Exodus 1-4

January 18

Exodus 1-4

Sometimes we go through our daily lives and it is easy to think that God has forgotten about us. We feel like we are stuck. We may not like our job, our community, or just the situations of life. There are many circumstances that make us feel stuck. Some occur because of our choices and others because of no fault of our own. But when we feel stuck, frustration rises.

The Israelites were stuck. They moved to the land as God led them in the time when Joseph was second in command to Pharaoh. The family of Jacob moved to Goshen and all was good. But as the years passed, the Egyptians forgot about Joseph and how he saved Egypt from disaster in the midst of famine. The Israelites multiplied. They went from being a family to being a nation. The Egyptians got nervous, so in order to control the Israelites they enslaved them. Around four hundred years later, God’s plan begins to unfold.

As the Egyptians get more scared, they get harsher. Pharaoh instructs all the baby boys to be killed, but God preserves and protects one boy to be a part of His plan. The boy was born to a Hebrew woman, who put him in a basked in the Nile River instead of drowning him there. Pharaoh’s own daughter found him and raised him as her son after paying his mother to nurse him, though she did not know it was his mother.

After he was raised and fled to the desert in fear where Moses lived for forty years, God showed up and revealed His plan to Moses. God needed someone willing to speak for Him to Pharaoh. Moses argued, and resisted, but God can be pretty persuasive. So Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt to fulfill God’s plan for their lives. When Moses and Aaron told the Israelite leaders what God had revealed to him, we are told; "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)

No matter what we may be going through or how stuck we feel, the Lord is concerned about you. He has a plan for you. He may not move as quickly as you would like Him to, but He hears our prayers and responds to our prayers. He may not do things the way we want him to do them, or in the time we want Him to move, but we can be assured that God is concerned for us. He is the great Deliverer. He can deliver us from the things that hold us back or seem to enslave us, but He needs willing servants to join Him in the task. Are you willing to face the resistance in order to receive the deliverance?