Do you ever come up with what you thought was a great idea, then when you tried it out it failed miserably? As the proverb goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. In 1985, Coca-Cola thought it had a burgeoning hit on their hands. They had performed extensive market testing on a new flavor of their flagship product and believed that when they introduced it, it would already be a success.
It wasn’t.
Within a few weeks of its introduction, New Coke met with vocal opposition from those who rather liked the old flavor of Coke. The company hired a psychiatrist to listen in to some of the phone calls that they were receiving. The psychiatrist reported that “people sounded as if they were discussing the death of a family member’.
The message was received loud and clear that people didn’t want New Coke, and less than three months after its introduction, Coca-Cola reintroduced the old flavor as Coca-Cola Classic. I’m sure the CEO sat in his office, hearing reports of how unhappy his (now former) customers were and wondered where it all went horribly wrong. Among the lawsuits and protests, his coworkers probably glared through him each day, thinking “how could you have done this to all of us? We’re the laughingstock of the soda industry.”
All of this over the taste of flavored sugar water.
It’s likely that Moses knew this same feeling. Moses had just received direction straight from God and convinced his people that if he only did what God had asked of him, they would be freed from the oppression of the Egyptians. He and Aaron might have walked up to Pharaohs throne with a bit of a spring in their step, anxious to get out all that God had told them, then start out of the city with their Hebrew brothers and sisters. They knew that since they were on a mission from God, they would be successful. They had even planned out to start by simply asking Pharaoh if they could go have a little party first, softening him up before asking him the big question later.
Only it didn’t happen that way. Exodus 5:1-4 says,
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”
2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”
3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” 5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”
Not surprisingly, Pharaoh doesn’t say, “Oh, God said so. Then by all means, take a few days off and enjoy yourself!”. Pharaoh first reacts with disgust at the thought that there was a deity out there that wasn’t him, asks for a reason why he should obey this God that he doesn’t know, then greatly increased the workload on the Hebrews. Later, when some of the Hebrew overseers came back to ask Pharaoh for mercy, they were told that they were lazy and must produce as much as they had before, only without materiels provided for them. As they left this meeting, they saw Moses and Aaron. Instead of accepting the burden, they passed the blame on to Moses and Aaon, saying “May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
I’m sure Moses had the same thoughts that the CEO of Coke did: “Where did it go horribly wrong? I did what was asked of me, and everyone thought it was a great idea. Then when I put it into action, it failed miserably!” Moses passes the blame on to God, saying “you have not rescued your people at all.” God responds by saying “I am the LORD.” He then tells Moses that these things will happen in His time, not instantly. I imagine that Moses had kind of a sheepish look on his face during this conversation, knowing that he had doubted what God had said He would do.
What can we learn from this? A couple important things. First, no matter how much preparation, research, time and effort we may put in to something, it may fail. It will go completely opposite of what we expect. This may be God’s plan, or it may not be in God’s timing. He is the LORD and He will accomplish all that He has said He will accomplish. Second, we have to lean on God in the times that we fail and in the times we succeed. He has never said that the Christian journey would be easy. Matthew 7:14 says, “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
The hopeful news is that we are not alone on this journey. God is with us and will do what He has set out to accomplish. We have to be ready to take the pain with the victories. Are you willing to praise God for the struggles that strengthen your faith?
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