#LENT2019 Day 1: Exodus 1-2
(For our lent devotional, we’ll be going through the book of Exodus with the rest of our church and be looking at the hand of God carrying the Israelites through their captivity and oppression as well as their sin and unbelief. Keep up with us as we look at how much God loves His people and never leaves us alone.)
first, read: Exodus 1-2
Sometimes, do you wonder if God has left you, like he won’t fulfill what He’s promised??
The first two chapters of the book of Exodus talk about the context of the oppressed Israelites being treated unfairly, subject to terrible conditions of life by an Egypt that did not understand them and felt threatened by them. In the first chapter, because Egypt isn’t comfortable with Israel and fears their growth in the land, they enslave the people of Israel and subject them to harsh working conditions. But despite the Egyptians’ efforts to squash the Israelites, they continue to grow in light of the creation blessing to “be fruitful and multiply,” and this pushes Egyptian aggression to get more aggressive:
“But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.” (Exodus 1:12-14)
So Pharaoh does a thing: He commands that every Hebrew boy be cast into the Nile. He doesn’t even kill them, but orders to throw them to drown.
In the midst of this turbulent political climate, Moses is born. His mother pulls a conniving, possibly wise, but mostly dangerous move: she makes a basket of bulrushes (a type of plant) and puts Moses in it, and lets him float off. Alarmed, his older sister Miriam follows the basket, which God floats right in front of the daughter of Pharaoh, princess of Egypt. She finds favor with the boy and takes him in as her own. Miriam, seizing her chance, jumps in and asks the princess if she would need a Hebrew nurse for him, and brings in their mom, who ends up getting paid by the princess to grow the child and keep her own son alive.
Moses grows up and one day, looks out to his people. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and kills him. Moses hopes it would go unknown, but word gets out, and Pharaoh seeks to kill Moses at the news. He flees to Midian, where he meets the priest of Midian and his daughters. He ends up saving some of the daughters from a dangerous situation, which becomes the beginning of a wonderful relationship for Moses, one that also brings him his Midian wife, Zipporah, and his first child, Gershom.
The last part of the second chapter, which was mostly about Moses and the general historical context of the Israelites, ends with this:
“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” (Exodus 2:23-25)
God promised the Israelites much— He promised them fruitfulness, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He promised to be with them. But they were hit with harsh circumstances that looked to threaten these promises. And the people of Israel, crushed from the pressure of oppression and persecution, cried out to God— not knowing that God remembered them and, even before they knew to call out to him, was already preparing a deliverer in plain sight.
When we are stuck in the midst of hardship, when we feel like we have been unfairly treated, when our work feels relentless and we are subject to terrible circumstances, we might often feel that God’s favor has left us or that He doesn’t hear us. We feel like the promises in scripture, that He loves us, that He’s with us, that He will never forsake us, that He will carry us through, are fake. But God has never left.
This Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, as we begin this journey through Exodus to remember how God is faithful and never leaves His people and reflect on the journey of God’s love not only in Exodus, but also in the last days leading up to Christ’s death and resurrection, let’s think about how God is near to us in our hardship, knows our every circumstance, and never goes back on His word. He is with us, He loves us, and He will do what He said He will do in your life. Find hope in Him in the midst of your circumstance, knowing that God is not done and that He is works for your good, even when you don’t fully know what that is.
With all my love in Him,
janedo
