The Secret Faith

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Exodus 3: 7-10

God was sending someone from the "opposition" to save the Israelites. Moses was Hebrew, but he was known as an Egyptian. He was hated in the eyes of the Hebrews just as much as Pharaoh was. They see him as a traitor.

Exodus 2:14
The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”

The Israelites don't know that God is sending this man as a deliverer, to them he is an everyday Hebrew beatem uper just like the slave masters.
But when he tells the people that God sent him, they were glad to follow him. They didn't trust Moses they trusted God to keep them safe.
As the people continue things start to brighten up. They pass through the Jordan, they drink from a rock and God starts to show Himself to them in miracles. But throughout Exodus, they doubt Moses. It seems to me like they are expecting a trap from Moses.


Exodus 14:11
They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

Exodus 14:12
Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

It sounds a lot like the Israelites are trying to get Moses to spill the Egyptian plan or something. They don't think that he will really lead them, everyone expects him to try to find a way to kill them, but he doesn't. But by doubting Moses, they unknowingly doubt God. They think that they have a super faith in God but they have doubted Him on every turn.
Finally they all together quit on God. The golden calf is built and they desert everything God has done for them.

Exodus 32:19
When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.

Moses went down and punished them and their faith was brought back. The Israelites had a faith in God but they never chose to reveal it. In Exodus they looked like stubborn faithless people because they did not show their faith in God.
It is often the same way with us as Christians today. We can have a strong faith, yet it never be known because we hide it. We should trust God in every situation.