Joshua, Praying Boldly (Part 2)

3. Joshua was chosen by God, and full of the Spirit

Num 27:15-20  Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, "Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd."  So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey.

Deu_34:9  And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.

True bold, audacious prayer must be led by the spirit. It is possible to ask God for anything, but we can be bold when we believe that we are praying what God has put on our heart.

 

4. He had his own encounter with God.

Jos 1:1-7 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant,  "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just a s I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.   Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

God was very direct here, even blunt, "Moses is dead."  Clearly,

Joshua is now “the man”.  Every person with a strong mentor has to come to a place of dependence on God alone. Joshua had experienced many things, but always as an assistant to Moses. He is now on his own. Joshua must have been very afraid, because God tells him several times to not be afraid, to be courageous. God will be with him, will lead him, just like he did with Moses.

 5. Joshua Experienced God’s guidance

 Joshua 3-5 God gives instructions, which Joshua follows carefully to enter the land. When they came to the river Jordan, God did not part the river before them like He had parted the Red Sea. The priests had to carry the ark into the swollen, flooded river and stand there as the water subsided after God stopped the waters up the river several miles. Joshua could not just do what he had seen Moses do, he had to hear God for himself.  

 Joshua 6 is the story of the battle of Jericho, which was very unconventional. God was very specific, Joshua followed his commands, and they defeated Jericho.

 After many experiences of God's miraculous works, Joshua comes to fight the Amorites, recorded in Joshua 10.

Joshua 10:8-14  And the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you."

  So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal.
  And the LORD threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.  And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.  At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."

(If the story ended here, I would say, "Too bold, Joshua, you went a little crazy with this one, too audacious. You can't tell the sun to stand still, it affects everyone on earth!")

 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.

 God did it! He made the sun stand still because Joshua asked Him to.

 

But, as we went back and looked at Joshua's life, I think we can see that Joshua grew to a point that I could pray such a bold prayer.  We don't just wake up one day with that kind of bold spirit, we grow into it.

Joshua, Praying Boldly. (Part 1)

In going through the story of Joshua, I did not find many recorded prayers, only a couple, but one is a doosy. Maybe a better word is audacious.

Jos 10:11-14  And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."  And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.

 How does a person have the nerve to pray that the sun would stand still? That is a big prayer. There is no precedent for that, it had never happened before.

So, I wanted to look at how Joshua became this man who had the boldness to pray this big prayer.

1.     Mentored by Moses

The Bible says that Joshua was Moses assistant. He helped Moses in many ways, in administration and government, but also he was the war general.  The first time Joshua is mentioned is in Exodus 17, when he led the Israelites in battle, while Moses held his hands up on the top of the mountain. If Moses let his hands down, Joshua began to lose the battle. Joshua must have learned from this that the victory has to be through God.

In Exodus 24, Joshua went with Moses on Mount Sinai where he received the law. He saw what no one else in Israel saw, except Moses. Because of his close relationship with Moses, he had a lot of contact with God. To become a person of prayer, you may want to spend time with someone who is strong in prayer, who prays with boldness and in faith.

 

2. He became a man of faith

 He was one of the 12 spies sent to check out the land. He gave a good report of the land, but the 10 spies spoke of the giants, the danger. The people were afraid and refused to go on.

Only Caleb and Joshua believed God.

"The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them." Numbers 14:7-9

 

Joshua was learning from Moses and from his own experience that God was faithful to do what he promised. He was becoming a man of faith, growing into a man who would pray bold and audacious prayers.

 

 

 

 

Moses, Face to Face with God until the end

Exo 34:29-30  When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.

 

Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and

they were afraid to come near him. Moses is a transformed man. But what was the reaction

of the people? Once again the people respond with fear. Fear is keeping these people from

experiencing everything of God that they could have.

 

Now we come to the context of Numbers 12. This is the time when God declares that He speaks to Moses face to face, not in dreams and visions. You can see that God did not just come to Moses and begin speaking to him in that way. Moses grew in his relationship until he became intimate with the Lord.

 

Moses pleads for the people again. After the children of Israel decided that they would not go in to the Promised Land because of fear, God was angry and once again said he would destroy them and start a new nation with Moses.

 

Numbers 14:13-18

Num 14:13 But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,

 'It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.' And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, 'The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.' Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness

of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now." Then the LORD said, "I have pardoned, according to your word.

 

Once again, Moses pled for the people, based on God’s glory, that Egypt would speak badly of Him, but this time, he had new revelation of God. He plead with God based on His character. God had told Moses that He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He prays based on that, and once again, God pardons the people.

 

We need to see Moses one transgression that caused him to not enter the land with the people.

 

Numbers 20:6-12 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the LORD appeared to them, and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle." And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them."

 

This seems like such a small matter, but God took it very seriously. It seems that Moses finally just lost it with the people. "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" God took offense to this. Every other time, Moses honored God. This time, he takes credit for it himself. God told Moses to speak to the rock, but he struck it, instead. Although Moses did not obey completely, and he dishonored God, God still provided the water. As Paul said, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for He cannot deny himself.” (2 Tim. 2:13). Moses suffered the consequence of his action, he was not allowed to enter the promised land.

 

At the end of the 40 years of wandering, the people are ready to enter the land. Moses reminded the people of their history, and warned them to be obedient to God. After his final address to his people, God called him.

 

Deuteronomy 32:48-52

That very day the LORD spoke to Moses,

"Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people,

 because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel."

 

Moses final day showed a continued intimacy with God.

Deut 34:5-7   So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.  Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.  And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

 

Moses died in the arms of God, and God buried him. His epitaph was that he was strong and vigorous, a unique prophet that the Lord knew face to face.

Drawing Closer to God

(The example of Moses, continued from June 9)

 

When the people withdrew from God, Moses went up on the mountain and spent 40 days with God who gave him stone tablets on which God had written the entire law. While Moses was with God, the people ran amuck, decided that Moses was not coming back and asked Aaron to make a new god for them.

 

Exo 32:7-14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"   And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. :10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you." But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'"  And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but Moses and God sound like frustrated parents here.

God says, “Moses, your people, whom you brought out of Egypt”…then God says, stand aside while I take care of this. I will destroy these people and start over with you.

That reminds me of an upset mother who meets her husband at the door to tell him, look what your son did today! She doesn’t even want to claim ownership. Moses says, "Wait a minute, these are YOUR people!" 

Moses pleas with God to have mercy. HIs request is based on three things: 

1. God's Relationship
Moses said, “Your people, whom YOU brought out of Egypt. With great power and a mighty hand.”
Moses reminded God that these are His people, people he redeemed. God would stand with them because they were His people.

2.     God’s glory and reputation
What will the Egyptians say if you kill the people now. They will say that you had an evil intent. They will think that you are not good. Moses implores God based on God’s character, because He knows that God is not evil.

3.     God’s promises
Remember you swore to Abraham to make him a great nation. Moses knows that God will not forget  his promises.

The Lord relented from destroying the people because of Moses prayer.
He told Moses that he would keep his promises, that an angel would lead the Israelites into the promised land, but that God himself would not go with them because he would kill them along the way.

Moses would not accept that. He said that he would not go on if God would not go with them. Moses cared more for God’s presence that the promised land.  

Exo 33:13  Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know

you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people." And he said, "My presence

will go with you, and I will give you rest."  And he said to him, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring

us up from here.  For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in

your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the

earth?"  And the LORD said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor

in my sight, and I know you by name."   Moses said, "Please show me your glory."

To Moses, it was no longer about getting to the promised land, He had to have God’s presence…not his provision, not his promises, his presence. God agrees, because Moses had found favor in his sight.        
And, not only that, Moses asked for more. Show me your glory, and God agreed. He put Moses in the cleft of a rock and covered him so that Moses could not see God until He had passed by, then God removed his hand so that Moses could see his back.

Exo 34:5-8 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the

LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands,

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the

fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." And Moses quickly

bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

 God revealed himself to Moses. From his first encounter when the Lord told Moses, tell them “I Am sent you.” Time and again, God told Moses another name or showed Moses new power, ability, and mercy. And here, we have a unique speaking of God, where God describes himself. The first quality that God reveals about himself is that he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Surely this did not surprise Moses. The words that God spoke supported the experiences that Moses had already had.
 
Moses was humble. Moses feared God, but Moses was not afraid to be honest with God, and Moses was not afraid to ask God for more…more of His presence, more of his glory, more of his speaking. Moses had a heart that wanted more.

The Mystery of Prayer-Becoming a Friend of God

(Continued from June 8)

When Moses went to Pharoah, he continued to learn to go to God. You know the story: God sent plagues, Pharoah repented, asked Moses to pray, Moses prayed, God removed the plague, Pharoah changed his mind. This happened 9 times before Pharoah let the people go, then pursued them to the Red Sea where God miraculously delivered the Israelites and destroyed the Egyptian army in the sea.

After the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, Moses sang the first recorded song of praise, recorded in Exodus

15:1-19. I think this is an important aspect in Moses growth; that he celebrated and praised God for the good

works He had done.

Exodus 15:1-3, 11

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

 We see in the next chapters that Moses was learning to trust God

Exo 15:23-26 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.  And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What shall we. drink?" And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he. tested them, saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer."

This became a regular pattern. The people did not have something they needed. They complained to Moses. Moses made the request to God. God took care of it. The people did not seem to really learn from these experiences, but Moses did. As he came to God to make requests on behalf of the people, and saw God provide, Moses grew in faith, and became more intimate with the Lord.

 

Moses was not the only one who had the opportunity to have an intimate relationship with the Lord. In Exodus 20, God spoke to all of the people. He told Moses for them to get ready, and come to the bottom of Mount Sinai. Then God gave the 10 commandments to all of the people, not just Moses.

Exo 20:18-21  Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."  The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.  At the beginning of this great journey, when God first spoke to Moses, he was afraid, but he had the courage to stay with God and listen to him.

When the rest of the people had the opportunity to hear God, they were afraid. And they made a sad, bad

choice, to withdraw. Fear of God is not bad, it is a good thing. But the right kind of fear of God does not cause

us to draw away. In our fear, we come to God recognizing that He is holy, but also that He invites us to come

to Him. When Moses confronted God at the burning bush, he was afraid. God told him to remove his shoes

because the ground was holy. Moses responded to his fear in an appropriate way, removed his shoes, and

heard from God in a way that changed his life.

 

 

The Mystery of Prayer--Moses, God's Friend

Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.  And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out. And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.  With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"   Numbers 12:3-8.

 This passage intrigues me. First, it says that Moses was very meek, or humble, the most humble man on the earth. For a leader of about 2 million people, who had already been used by God in extremely dramatic ways, to be the most humble man on earth is an amazing thing.

But, what really touches me is what God said about him. When Aaron and Miram had spoken against Moses, God came to his defense, and said that He spoke to Moses face to face.

Exodus 33:11 says “the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” 

As I was looking at these verses, I wondered, “How did Moses get there?” I want to be God’s friend. I want to have a close, intimate relationship with my Lord, and hear Him speak to me like a friend, face to face.

I turned back to the first encounter that Moses had with God to begin to understand how Moses became so close to God.

Exo 3:1-15 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.  And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned."  When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."  And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians… But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" He said, "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."

I noticed several things in this that may have been crucial to Moses development.

1.     He was curious. He saw a bush that on fire, but not consumed, and he stopped to check it out. “And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned."  He did not already know that this was from God. He was curious. He took the time to stop what he was doing to check it out. God responded to that. “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him, Moses, Moses.”

2.     Moses had courage. When God called to him, out of the midst of a burning bush

Moses said, “Here I am.”  Really, this had to be frightening sight, then to hear God speak. Moses didn’t run away, he answered bravely. I didn’t say he wasn’t afraid. Courage does not mean not having fear, courage is stepping up even when you are afraid.

3.     Moses was honest. In verse 11, Moses said, “Who am I that I should go?” That was just the first of his protests. I love God’s response to this. “I will be with you.”

Moses was worried about his credentials, but the only thing he needed was God’s presence. (I think Moses learned that lesson well, since in Exodus 33, he said that he would not go any further without God’s presence. By that time, Moses had a good record to stand on, but he knew that he had to depend on God.)

Let's continue to look at Moses honest communication with God in this first encounter.

Exo 4:1  Then Moses answered, "But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, 'The LORD did not appear to you.'"

God gave miraculous signs that would prove to the people that God was with him.

Exo 4:10-13  But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?  Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else."

Was Moses being rebellious, or was he being honest? Don’t be afraid to be honest with God. God knows what is in your heart and mind. You cannot hide it from him. Of course, God told Moses that he could take his brother Aaron with him, and the two of them went before Pharoah.

In the following chapters, we have many conversations between God and Moses. Mostly, God gives instructions and Moses obeys, but there are more examples of Moses coming to God completely honest and transparent.

 Exo 5:22-23  Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all."

We often try to hide our true feelings if we don’t like them, even from God. We don’t want to tell God that we are hurt, disappointed, angry, or in doubt. But, GOD KNOWS. He knows our hearts, our thoughts, our feelings. He just wants us to come to him and tell Him. He can handle it.