Can You Hear Me Now

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By Steve Williams

Mitchell County

Can you hear me now became a part of our vocabulary many years ago when the cell phone came into our lives. We laugh about it, make up jokes about it, and even made several commercials on these five simple but critical words. Can you hear me now? The Bible says in Exodus 3:2-4 “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. [3] And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. [4] And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.” Why did Moses say “Here Am I,” simply because he could hear the Lord speaking to Him? I believe that every person can hear from God, and they even understand what God is wanting them to do or not to do. But what is sad is many decide not to listen when God is speaking. In this passage, God is calling Moses to do a specific task. God wanted him to lead His people out of the land of Egypt. Moses put up a little resistance giving excuses why he couldn’t do it. But God told Moses he had spoken to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and had made a covenant to give their seed the land of Cannon. God assured Moses He would use him to lead His people to this Promise Land. God sent Moses to the People in Exodus 6:9 but the people of Israel would not listen. They were afraid of the cruel bondage. Then the Lord told Moses to go talk to Pharaoh. Moses said to the Lord if your own people won’t hear you what makes you think Pharaoh will. Then in Chapter 7, the Lord told Moses that He would make him a god in the eyes of Pharaoh and Aaron a Prophet. The Lord told Moses to listen and He would instruct Him on what He needed to do. Folks is that not what God has asked each and every one of us as Christians to do is to listen and follow orders just as He instructed Moses to do. It’s when we fail to listen and follow God’s instruction we find ourselves in a mess.

We know in this story Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and Aaron took his Rod and threw it to the ground and it turns into a serpent. And Pharaoh’s magicians were able to do the same, but God had Aaron’s serpent eat all the others. After that, Moses returned and the plagues did start. The Water into Blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Boils, Hail, Locusts, and Darkness. Each time a plague would come Pharaoh would give in, then he would change his mind. Think about it, does this sounds like many people in our day? Hard times will come, they decide to do what is right, listen to God, and then when the time comes they change their mind.

Now I know that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart during this time the Bible says. But who is or what is hardening the heart of men and women’s hearts today? Well, it’s simple; it’s Satan, sin, and ourselves. Now let’s look at the last plague. The death angel is ready to come on the scene and take the 1^st born of every man and animal of Egypt. God has instructed the Israelite’s on how they should prepare for this event in Exodus 12. If there had ever been a time for Pharaoh to listen it was now. I wonder how Pharaoh could be so foolish as to see God’s miraculous power and still not listen to Moses. But I believe Pharaoh had his mind made up long before the plagues started. Pharaoh just couldn’t believe that someone was greater than he. His stubborn unbelief led to a heart so hard that even these catastrophes couldn’t soften him. This is also a picture we see playing out right before our eyes in the day we are living. Then the greatest of all the calamities came. Pharaoh lost his own son, and this forces him to recognize God’s authority. What will it take today for God’s people to see and obey God’s authority in the day that we are living?

Did God really harden Pharaoh’s heart and force him to do wrong? Well before the ten plagues began, Aaron & Moses told what God would do if Pharaoh didn’t let the people go. But their message only made Pharaoh more stubborn. To me, Pharaoh hardens his own heart when he was defiling the message from God and his messengers. What Pharaoh failed to see and even people today fail to see is, that sooner or later God’s going to pass judgment. Sooner or later even evil people will be punished for their sins. Sooner or later even God’s people will be punished for their sins. God didn’t force Pharaoh to reject Him, rather He gave him every opportunity to change his mind. I believe God is giving us a chance to get our act right or we to will pay the consequences. God says in Ezekiel 33:11 “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways;…” I believe each time God was saying unto Pharaoh “Can You Hear Me Now”? I also believe that is What God has been doing to us over the past several years. We are living in a day right now where I believe with all my heart that God is crying out to this world “Can You Hear Me Now?” God has been giving warnings from the beginning of time for people to turn from their sins and their evil ways and turn to a true and Holy God. It’s sad to say but people are failing to listen just as Pharaoh did right here.

Pastor Steve Williams

Words of Wisdom:

I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening. Larry King
Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn’t listening.

Emma Thompson