Exalting God, Edifying Believers, Evangelizing the Lost

Disobedience with Good Intentions Is Still Disobedience

By Michael Youssef, Ph D.  09/06/020

Choosing Christ Above All Else

Study of the Life of Moses

09/02/20 – 09/09/20

Read Exodus 2:11-15.

About forty years before God called Moses to deliver His people out of slavery in Egypt, Moses decided to be the people’s deliverer all on his own. Moses, the adopted Hebrew son of Pharaoh’s daughter, took matters into his own hands. One day, he saw an Egyptian abusing one of his fellow Israelites, and so, with righteous anger, Moses struck the Egyptian dead and buried him in the sand.

He did this without praying and without seeking the mind of God. Though Moses’ intentions may have been admirable—defending the weak—his actions were contrary to the Word of God. That’s why he acted in secret and buried the consequences of his sin.

How many of us grab for the first opportunity that comes, without praying, only to be disappointed? When we take matters into our own hands, we will always look to the right and to the left to make sure nobody is watching. But when we know we are acting in obedience to the Word of God, we can be confident in our choices and bold with our actions before anyone’s eyes.

What can we do about our secret sins that haunt us? There is a place where we can find redemption: at the fount of Jesus’ blood. When we confess and repent, our sins are washed white as snow, and Christ frees us from our past to live abundantly for Him in faithful obedience. Thanks be to God!

Prayer: Jesus, Your blood is precious—thank You for saving me and washing me white as snow. Lead me to seek Your will in my decisions so that I can act boldly and confidently as I pursue righteous action. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (Exodus 2:12).

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