Stand up for the Lord.

Exodus 1

We now start a new book, Exodus. The first five books of the Bible were written by Moses. Exodus is such a great book dealing with God’s saving of his people from the bondage of slavery but more importantly God’s redemptive plan for mankind which is in Christ. It will be helpful in reading this book as always looking to and through Christ.

Just like the last words of Jacob were for his sons and their children to be fruitful and multiply and that is what they did. Israel grew so strong and so many that the land was full of them. There were more people of Israel than there were Egyptians. Because of this growth fear came into the heart of the Egyptians. Pharaoh placed taskmaster over Israel and made them slaves to the Egyptians. Really fast, while reading this you may stop and ask, “Why are they slaves now, life was going good, God moved Israel to Egypt to save them from the famine but why this?” As sometimes it is hard to read scripture and try right then and there to figure out the why, the advice that was given to me was to keep on reading. We will see how awesome God is through this book.

Birth Controlled… verses 15-22

Because the Hebrews were growing in number the Egyptians wanted them to be strong and many so if a Hebrew woman was giving birth to a boy the midwives were to kill him, but if it were a girl then the child could live. The two midwives who were told to do this did not listen because they feared God and not man and desired to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. God blessed the midwives and there were more and more Hebrews. They were just having babies after babies. This of course angered Pharaoh so he just told his people to do this evil deed and kill the Hebrew boy babies. 

Satan will do whatever he can to stop God’s plan, historically we do not know how many babies were killed by the Egyptians but we do know that despite what Satan tries to stop God is still in control and has a plan in the making. Also what if someone in authority told you to do something that you knew was not right and was not only bad but against what God says for us to do? What would you do? Why would you do that thing? These midwives were told to kill and said. “No way!” What if someone in authority asked you to steal, cheat, lie, or do something worse? When you stand for the Lord you are not alone. He has your back. 1st Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” When you stand up for the Lord, you may be alone in this world (or at least feel like that) but God sees that and honors that.