a word of hope and promise from God's Word, and it's like it goes in one ear and out the other.

You just can't hear it, you can't hear it, you can't let yourself believe it. Times like that, we have to remember that Israel was there when they were still in Egypt. That didn't change the promise of God, and that didn't prevent God from doing what he said he will do.

God’s Unchanging Character in Seasons of Despair

So it is with us. There may be times when we have a hard time believing the promises of God, because as it says here, anguish of spirit and cruel bondage, we just can't bring ourselves to believe it. It doesn't change it, it doesn't change God, it doesn't change his character, it doesn't change his promises, it doesn't change what he will do for his people.

Aren't you glad we serve a God who doesn't change, who isn't subject to our weaknesses and our failures? Let's rejoice in that today. Thank you, Father, for your unchangeable character. Thank you for your promises that are ever sure, in spite of sometimes our own difficulty, to allow ourselves to believe them because of what we're going through at the time.

Lord, bring us out of that kind of despair, we pray. May we trust in you more deeply, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your day. May the Lord bless you in it.