Welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're now into the fall season and I It was a couple weeks ago, I think, that we went on off a daylight savings time. I still haven't gotten used to it being dark at 6:00.
I'm ready to go to bed at 4:30.
I know. It's crazy. It has nothing to do with what we want to say this morning, but it's just something that struck me. because I don't know what time of day you listen to this podcast, but maybe you choose the early evening to listen. Now, it's dark when you're listening. I have no idea. But
Dave, you're just full of just
just whatever.
Spit and vinegar this morning. Is that a phrase? I just made it. No, I think it is a phrase. So, but we'll get to are serious things now that we talk about. and you have some things that have been on your mind.
Well, for starters, we're what, two weeks away or three weeks away from the election for the president of the United States?
Past the election. Yes.
And, it's been crazy. It's been really crazy. There are, I'm sure, people that are happy and then there are people that are not so happy. But it's been, I think what has been disappointing is how much back and forth there still is. It's like go just get on with whatever. but there's a lot of back and forth stuff and that's kind of discouraging. And so that all has made me think about a character in scripture and that being Moses. And Moses was leading the Israelites. We know that God called him from being a shepherd and a husband and working with his father-in-law called him through a burning bush and had him go to Egypt and bring the Israelites out. And he brought them, God started to lead them through the desert. And they were there for a long time, 40 years. I think if I have read correctly, that the promised land was not that far, but the Israelites were pretty far from understanding who God was. you look like you have
No, I just was going to say that it the wandering in port took place when the spies spied out the land and 10 of them came back and said we can't do it and only two of them said we could and
the lack of trust in God caused the wandering.
So Moses is leading this interesting group of people and do you know how many approximately
probably a million plus
a million people.
Yeah.
Wow. Without any social media. How did he contact them? How did he get his voice? I mean he didn't have a microphone or megaphone. Nothing.
Just wow. Well, we do know this that Moses was just like any other man that there were times when he got frustrated. He got frustrated with God having him be the leader. He got angry. he got angry with the people. But there's a point where God is telling Moses that he needs the people to go. In chapter 33 of Exodus, there's the command to leave Si. And it says in 331 The Lord said to Moses, "Depart. Go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt to the land of for which I swore to your to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to your offspring, I will give it." So Moses is thinking, "Okay, we're going to go." But he does an interesting thing in verse 12. He says to the Lord, "See, you say to me, bring up this people But you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, you have also found favor in my sight. Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. And we'll talk a little bit more about what else he says, but Moses is in that place of leading these people and being a little concerned about what's next and is God going to go with them and He says literally in the next verses, "And he said, God said to him, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest." Which is an interesting phrase. You're leading a million people. I would imagine you would need rest, but how in the world would you get rest? But God promises him, I'll give you rest. And he said to him, this is Moses now responding back, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight? I and your people. Is it not in your going with us that makes us distinct? I and your people and from other people on the face of the earth. So, what he's saying is if you're not going with us, God, we're not going to go because we're not going to be different than anybody else because you pulled us out of Egypt. You rescued Israel. Now, we need you to continue on with us. And maybe this is around the block and down three streets, but I think about where are right now in our world and we are not u mentioned in the Bible. America is not mentioned in the Bible but I think about us as believers in this world here in the United States and my thought is God you have allowed a leader to be in position. He'll take office in January. So you need to go with us. You need to go with us as we respond to people that believe all different kinds of ways. as Christian people, how will we be distinct in a culture where there's nothing but backbiting and criticism and fighting and I need to know that God is going with me so that and I need to go with him so that I look distinct from everyone else. And that thought has just been beating around my head because there's so much disagreement right now as a believer. How do I look? What makes me distinctive in a world where there's so much back and forth.
Well, yeah. I mean, I think the same prayer that Moses prayed or the same conversation he had with God is the same thing that we would say today. At least I would say this and I do believe this is that there's no step I take that God doesn't walk with me. And he showed that in powerful ways to Israel as he led them by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar or fire at night. I don't get that in my walk today. But I do have the promises of his word that says he goes with me and he there's never a day, there's never a step, there's never part of my journey that he's not with me. And that presence should be a guiding truth for how I behave and how I respond to the world around me. That the world itself doesn't have that. But I do.
Boy, would I like a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire.
Sure.
Because it's confusing out there right now.
It's confusing. But e again, I think there's a part of this that either at some point Moses had to trust God that God was going to do what he said he was going to do. And the same is true for us. Although we have so much more revealed in the history of man and God's history with his people. from the word of God than Moses did. That if I trust in this sovereign God who I say I believe in this creator God, this sustainer God, this savior God, then I either I choose to believe he's going with me every step of the way or I don't. And if he's with me, should that not change the way I behave?
Absolutely. I mean, we do have that promise. And yet, because there was that physical representation of God in the cloud and in the fire and a lot of other things. you would have thought then that people would have found it easy to follow God and still they struggle just like we do. you know we want to see something people would love to see the face of God. I heard somebody recently say I would love to see the face of God. yeah I would too. But he tells us who he is and he asks us to trust him and by faith believe what he says. Believe that he is the son of God sent by God and then believe that when we accept him as our savior that he is the way, the truth, and the life that then we're filled with his spirit. So there's no place where he's not. And yet it's been hard. I mean, it's been I you know, you know, I keep saying I'm not going to read the news, but I think I have an addiction, babe. I think I need to go to News Hawks Anonymous. Is that a That's a group.
It is.
I know some of you out there are like that. I know my very some of my very good friends read the news like crazy like I do. I'm not scrolling around looking for on Pinterest or looking for new drapes or anything. I'm scrolling around with the news and it's been I thought maybe it would subside a little bit. So what you all are hearing is some of my angst, but it hasn't. I mean every day. Help me people help me.
Yeah. Well, I would say
I know I'll leave it there. You know, I know. what you should do. but here's the thing. yeah, we don't have a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Here's the reality that I have that they didn't have. I have the I have the cross and I have the empty tomb.
Yeah.
And does that not speak loud enough? The author of Hebrews, in these last days, God has spoken to us through his son. In the past, he used various ways, burning bushes, pillar of cloud, pillar of fire, other things. But in these last days, he's spoken to us through his son. And I hope for my life and for the life of all of us who say that Christ is our savior that we see those two realities and that's enough.
So, how do we hear from him?
I think I communicate with him. I converse with him. I pray. I listen to the voice of the spirit within me. Those things are those things can sound mystical and there is a sense in which they are and in some way there's mystery wrapped in that. But those also are foundational things. And I believe I need to spend time with him
and we need to spend time in his word because that's already
Well, then that's spending time with him.
Well, that's true. That's true. But you need to you need to nail it down, babe. Come on now. yeah, I think being in his word is where I'm going to hear from him. And, whatever we're doing, whatever we're in the midst of, whatever direction we're going, whatever is happening in our world politically or religiously or relationally, in any way, we've got to be in his word to hear what he has to say about himself, which I believe when I know who he is, then I don't struggle as much with what's happening because I know him,
right?
Yeah. It's a great point and it's a great point to leave folks with this week that in the midst of a world that's probably not going to get any better, probably going to get less contentious, probably not, it is his word and who he is that I find my source of hope in.
So, we leave you with that confusion. Join us next week.
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