It’s NOT This but IT Is That—Our Faith
“But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction,
(The Letter to the Hebrews 10: 39-11:1 NASB)
but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.”
You and I cannot see into tomorrow. We cannot see “later” today or even an hour from right now. All we have is right now, and so we must step into this day, walking one step at a time. We cannot quit because “we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” This means we have learned to wait, and while we are waiting, we are living by faith, doing the LORD’S will, waiting on God alone.
The Christian band Red Rocks Worship sings a melody reminding us how we are to live by FAITH, how we are not to doubt or fear, but how we are to see God’s “Good Plans.” Listen & be reminded.
As we consider FAITH, we can know It’s NOT This but IT is That which does not give in, give up, or give over to internal fear. Faith is NOT about how small or even how big our fear is within the situation we are facing. Truly, our FAITH is NOT about us at all.
FAITH IS ABOUT THE ONE IN WHOM WE HAVE BELIEVED!
- The Hebrew midwives knew this.
- Jochebed knew this.
- Miriam knew this.
- Moses knew this. &
- Look at what God did with their FAITH!
GOD SAVED HIS PEOPLE FROM THE EGYPTIANS!
GOD MADE THE WAY FOR THEIR DELIVERANCE FROM THEIR OPPRESSION & GOD DID THIS THROUGH THEIR OBEDIENCE TO THEIR FAITH!
“God, furthermore, said to Moses,
(Exodus 3: 15 NASB)
“Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’
This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.”
Review for a moment the reason Moses was able to have faith in the LORD.
In the first chapter of God’s Exodus, we read how the midwives most definitely feared the new king of Egypt, but even in their fear, they obeyed the LORD anyway. Yes, they must have been afraid when the LORD impressed upon their hearts to disobey the king’s order to kill the male babies being born to the Hebrew women. We read in the Bible how the king feared the mighty sons of Israel who were multiplying into a great number of people. So, he forced them into bitter labor, hoping to break their spirit. When that did not work, he decided to kill all the male babies, hoping to control the population growth that the LORD was providing His people.
“But the midwives feared God,
(Exodus 1:17 NASB)
and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them,
but let the boys live.”
Right after that, we read in the second chapter of God’s Exodus, how Jochebed, Moses’s mother surely did not feel so brave as she constructed the basket, placed his tiny three-month-old body in it, and set the basket in the reeds growing there along the Nile, but she knew the LORD had a plan for His people.
“The woman [Jochebed] conceived and bore a son;
(Exodus 2: 2 NASB)
and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.”
It’s NOT This but IT Is That—Our Faith. Jochebed does not give up to the king’s command, but instead she surrenders herself and her tiny baby boy to the LORD’S plan. Jochebed is the one who made the basket and she is the one who lovingly placed her little boy inside the basket. She must have been so afraid, AND SHE DID IT ANYWAY! She did not fear man; she feared God because God was bigger than the new king of Egypt, the Pharoah.
As we read the details of this miraculous historical narrative, we see how Miriam, Moses’s older sister watched her mom place her baby brother in the river and stood watch. Surely Miriam did not know her future, that she would one day flee Egypt at Passover, leaving with her older brother Moses, escaping the persecution and oppression of the Egyptians. All she knew on that particular day (as she stood near the baby in the basket floating in the Nile) was that she needed to stand nearby “to find out what would happen to him.” (Exodus 2: 4b NASB)
- Maybe we have read the rest. We recall the daughter of Pharoah coming down to the Nile to bathe, seeing the basket there in the reeds, and sending her maid to bring the basket out of the water to her. We know that Pharoah’s daughter opened the basket and baby Moses was crying.
- Maybe we also remember how Miriam ran out of her hiding place, running over to Pharoah’s daughter, proclaiming: “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?” (Exodus 2: 7b NASB) We serve a God who knows the future. We walk by faith, not by sight. We may be quaking in our sandals when the LORD commands us to move, BUT WE DO IT ANYWAY!
It was not by coincidence that all these events occurred just as they did. The LORD knew the future plans HE had for HIS servant Moses. God was NOT reacting to the actions of others.
THE LORD ORCHESTRATED HISTORY & HE CREATED THE FUTURE THROUGH HIS GOOD PLANS!
“Then Pharoah’s daughter said to her, [to Moses’s mother, Jochebed]
(Exodus 2: 9-10 NASB)
“Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.”
So the woman took the child and nursed him.
The child grew, and she brought him to Pharoah’s daughter and he became her son.
And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
And the rest is history. The narrative unfolded, from conception to deliverance, just as the LORD planned.
The Hebrew midwives—the woman Jochebed—the older sister Miriam—the servant of God, Moses—EACH WALKED BY FAITH & JUST LOOK WHAT GOD DID!
THE LORD SAVED HIS PEOPLE FROM THE EGYPTIANS, FROM THEIR OPPRESSION OF SLAVERY, DELIVERING THEM THROUGH HIS SERVANT MOSES!
Fast forward thousands of years. Today, we live in a time when endurance in our FAITH must be given, when we are called to stand in the will of God, just as those we study in God’s Word. If we are not mindful, as we read the current-day news stories, we may exclaim: “What’s this world coming to?” However, instead of focusing on what the world is becoming or rather than seeing what others are doing, let us open the Word of God and be reminded what the LORD has already done!
It is then, as we read our Bibles, we are reminded of those who walked by faith because they trusted God.
- Even though they were afraid, they walked by faith anyway.
- Even though they did not know what tomorrow would bring, they stepped forward in obedience to God, knowing they would receive His promises.
Maybe we say: “God, I do not know what You have planned for me, for my life. Right now, Lord, my struggles seem so hard. Lord, I want to trust in Your plans. Help me trust You.”
It is there, in our daily walking with God that we can step forward in FAITH.
One day soon, when our lives are finished and when we step through heaven’s gates into our eternal rest, we will encounter people like the Hebrew midwives and Jochebed (the mother of Moses) and her daughter, Miriam. We will even see Jochebed’s boy, Moses, God’s servant who led the children of God to freedom. As we share eternity with these, they will tell their stories and we will tell ours. We will thank them for their FAITH. Let us walk boldly by FAITH in this day the LORD has gifted us to live, and we will have our own stories to share, there, in heaven. For, in just a little while, Jesus will come for us. Yes, it’s only going to be just a matter of a day or two because the Bible says with God a thousand years is as a day. So, whether we live until we are 103 or whether we leave this earth today to go home to heaven, Jesus will come for us—in just a day or so.
Until then, may we walk through our days as the LORD commands, for It’s NOT This (our fears that control our steps) but IT is That—Our Faith that we are to walk in—as we go. You and I cannot see into tomorrow. We cannot see “later” today or even an hour from right now. All we have is right now, and so we must step into this day, walking with the LORD one step at a time.
“But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction,
(The Letter to the Hebrews 10: 39-11:1 NASB)
but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.”