Exodus 5-7

January 19

Exodus 5-7

The end of chapter four tells us that Moses and Aaron delivered the news to the Israelites that God had heard their cries and was going to deliver them from slavery. "and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped." (Exodus 4:31, NIV)

You would expect that everything was good after that. But instead of life getting better, life got worse for the Israelites. They were instructed to make the same number of bricks, but they had to get their own straw. They could not keep up and the task masters punished them. Sometimes life gets worse before it gets better.

Tiger Woods, though he has moral issues, is a great golfer. Each time he attempts to improve, but changing his swing or some other technique in his game, his game suffers for a period of time while he is adjusting to the new technique. But after a period of time, his game improves to the point no one can touch him again.

Life for the Israelites got worse, but God was preparing them for their deliverance. Life got hard for them, but it was getting even more difficult for their captors. They were seeing the power of God displayed before their eyes and they were going to need the assurance of His power to make it through the next 40 years in the wilderness.

Sometimes God’s deliverance does not look like we expect it to look. We expect everything to be roses once we give our life to Jesus and accept Him as our Lord and Savior. But that is not what Jesus promised.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." (John 15:18-20, NIV)

The group Building 429 has a song called “Where I Belong”

"So when the walls come falling down on me, and when I’m lost in the current of a raging sea, I have this blessed assurance holding me.

All I know is I’m not home yet, this is not where I belong, Take this world and give me Jesus, This is not where I belong."

We are going to face challenges in life even as followers of God, but we are not home yet. Hang on and you will see God do amazing things with his mighty had.