Read Exodus 11
 
Exodus 11:3 The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people.
 
DID you know the Egyptians – even Pharaoh’s officials – highly regarded Moses? Would we not assume every Egyptian hated him? And could we think that many Hebrews were suspicious of him? After all, didn’t all the trouble begin when Moses came out of the desert? Who is this man?
    But Moses’ favorable status is another demonstration of God’s power over nature – even over human nature. For example, Moses spoke several excuses to reject God’s call (See Genesis 3). Still, the Lord transformed Moses into an obedient, humble ambassador for the holy God into pagan Egypt. God made Moses new, so he would administer God’s power to save his people from physical slavery. The chosen Deliverer would need popular support. So God turned human nature to Spirit-inspired favor toward the prophet.
    As a result, Moses had authority. The Egyptian people’s favor gave him leverage against Pharaoh. He also could lead his own people. God is preparing Israel’s hearts to say, “Yes!” when Moses says, “It is time to leave Egypt.”
    The Lord God does the same for you, doesn’t he? With the Holy Spirit’s anointing, God has made you new, so you will follow him from sin and into his goodness. As you are in Christ, he has changed your human nature to love the Lord God, so you will be Jesus’ disciple to lead others to him.
    Thank God he is favorably disposed toward you. Respond in kind to rejoice and show the Lord’s favor on others.
 
The Lord’s Favor is his blessing to lead you into a new life, so you will lead others to him.
 
 

Read Exodus 7-8
 
Exodus 7:8-9 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”
 
CAN you imagine Aaron’s and Moses’ conversation had on the way to Pharaoh’s court in response to God’s instructions? For example, Aaron might have said, “You mean to tell me, Moses, that this staff in your hand will turn into a snake? I can’t believe it! Can we trust God to do this?” And Moses would likely say, “It is unbelievable, Aaron. But I do believe – and I know for certain – we can trust God to do this. And I’ll tell you why. I’ve seen God do some very unnatural miracles. In the desert, he burned a bush, but the fire didn’t consume the bush. He made my hand leprous, and then he healed it. He turned my staff into a snake that day, too. I’ve seen him do this and more. We can trust him today. Let’s throw down that staff, so God will demonstrate his power to Pharaoh!”
    Moses had seen and experienced God at work. He has come to personally know the certainty of God’s commands. As Moses went to the highest power on earth, he took the highest power of heaven with him.
    You can do the same. When life’s circumstances are overpowering you, remember the ways God has demonstrated his miraculous powers to the world and to you. See the Lord’s power over the world as you take up the weapons of prayer, faith, hope and love. He has given these to you. Take them with you to encounter the opposition. See what God will do.
 
Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  

Read Exodus 5-6
 
Exodus 6:6-8 “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. 7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. 8 And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’”
 
GOD is getting very personal. He tells the enslaved Hebrews that he will free them with his power. He will redeem them, bring them into a new life away from their bondage. And when they are no longer slaves, he will welcome them as his own. He makes a vow and declares it is true with his affirmation, “I am the Lord.”  
    What wondrous love is this. Yes, in his own good time and right way, God gave this message to his people in Egypt. Since that day, he has given the same message to mankind throughout the earth. He has not only spoken his promised vow to the nations, God has acted through the Son and the Spirit to redeem the world from sin’s slavery.
    Always be aware of this wonderful, miraculous message the Bible tells you. With the miraculous intervention of God into the earth through Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection; and with the Holy Spirit’s life-giving power, the Lord God Almighty has exhibited the power of his right arm outstretched each day through the centuries throughout the world to grow his church.
    God’s freedom purpose is constant - to be your God. This means he not only opens the gate of salvation for you, he personally engages with you, so you can enjoy your freedom. He brings you to the kingdom of God. He teaches you how to live well. He gives you what you need to know to keep sin’s chains away and his Word close to you. In Christ Jesus, you can faithfully know your constant God has made you his own and keeps you forever.
   
Freedom: It is a wondrous joy when it is based on God’s life-transforming power.

Read Genesis 49-50
 
Genesis 50:15-17 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brother’s the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
 
JOSEPH’S brothers still feel guilty. For about 17 years since Jacob and his sons came to Egypt, Joseph has continually demonstrated his forgiveness. Still, they wonder if Joseph was waiting for their father’s death to avenge their wrong. They do not trust Joseph has truly said in his heart, “I forgive you.”
    That’s the thing about sin. It will still hold us captive in self-condemnation. We remember our sin to recall the hurt we’ve cause or the failures of our own expectations. It’s easier to avoid it, isn’t it? But yet, the guilt lingers inside to cut away at our hearts and accuse, “You could have done better.” In our own conviction we wonder, “Am I forgiven?”
    That’s the question in Joseph’s brothers’ minds. Their revengeful, murderous hearts demonstrated in Genesis 34 & 37 could not truly understand Joseph’s grace. In response, Joseph weeps. He mourns his brothers’ guilt and their lack of understanding his mercy. In a like manner, God must feel a great sadness when we continually reject his forgiveness. He teaches us in Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. The Son of God went to the cross to blot our sins from God’s sight and from our soul. Even so, we are prone to allow say, “My sin is too much.”
    Do you see? The LORD God will forgive and forget our sins. He reserves his vengeance for the unrepentant. His will is to point us to our new future and restored relationship with him. God has thrown away your sin, and so must you. Do not hold to what God has released from your life. Instead, grasp the good tomorrow your Lord God has prepared for you.
    Will you believe God’s forgiveness? We know Jesus Christ bled on a cross to remove your sin. Trust the blood. Trust the cross. Trust the grace. Trust the forgiveness.
 
Do You Know? God forgives and forgets your sins when you confess and place  yourself in his mercy.

 
Ready to Hear?
Read Exodus 1-2
 
Exodus 1:14 They (Egyptians) made their (the Hebrews) lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
 
400 years have passed since Genesis. God has expanded his nation to nearly 2 million people in Egypt. Was that a mistake? Think of it. A populous nation of God’s chosen people are slaves in a foreign land. Should not the LORD God have put his chosen people in the land of Canaan he had promised to Abraham? Remember, Jacob and his family were in Canaan, the place where Israel would eventually settle. Why “waste” 400 years of hardship in Egypt?
    As we seek to know God, it is always good to walk carefully when we ask, “Why, God, did you do that?” We must not pretend or assume our ways are better than his. That is prideful self-worship – the cause of the first sin. But to humbly ask God, “Why?” will help us to know and understand his ways and his desires.
    So, we humbly ask God, “Why Egypt?” “Why slavery?” Then we can discover the answer in the only place possible – the Holy Bible. God’s Word repeatedly informs how God calls people out of ordinary lives into very difficult circumstances. He will often give remarkable signs to his chosen servants to teach them his ways are sovereign. Moses saw the burning bush. Isaiah saw the Lord’s glory. Daniel learned and saw the visions and dreams. Jeremiah saw Israel’s destruction. David saw Jesus’ glory. We self-focused people must learn God is our focus.
    With Israel, then, one reason for their enslavement was to prepare them for God’s remarkable deliverance. Through the plagues and deliverance, Israel would see and know the LORD God was their God. He is far more powerful than the most powerful nation on earth.
    We can easily consider that if the Hebrews were prosperous from their very beginning, they would have ignored God’s commands and his personal relationship with them. (We learn later that is exactly what they did.) From Egypt’s slave system, they needed deliverance. They called on God to free them. As he did, they began to know him.
    Has God allowed  a hard circumstance in your life because he wants your attention? Will you call on him for your deliverance?
 
Be still and see God’s glory.
 

Read Genesis 43-44
 
Gen 43:30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.
 
JOSEPH wept with relief when he saw all his brothers after years of separation. And he wept for joy when his favorite brother Benjamin was brought to him. To Joseph, his life became whole again because his family was back with him. All the glory and power he had in Egypt meant little compared to his relationship even with his broken family.
    Joseph wept, too, we can be sure, for the years he was separated from his family. He wept for time he could not capture. He wept for relationships he did not have, for family he hadn’t seen, for the days without his father, impossible now to experience.
    These are the losses so many people know today. Family arguments tear loved ones apart.  Divorce and unforgiveness corrupt God’s will for human relationships. Absence creates a hole in our heart. Lost time cannot be recovered.
    What regrets do you carry each day, even through the years? Can you do something to fill the emptiness? Do you need to ask forgiveness or admit you were wrong about something? Do you need to forgive, to open your arms and welcome someone back home?   Just as Joseph could have ruled with an angry heart during his prison years, Joseph could have destroyed his brothers in righteous vengeance for what they had done to him. And most of us would have said, “They deserved it!” Instead, the powerful Egyptian Prime Minister ruled with the Lord’s mercy. He demonstrates the grace of God, who thankfully doesn’t give us what we deserve. Joseph wept and welcomed his sinful brothers into his open arms of joy and restoration.
    These are the merciful arms Jesus had for his disciples as he returned from the tomb. These are the arms Jesus has for you now as he comes to you in his resurrection power to welcome you home.
    Is reconciliation in your hands? Trust in Jesus, the one who has reconciled you to the Father.

Pause and Consider: Is it time?