Better Off
Nothing will be impossible for God. Luke 1:37
What God initiates, He completes. –Henry Blackaby
Do you trust God to complete what He has initiated? He will do it! Every time!
Exodus 13 teaches two truths about God’s relationship with His people:
We are fickle and motivated by circumstances, often wanting to give up too quickly rather than trusting God’s plan. (17)
God is always faithful; He will keep His word, but He will not always do it when we expect. It might take 430 years! (19)
While God will complete whatever He has begun, our nature often makes the process more difficult than it needs to be from our perspective. Exodus 13:17 says that God did not lead the Israelites away from slavery in Egypt by the most direct route. Why? Because they might go back. Imagine! These people were fleeing 430 years of slavery. An Egyptian government that ordered that their sons be killed at birth. Taskmasters that imposed unreasonable requirements for the work that they would do. Exile in a land that was not their own.
Why would anyone want to return to that? Because people often can’t see past their current circumstances. The fleeing captives expressed such a desire in 14:11-12. They rebuked their God-given leader Moses because they feared what they saw.
Are there no graves in Egypt?
We’d be better off in Egypt than dying in the wilderness.
As ridiculous as this attitude seems, modern day believers, including pastors, are often guilty of the same. We understand that God has promised to work all circumstances for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28), but we focus on the challenges directly in front of us rather than on His promise. We understand that even Hell itself cannot succeed against His church (Matt 16:18), but we fret and whine about the world’s opinion.
We need to understand the implication of 13:19, of the fact that God fulfilled a promise that was over 400 years old.
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” (ESV)
Moses’s carrying of Joseph’s bones to the promised land fulfilled a request and a promise made in Genesis 50:24-25. Joseph understood that God was at work even in Egypt to fulfill His covenant, give His people a land, and bring forth the promised Seed. He would work through even four centuries of slavery to accomplish His will; His purpose would not be thwarted!
The bad news is that our focus is often as misplaced as that of the Israelites. The good news is that we serve the same God that they served. Circumstances are often difficult; they frequently seem impossible, but nothing is impossible with God. (Luke 1:37) May we always trust Him to work all things according to His perfect will and in His time.
William Dooley is the bivocational pastor of Middletown Baptist Church in Berea, KY. He is a high school English teacher and adjunct professor, as well as a MA student at Clear Creek Baptist Bible College. William and his wife Sherry have been married for 28 years and have two daughters, Kailynn (23) and Karlee (14).