Rev. Don Campbell
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, JANUARY 30, 2019: THE BIRTH OF A NATION [Ex 1-3]
Four centuries have passed since Joseph closed the eyes of his father. The 70 persons who had joined Joseph in Egypt had grown so large that the new king of Egypt feared them and set about to afflict them. The story now shifts from the fortunes and misfortunes of the patriarchs to the fate of a nation yet unborn and the man who would lead them out of Egypt. Stephen tells the story: “And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in words and deeds.
When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons” (Acts 7:23-29).
The time had come for God’s people to be delivered. God gets Moses’ attention with a burning bush which does not burn. God said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Ex 3:7-10).
He who had killed an Egyptian with a rock want’s no part of this mission: “Who am I that I should to Pharaoh the children of Israel out of Egypt” (v.11). God says, “But I will be with you” (v.12). Don’t overlook the importance of v.8: “I have come down to deliver them…and bring them to the land of milk and honey.” It is God’s promise and God’s power, not Moses’ my which the mission will be accomplished.
CONNECTIONS
1. Moses’ education in the wisdom of the Egyptians has been likened unto an advanced academic degree. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with a servant of the Lord pursuing advanced degrees in higher education, it is wrong to trust or boast in one’s accomplishments or positions. What does Jesus say about this? (Matt 23:1-12)
2. Most of us have our favorite preacher or writer. What must we and they guard against? (1 Cor 4:6-7)
