When you get in a bad spot, do you try to figure out what you did to make this happen? We all do (at least sometimes). But when we read the story of the Israelites, what landed them in slavery?
They didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, moving to Egypt during the famine probably saved their lives. Also, did you notice that God told Abram (even before he became Abraham) that his descendants would spend 400 years in slavery:
“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. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.” (Genesis 15:13-14)
Sometimes bad things happen because we’ve lost our focus or started relying on ourselves, but sometimes life just is hard. Something important to note is that God wasn’t unaware. He knew it would happen beforehand, and He didn’t abandon the Israelites. As they grew from one nuclear family to 12 nuclear families He blessed them. The rough years of enslavement and mistreatment took them from 12 nuclear families (about 75 people) to 600,000 men plus women and children. They didn’t stop growing during the hard years. They multiplied.
Every generation seems to face the problem of God and pain differently. But for the Israelites, the question wasn’t why pain, it was what to do with the sudden release from pain. God met them and released them from slavery for a reason. God invited them to continue this new life:
“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:3-6)
God is inviting the Israelites to become representatives of Him to the whole earth. I think we get hung up on the “now if you obey me fully” part. We immediately go to crime and punishment.
Remember the first time you made cookies? What would have happened if you tasted the sugar, and since it was good, added more – and tasted the flour (which tastes awful by itself) and put less of that in. Baking soda makes our tummy feel weird, so let’s skip that…and chocolate chips? We need LOTS more of those. Someone older and wiser came along and said – “you must follow the recipe exactly. If you do your own thing and ignore the recipe you’ll get a mess.”
I think that is what God is getting at. He is still inviting the Israelites to relationship. He’s saying, “I’ve proven that I can deliver you. If you’ll do what I say and stay in relationship with me (keep my covenant) then you will bless the whole world.”
All of this is getting to alignment – how do we align ourselves to God so that He works through us to bless the world?
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