The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I
have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned
about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the
Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious
land…” Exodus 3:7-8, NIV
God’s chosen people were enslaved in miserable bondage and were crying out to
Him in their suffering. God speaks to Moses about it at the burning bush and
reveals His sustaining care for His people.
First of all, they were in Egypt because God cared for them. He
rescued the Israeli nation from death by famine during the time of Joseph who
himself was rescued from injustice and suffering to bring a solution to the
coming famine crisis. This saved both the Israeli and the Egyptian nations. But
a Pharaoh came along in time who did not know about Joseph and chose to
persecute the growing Israeli population because of his fear of them.
In this situation they were not forgotten by the God of their fathers.
Though, for wise reason, He delayed to appear in their behalf for several
hundred years, yet He was not indifferent to their sufferings. Every tear they
shed was preserved and every groan they uttered was recorded as testimony
against their oppressors. Only God sees the beginning from the end. We are
time-bound creatures and as problems arise, our perspective becomes diminished.
African-American preachers articulate it this way: “When life stinks, our
perspective shrinks!”
Years earlier God spoke to Father Abram in his sleep: “Know for certain
that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not
their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there…In the fourth
generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has
not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:13, 16). In this
situation God reveals His plan to Abram ahead of time and explains the “why.” He
does not always do this, but from this example we learn we can trust His
Father-heart.
So today we pray for persecuted church members who are suffering severely
from Satan’s tactics of deceit and intimidation: loss of family members
(Nigeria), economic deprivation (India), incarceration in metal shipping
containers (Eritrea), lack of personal peace (Pakistan), fear of discovery
(Middle East). As we pray, we can rest in the fact that they (and we) are part
of God’s wise and caring plan, no matter how inscrutable that plan may appear to
human eyes. There is hope because He hears the cry; He sees the misery; He is
concerned about the suffering. When it seems dark and hopeless, the persecuted
testify “God is good—all the time!”
RESPONSE: I will live in the light of God’s loving care and view my
problems from His perspective.
PRAYER: Pray that persecuted believers will trust God and not suffer from
shrunken perspectives.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment