“Then Israel came to Egypt; Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And the LORD made His people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes. He turned their hearts to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants. He sent Moses, His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen. They performed His signs among them and miracles in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made the land dark; they did not rebel against His words. He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die. Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings. He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country. He gave them hail for rain, and fiery lightning bolts through their land. He struck down their vines and fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country. He spoke, and the locusts came, young locusts without number, which devoured all the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground. He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their strength. Then He brought out Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among His tribes who stumbled. Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon it.” Psalm 105:23-38
Devotional Thought For The Day
Sorry for the lengthy reading this morning, but it forms a unit of thought – the experiences of Israel after the death of Joseph, and their miraculous deliverance through Moses and Aaron who “performed His signs.” As we noted last week, these experiences would have been hard to reconcile with the promises made to Abraham and his descendants, at least until the deliverance. We are all familiar with the ten plagues that God visited upon Egypt, and if not, they can be reviewed in Exodus 7-12. What is difficult for us to learn is how God works to ultimately bless His people through strange and painful experiences. First, the blessing of God, that He made His people stronger than their foes. But then, “He turned their hearts to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants” so that His own people became literally enslaved, beaten down, taken advantage of, brutalized, and subjugated. This seems utterly inconsonant with His promises, and what we would judge to be “blessing.” Yet in the end, the children of Israel were offered a tremendous boon and spectacular blessings in their own land – in fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and to them.
What is required of God’s people in all of this is continued faith and trust in God, in His Word, His promises, His goodness, mercy, forgiveness, and love. What is required is to live by faith not by sight, to believe that what God’s Word declares is true, sure, certain, dependable, and reliable, regardless of what we are currently experiencing, and often in direct contrast to what we may be living through. You remember that the apostle Paul asserted that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The reality is that our own life experiences parallel those of God’s people recorded in the Scriptures. We too have blessings from God, but also treachery, temptation, disappointment, burdens, trials, sufferings, persecution, abuse, and perhaps even enslavement. We also cry out to God for deliverance when our burdens are extreme, pleading with Him to restore His hand of blessing upon us. Our experiences also seem inconsonant with the promises of God, at least for periods of time. But what was written in regard to Israel’s history is intended to give us encouragement so that we might have hope. Just as God delivered them, so He has delivered us – especially in the gift of His Son, our dear Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. He has also delivered us from earthly troubles and trials in the past. And so He has promised ultimate deliverance from all our sorrow and griefs in the life which is to come, in His glorious heavenly kingdom.
We want shortcuts. We want to ensure that we have as easy and as pain-free a life as possible. We want the power over this, the ability to determine our own circumstances. And we are willing to ignore God’s instructions, or reinterpret them to fit our self-determined course, or to flat out disobey them when we think it will ease our burdens and increase our pleasures. Such sinful desires, and lack of faith, led even Moses to great offense, to commit murder [Ex. 2:11,12]. He spent the next few decades in the wilderness, in utter obscurity. Similar consequences follow our own sins of lack of faith and violation of God’s Word. Is it better that “at least we tried” to change things? No, it is far worse – especially because of our lack of faith in God and His Word, our lack of deference to His authority and wisdom, and our refusal to give Him the honor of being truthful and the glory for whatever blessings He deems best for us. But even in the dire circumstances that follow our unbelief and sin God is preparing our deliverance and ultimate blessedness – and so through His Word and His promises He continues to call us back to repentance, faith, and following His ways of goodness and love.
This is a seemingly intractable reality – until the Lord comes again and separates all evil from good, creating new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness [2 Pet. 3:13]. I know of no biblical accounts describing anything different for God’s people living here in this fallen world of sin, and I know of no historical accounts of anything better than this reality in the post-fall history of mankind. But just as surely as God fulfilled His promises of redemption and salvation in Christ Jesus so certain is it that God will ultimately fulfill His promises of the full culmination of blessedness within His heavenly kingdom. So we are called to faith in God, faith in His Word, giving Him full deference, honor, and glory, and to live by faith no matter what our circumstances. And His written Word, the Scripture, is full of “instruction” so that “through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” So we can be certain that in all circumstances and conditions God is working all things together for our greatest blessedness – no matter the pain and discomfort.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, give us eyes of faith to see the preponderance of Your blessing in all of our experiences in life, and especially grant us firm faith and trust in Your promises of full deliverance and blessedness soon to come. Keep us from all temptations to depart from faith and from Your instructions of true goodness and love. Grant us patience and steadfastness, and peace and joy in Your love. Amen.