“That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.” (Jud 6:8-10 AV)
God does not ask for our obedience and faith until He first proves Himself faithful. God does not expect us to obey or trust Him blindly. He gives the law. He does things for us that only God can do. He brings us through hardships. He meets our needs. Over and again, He proves Himself. All He asks of us is to trust Him based on the revealed truth and the evidence He provides. In our above passage, the reason the LORD was upset with Israel is not that they simply disobeyed. Rather, He mentions all that He did for them. He brought them out of Egypt and the house of bondage. In doing so, He proved Himself to be the Almighty God in the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and the drowning of the entire Egyptian army. He proved Himself by providing for their needs in the wilderness, and when it was time to overtake Canaan, He drove their enemies from the land, giving them peace and an inheritance. After all that God did, they failed to trust and obey. That was why it was so offensive. It wasn’t that they disobeyed and feared because of ignorance. Nope. They did not trust and obey because there was something lacking in their understanding of God or a lack of evidence regarding that which God is capable of. They failed because they chose to. They failed because they wanted something different than what God was offering. This is why God is so upset.
As a pastor, you go through times of proving. You endure them. You are glad to do it. You face an onslaught of challenges that test your love for your congregation. They will push you to the edge to see if you are faithful to them even when they make it hard on you. You do this for years. You take the slings and arrows because, in the bottom of your heart, you hope there comes a day when they will have enough proof that when you lead, they have learned to trust you and follow. This is your hope, anyway. It is not always the case. I have seen many men of God devote their lives to a group of people, only to face a resignation several years down the line. Let me say this, though. In such a case there are two reasons why the man of God might resign. He may resign because he does not have the compassion, dedication, and integrity to invest enough time to gain the trust of his congregation. He isn’t willing to put in the years and remain committed for the long haul. He sees any and all opposition as something that will never change when he hasn’t given his congregation ample time for change. However, there are times when a congregation simply will not allow anyone to lead them. These types of churches go through pastors regularly. I was involved with a church years ago that had eighteen pastors in thirty years. They would not trust anyone. No matter how hard he tried, he would forever remain under the microscope and not be allowed to lead unless the people approved every choice or charge.
God is not a pastor. He is not a man. Men have faults. We cannot be perfect. But God can. In the book of Judges, Israel repeatedly made the same mistake. They placed their hope on human leadership rather than directly on God with the influence of human leadership. This is the whole point of God’s words above. He was the one who did all that. He may have used Moses to help bring it about, but it was God who delivered them. He has proved Himself over and over. He is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our obedience. He is worthy of our love. His is worthy of our trust. There is nothing more He needs to do to prove He is who He claims to be. When we demand more and more, it offends God. Our inclination should be complete trust. Our first instinct should be to do exactly what the word of God says we should do. When faced with an obstacle, we should not fight God on it. We should not cower in the shadows because we think God is not able to overcome it. This is why God is so upset. He has shown Himself capable and faithful, yet we still balk at His commands. Let us trust the God we see and He will show Himself in greater ways than ever before.
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