I failed... but it was not my fault....

Exodus 5:22-23 - Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on these people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

A strange phenomena in life, especially in christian service, is that at some point we are bound to meet with failure or a setback. I have yet to meet someone who can say that they have never failed once. Be it in business, in moral life, in the family or specially when serving God on His given assignment, there always appears this "pit stop" that conjures varied forms of emotions and reactions. The usual feature that appears in the encounter with failure is that most often than not, we seldom admit full responsibility for the failures. One of my favorite characters in the Bible is Jonah. When the sea became boisterous and the crew was in distraught, Jonah said, in Jonah 1:12 - “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Jonah literally was saying that he was 100% responsible and deserve whatever punishment. Its rare to hear such statements like this. The natural tendency is always to apportion blame. Adam is a case in point. The very first failure saw the "the woman made me do it"....

Moses was a classic example. In the text, we see Moses' first encounter with failure after God called him at the burning bush. You would have realized that Moses was an "unwilling volunteer" in the initial stages of the exodus. After he had given the challenge to Pharaoh, instead of victory and a declarative outgoing from Egypt, more woes were heaped on the children of Israel. This caused a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. It was a failure, a total disaster and utter disappointment. Moses has just started his ministry, still immature as far as experience in the work of God is concerned. Naturally Moses responded like anyone of us would have done, an seemingly rightly so, "God you are 100% responsible for this"... "I did what you told me to do and this is what I get". I can identify with Moses as I had reacted in similar fashion before (many times). Moses had all the right to be angry with God because in the first place he did not chose to lead the children of Israel. It was God who called him, in spite of the many excuses Moses gave. And having unwilling obeyed, he faces the first brush with disappointment in God's service. Now look at his self-righteous accusations, if at all it could be called self-righteous.:

• Why have you brought trouble?
• Why you sent me?
• The trouble came because I obeyed you
• Why you did not rescue?

Before we fire another salvo at Moses, lets pause for a moment. Isn't that the way we many times respond when faced with a failure.  "God, you could have prevented me from failing, Why you did not stop me?.. I am in this trouble because I obeyed you.... Yes I admit its my fault but you could have....Especially this few months, when we are being hit by one crisis after another in the ministry. "What is God doing... how can he remain silent?"

How would we have respond if someone reacted in this manner to us? But look at how  God responded to a novice who was abject about failure and was bent on a witch hunt.

God simply said, "I AM JEHOVAH, I KEEP MY WORD." 

That's all we need to know when we face failure on a God given assignment. What is God's Word saying about our responses in times of disappoint and failures.

1.   God is in control.   Exodus 6:2 - I am the LORD. When God says, "I am the Lord" the implication is that He is in total control. God is sovereign. God is saying that He knows exactly what is happening. It may have taken you by surprise but it did not take God by surprise. When we acknowledge Him as Lord, the only appropriate response is to surrender to His will and do what He says. God does not make a mistake. He is never in a panic or in a hurry. In his disappointment Job said, "The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!"
 
2.   God keeps His covenant.   Exodus 6:4 - "And I have also established my covenant with them" God reveals to Moses as a covenant keeping God. He is not a man to lie. What He said, that He will do. God called Moses to deliver the people from Egypt and promised Moses that He will be with him (Ex 3:12). In fact in Ex 6:1, God says, the very people who prevented you from leaving Egypt, will themselves drive you out of Egypt. Your enemies will be you helpers.

Isa 54:10 - For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken," says the LORD, who has mercy on you. (NLT)

3.   The battle belongs to God.   See what God says in verse 6-8:

• I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
• I will free you from being slaves to them, 
• I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
• I will take you as my own people,
• I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand

Just look at what God is saying He will do and all we need to do is to "Be still and know that I am God".

Isaiah 41:13 - For I hold you by your right hand--I, the LORD your God. And I say to you, 'Don't be afraid. I am here to help you. 

Isaiah 59:19 - When enemies come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will put them to flight

 4.   Continue to serve God.   Don't give up. God told Moses to go back to his task.  Ex 6:10-11 - Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country" Just continue to be faithful and do what God has entrusted to you. Do not fear, don't retreat or retire. Press on.



William Carey dedicated his life to the spreading of the gospel in India. He serve as a missionary from 1793 until his death in 1834. He hoped to translate the scriptures into many Indian languages and dialects as possible. One day a fire broke out in his printing press and completely destroyed many of the translations which he had labored to produce. Years of hard work just went up in flames. You can imagine his agony and frustration. Yet....

Carey wept and said,

“In one short evening the labours of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the ways of God. I had lately brought some things to the utmost perfection of which they seemed capable, and contemplated the missionary establishment with perhaps too much self-congratulation. The Lord has laid me low, that I may look more simply to him.”

Although he was heartbroken, he did not take much time to mourn. With great resiliency Carey wrote, “The loss is heavy, but as traveling a road the second time is usually done with greater ease than the first time, so I trust the work will lose nothing of real value. We are not discouraged; indeed the work is already begun again in every language. We are cast down but not in despair.” 

Carey resolved to trust God that from the embers would come a better press and more scholarly translations. Within a few months Carey had set up shop in a warehouse. By 1832 Carey’s rebuilt and expanded printing operation had published complete Bibles or portions of the Bible in forty-four languages and dialects!