So Long In Coming

“The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.” Ex. 12:35-36

You would think as intelligent as mankind is we could come up with some new material. This morning God’s children of 1400 B.C. collide with His children of 2011. Same struggles, same impatience, same temptations and unfortunately the same responses. The Israelites had been delivered personally by God’s hand through miracle after miracle. God had given them monetary blessings by making their captors favorable to them. Through this the Israelites were given all kinds of silver, gold, jewelry and treasures. God truly gifted them with much but required their devotion and faithfulness.

They fell short when asked to wait on Moses to bring back the commands and instructions from God. ‘When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down…So all the people took off their earrings and brought them…He took what they handed him and made it into an idol.’ Ex. 32:3-4

Fast forward to 2011 and meet Ted Williams, the man with the golden voice. It is no secret of the gift that God entrusted him with early in life. At 14, he worked at a radio station and became enthralled with the life of announcing. He knew he had an awesome gift and began using that gift as God intended. But like the Israelites something went wrong in the motivation of using that gift. He turned to a god of alcohol and drugs using his God given gift to fund his worship. The gift didn’t change…the change was in the heart. He threw the gift God gave him into the fire and what emerged was something that took the place of God.

Many times, we exalt the very thing that will imprison us. God blesses every one of His children with a special gift for kingdom significance if we will only wait upon the Lord to show us the ‘when, where and how.’

Guard your heart in Christ and your gift will also be protected.