Taking matters into your own hands

Sometimes, life throws situations our way that just aren’t fair. Things aren’t right; injustice is happening. You know those situations; he ones in which it seems that somebody needs to do something. Maybe you have been in a situation like that. Maybe you’ve said to yourself “I’ve got to do something about this” even when you know that you aren’t really called to do something about it. And so you take matters into your own hands when you shouldn’t. You spring into action when it wasn’t your place to do so. I’ve done it. The results are rarely favorable.

In Exodus 2, Moses found himself in a similar situation. Now Moses, was indeed called by God to rescue the Hebrew people. It was God’s big plan for his life; it was his destiny. But instead of waiting for God’s timing for the calling to be activated, he took matters into his own hands. The outcome was disastrous.

Exodus 2:11-14 ¹¹ One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹² Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” ¹⁴ The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

When Moses was defending the Hebrew slave, he must have felt like a hero. However, he quickly realized what he did was wrong. And in that moment, he went from hero to zero. Yes, Moses tried to walk in his calling before he was anointed to walk in it. It’s like there was something in him that knew he was to be a rescuer, but without the anointing all he could do was rescue in his flesh.

This is important: when God calls us to something, we must also wait for God to release us into that calling. We cannot, like Moses, take matters into our own hands. We cannot make the calling of God happen on our own strength. Instead, we must listen to the leading of the Lord and be guided by His hand. It may require that we wait, but when the time comes, it will be right.  If we don’t wait, however, we may end up with destruction instead of destiny.