Moses

February 14

Exodus 1:1-11

Blessings as God planned

As the years went by, Joseph and his brothers died in Egypt. But their children and grandchildren continued to live there, and their descendants—the Israelites—became a strong and growing nation.

A new king had come to power in Egypt, and he didn’t know about Joseph. The king became worried and said, “These Israelites are becoming a threat to us.”

So the Egyptians made the Israelites work as slaves. Yet, even though they tried to make the lives of the Israelites miserable, the people only grew stronger, and greater in number.

Does God’s blessing mean a life without difficulty?

God had promised Abraham that He would bless him and make his family into a great nation. He made the same promise to Abraham’s son Isaac, and to Isaac’s son Jacob. Now Jacob’s twelve sons had grown into such a large nation that the Egyptians feared they would be outnumbered.

To protect themselves, the Egyptians forced the Israelites into slavery so they would never rise up against them. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? Surely God’s special favor should include protection. Had God stopped blessing them? No! It was God’s blessing that caused the Egyptians to be afraid in the first place.

But God’s promise was not finished yet. He had promised the Israelites a special land of their own, and they were not there yet. If life in Egypt had stayed easy, they would have had no reason to leave.

Even when you can only see part of what God has promised, He may be using the struggles in your life to prepare the way for something even better later on.

Verse for today

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance” Hebrews 11:13.