The Day I Realized God Doesn’t Wing It (Yeah, Moses Blew My Mind Again) (Sermon)

I’ve been thinking about Moses a lot lately.

Not the Charlton Heston, bearded, staff-wielding Moses on the mountain (though that guy’s cool too). I mean the real Moses, the baby in the basket, the prince-turned-fugitive, the stuttering 80-year-old who somehow faced down the most powerful man on earth.

Because the more I look at his life, the more I’m convinced of one thing: God is insanely strategic.

He doesn’t just react. He doesn’t throw darts at a board and hope something sticks. Every single chapter of Moses’ story was planned centuries before he took his first breath.

And if that was true for Moses… it’s true for me. And it’s true for you.

Let that sink in for a second.

Before your parents even met, before that mistake you still lose sleep over, before the job fell apart or the diagnosis came – God already saw it coming. And He was already moving pieces into place.

Think about it:

- Pharaoh is literally ordering every Hebrew boy drowned in the Nile… and that’s exactly when God schedules Moses’ birthday.

- The one place you’d never look for a future liberator? Pharaoh’s own palace. That’s where God raises him – on the enemy’s dime, with the enemy’s education.

- Moses tries to play hero at 40, murders a guy, and ends up on the run for four decades herding sheep in the middle of nowhere. Total failure, right? Nope. Advanced leadership training for a guy who’s about to shepherd two million complainers through a desert.

I laugh every time I read Exodus 3, the burning bush moment. Moses is 80. EIGHTY. He’s been off the grid for 40 years. Probably figured his best days were behind him. And God picks that exact afternoon to light a shrub on fire and say, “Okay, son, time to go.”

God waited until Moses was completely emptied of self-confidence. Because a proud Moses would have failed. A broken, dependent Moses? That guy changed history.

And the plagues? The Passover? The Red Sea? The long way around instead of the short coastal road (Exodus 13:17-18)? All of it deliberate. All of it strategic.

Here’s what wrecked me this week:

If God went to that much trouble for a nation of slaves 3,500 years ago, do you honestly think He’s up there right now just shrugging His shoulders at your mess?

He’s not panicked about your wilderness season.

He’s not scrambling to figure out Plan B because you blew Plan A.

He’s not biting His nails hoping you’ll finally “get it together.”

He’s strategic.

That closed door you’re crying over? Part of the strategy.

That humiliating failure that still makes you cringe? Part of the strategy.

That season where you feel forgotten? He’s burning away pride so you’ll lean hard into Him when the bush finally catches fire.

Romans 8:28 isn’t a cute fridge magnet verse. It’s a declaration of war against despair:

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose…”

Everything. Not some things. Not just the highlight reel. Everything.

So if you’re in the basket floating down the river right now – trust Him.

If you’re hiding in Midian feeling like a has-been – trust Him.

If you’re standing in front of your own personal Pharaoh wondering how on earth this is going to work – trust Him.

He’s been writing your deliverance since before you were born.

And His timing? It’s perfect.

He’s strategic like that.

What part of your story feels the least “strategic” right now? Drop it in the comments. I’d love to pray for you. Because the same God who turned a basket, a backyard bush, and a stuttering shepherd into the greatest deliverance story in the Old Testament… He’s still in the business of doing it today.