Learn from the Past and Find Hope for the Future
Are you in a period of your life when it seems like God is not clearly doing much of anything? Maybe you have been praying for years for a family member, or hoping for deliverance from a difficult trial, but you have not seen God’s hand move in any obvious way. In fact, maybe things have gotten worse since when you first started crying out to the Lord about it. How is comfort possible in a time like that, when God seems absent from your situation? Romans 15:4 tells us that we can look to the Scriptures in the Old Testament to see the faithfulness of God in the past, so that we might have hope for our future.
“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4
In Exodus chapter 1, Israel is being fruitful and multiplying in the land of Egypt (verse 7). Though the natural process of birth is not unusual, it was God’s ordained method for man to advance His kingdom (Genesis 1:28). In our New-Testament era, the way that God’s kingdom advances and multiplies is not through procreation mainly, but through making disciples as we go (Matthew 28:18-20). This normal means of advancement is not always as explosive and visible as some revival movements we have heard of, but that does not mean that it is not happening. People are coming to Christ today, even if we don’t know their names. God’s plan for His kingdom to advance always moves forward, even through ordinary means.
But when God’s kingdom advances in this fallen world, we can always expect opposition. As the Israelites increase, they eventually find themselves enslaved by a new Pharaoh who is ignorant of their ancestor Joseph. This Egyptian ruler is so afraid of Israel that he begins ordering his men to rule the Israelites with cruelty, making their lives bitter. Soon Pharaoh orders the death of all newborn male Israelites. In the first 16 verses of this chapter (which cover a time period of about 400 years) we see Israel go from prosperity to slavery to oppression to elimination in a matter of a few generations. These three forms of opposition to God’s people- enslavement, oppression, and elimination- are common tactics of our enemy even today. Though we do not see much oppression or elimination in our country, we do see spiritual enslavement all around. Since the devil cannot snatch us out of our Father’s hand (John 10:29), he will do anything to ensure that we live in a spirit of bondage (Romans 8:15) or in sin which so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1-2). We must be aware of the tactics of the enemy.
Sometimes, like the Israelites in Exodus 1, Opposition seems menacing and God’s hand is not as obvious as we would like it to be. In situations like this, we have to activate our faith; we need to fear God rather than men. When Pharaoh commanded some Israelite midwives to kill all the male Israelite babies, they chose to fear God in spite of what they could see (verse 17). That is our fight every day- we must choose in spite of what we see to resist fear and remind ourselves of what we know about God. When these midwives chose to fear God instead of man, God blessed them and involved them in the way that he was advancing His kingdom by giving them families of their own. When we choose to believe and fear God in the midst of opposition, we make ourselves useful vessels for advancing God’s kingdom in His way and His time.
Some concluding applications:
1) REFLECTING ON PAST FAITHFULNESS RESULTS IN FUTURE HOPE!
2) WE MUST ANTICIPATE OPPOSITION THROUGH ENSLAVEMENT, OPPRESSION, AND EVEN ELIMINATION.
3) IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY AND OPPOSITION, WE MUST RESPOND IN FEAR OF GOD RATHER THAN TO FEAR MAN.
