February 2nd

Exodus 4:18-7:13

Moses returned to Egypt, met his brother Aaron, got caught up on the last 40 years of their lives, and called a meeting with Pharaoh in order to beseech his generosity. The only problem was that Pharaoh didn’t have any generosity to beseech. In fact, when he heard what Moses wanted to do with his favorite work force, he decided to double their hours with the same amount of breaks — none! That announcement must have been quite a blow to Moses and Aaron, but especially to the excited Israelites who were quite ready to leave their sorry day jobs.

Now this scenario raises a couple of interesting questions, such as why does God allow that sort of thing? You know, if God sent Moses to Egypt to free His people, then why did He allow Pharaoh to make their work even harder? I’m sure even Moses posed that question to God at least a dozen times.

God gave us the answer to why He allows things like that to happen, when He said, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels My powerful hand upon him, he will let them go. I will crush Egypt with a series of disasters, after which I will lead the forces of Israel out with great acts of judgment. Then, the Egyptians will realize that I am the Lord” (6:1;7:3-5).

God said Himself that He allowed Egypt’s success, in this case to oppress Israel, in order to show Himself mighty and to make Himself known. In essence, that’s God’s way of saying, “Hey, I know you don’t understand it all, but relax! I’ve got it under control.”

As finite and short-sighted human beings, we are allowed to question God, but sooner or later we must admit, that despite our misunderstanding, God knows what He’s doing and all we can do is trust Him.

Daily Reflection

Describe a time in your life when you followed what you believed to be the Lord’s will or direction and, then, you were met with obstacles, difficulties, and disappointments.

Why does the Lord do that to you, when you do what’s right and everything goes wrong?

As difficult as it is to follow sometimes, the Lord’s way is the right way. However, God never promised that following Him would be easy. Your first step of faith must be followed by second, third, and fourth steps of faith.

Remember, that which stretches you causes you to grow. God is simply growing your faith by allowing you to be stretched. Rather than abandon God after the first step or two in His direction, commit to following Him no matter what comes your way. His glory is your goal, not your ease.

BiAY.org | Day 33 — 332 Days to Go