The people of Israel were desperate. Pharaoh was cracking the whip, forcing them to do hard work for long hours. Those who resisted endured the lashings—and then had to get back to work anyway. Pharaoh put cruel slave drivers in charge. The usual rule: be as cruel as you have to be, but don’t injure slaves to the point it slows down productivity. Still, you make an example out of the worst ones now and then.
“They worked them RUTHLESSLY and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They RUTHLESSLY imposed all this work on them” Exodus 1:13-14.
Israel was DESPERATE. The people begged God for relief. And God sent Moses, accompanied by his brother Aaron. When the two spoke to the elders and showed them miracles, the Hebrews were encouraged.
“The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had paid attention to them and that He had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped” Exodus 4:31.
The elders of Israel did not simply pray for relief. They BELIEVED. That is a key factor, though easy to overlook: when God sends relief and rescue, you must BELIEVE and ACCEPT IT. These people knew little about Moses (except that he was 80 years old and had left Egypt 40 years earlier under the cloud of scandal), and Aaron, even older, was nobody.
But the leaders recognized the Hand of God. They BELIEVED and they bowed down and worshipped.
When God sends you relief, when He delivers you from that desperate situation, when He encourages your broken heart, when He sends hope when you feel hopeless—BELIEVE GOD and accept what He is offering. Embrace it. Even if it is not the relief you had in mind. When you see the Hand of God at work, accept it, be encouraged, and worship God.
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Household Words: 