Reflections from February 1, 2011

Many, many years passed by and Israel became a mighty nation with the twelve sons of Jacob multiplying and being fruitful. So much so that Egypt became scared of them. The king of Egypt ordered that the Israelite boys born were to be killed. The midwives of Israel did not obey this command and we read in Exodus 1:20,
"Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty."

This set the stage for God's great work.

One Levi boy was spared by his mother, and found in the river by a daughter of Pharaoh. She raised him and his name was Moses. Now Moses was raised Egyptian, but his heart was for God. He stopped the beating of an Israelite by an Egyptian by killing the Egyptian, and when he knew he was to be found out, he ran and ended in the land of Midian. There, he became a shepherd and married. But back home, we read in Exodus 2:23-25 that things were heating up,
"Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God, remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them."

God doesn't forget. He didn't then, and He doesn't now. It is us that must have the patience to wait on God and His perfect timing.

God's timing for freedom of the Israelites had come to fruition. God was going to deliver His people to His promised land and He was going to use Moses to do this. God said to Moses in Exodus 3:6-8 and 10,
"'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 upon God. And the Lord said, 'I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, ... Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.'"

Now Moses had been in Midian for about forty years at this point in time, going everyday to the same spot to herd his flocks. So in one day, he sees a bush on fire but not burning, he talks with God, and is told that he will be the person that will lead all of Israel to freedom in a new land. That's a lot to take in for one day. But it is easy to assume that the stories, the culture, and the heritage of their nation had been taught to them, for Moses knew of God as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We know this same God, and we know that He will fulfill His promises because of what He showed to us in His word. Because of what He has showed to us in our daily life. And because of what He reveals to us in our heart through His Holy Spirit. Moses kept faith, and his faith was revealed by the light illuminating from a burning bush. What will your faith be illuminated by?

Blessings to all