Step # 1—Afflicting the adults

2/28/2008 11:42 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Step # 1—Afflicting the adults

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Exodus:1-8-14

            Message of the verses:  8 ¶  Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  9  He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.  10  "Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land."  11  So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.  12  But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.  13  The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously;  14  and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.”

            I would guess that a question is in order as to why would the Egyptians begin to persecute the children of Israel?  Had not Joseph saved Egypt from starvation and had not the children of Israel been good for the nation of Egypt?  The answer to these questions is yes, Israel had been good to Egypt and for Egypt.  Dr. Wiersbe makes a great point when answering these questions by quoting Genesis 3:15, “15  And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."  I had never looked at this verse like I looked at it today, for in the portion underlined there is an answer as to why believers and the nation of Israel too, have been persecuted for such a long time and that is there is enmity between the seed of Satan and the seed of Eve.  Eve was a true believer so this means that there will always be problems between true believers and those who belong to Satan and this is one way to answer this question, but there are other answers to this question and one of them is that God had told Abraham that this would happen in Genesis 15:12-14, “12 ¶  Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.  13  God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.  14  "But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.” There is one more answer to this question that I would like to bring up and to do this I will quote a verse from Deu. 4:20, “But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today.”  In this verse God calls Egypt an “iron furnace” and so what can I learn from Egypt being an iron furnace?  From my work in a foundry for 35 years I have learned that when putting iron into a furnace the iron is changed into something that is useful, but the heat of the furnace is very extreme in order to change something that was pretty much useless to something that is useful.  God was transforming the children of Israel to be transformed into the nation of Israel and this would be accomplished through the persecution of the Egyptians.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have seen that difficulties in my life teach me better than a sermon or a Bible Study, but when the difficulties begin the sermons and the Bible Studies mean much more to me as God speaks to me through them.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I know that I am more excited than ever about the possibility of going to work in Hawaii, but I believe that all of this is entirely up to the Lord, and my faith is still in Him to bring this about if it is His will.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 1:9-11

9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10. so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11.  having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.