Last week we started a new series
about Moses. I spoke about his bad beginning in life. He was one of
thousands of Hebrew boys, born to slaves in Egypt, an absolute
nobody in the eyes of the Egyptian rulers. But even worse than
that, after his birth, he was destined to die. The Pharaoh and the
Egyptian rulers had become alarmed at the rate at which the Hebrew
population grew, they were afraid that they might overthrow them if
they continue to multiply at this rate. They therefore decreed that
all the newborn Hebrew boys should be thrown into the Nile river to
drown.
What an awful thing to do! It must
have been heartbreaking! I can just imagine the cries of
heartbroken parents trying to save their precious little boys,
trying to protect them from the ruthless, armed military men. They
must have cried out to God, praying that He would help them,
praying that He will come and rescue their children. But nothing
happened. As far as we know all of them were killed, except for
Moses.
The parents must have thought that
the Lord had abandoned them. They must have thought that He didn't
care. I think that a lot of them might even have turned against Him
for allowing this to happen. 'How could He stand by and watch this
happen?' They might have thought. Now we all know the story and we
know that God did take vengeance on the Egyptians and He
did bring them to their knees. But do you realize that it
was 80 years after this incident? That is an immensely long time!
Most of the parents who lost their children didn't even see the
Lord taking vengeance. They must have died thinking that the Lord
never helped them. Or maybe just maybe, they died with the hope
that He will deliver them. Maybe they remembered what the Lord said
to Abraham:
"You can be sure that your
descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will be
oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. But I will punish the
nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with
great wealth." Genesis 15:13,14
I truly hope that they remembered
this promise of the Lord and they held unto it! I really do, it
might have eased the pain of losing their sons.
Today we look around us and we also
see a vast amount of injustice being done. We see murder, rape,
kidnappings, bribery, embezzlement of money etc etc. And we might
sometimes wonder where is God in all of this? Does He not see what
is going on? We might even feel angry at Him especially when our
family and friends are affected.
Just remember one thing, God is the
Judge of all the earth and not one thing escapes His attention, not
even one done in secret. He will judge and He will take vengeance
at His appropriate time. It will happen. But it is not our job to
take it in our own hands and it definitely is not our right to
criticize Him. Our duty is to pray for our country and to pray for
our protection. We have to, it is imperative that we do (I will do
a whole teaching on that at another time). And after we've done all
we can, we then need to trust in Him. Whenever I feel that all the
injustice is getting too much for me I turn to Job 38 - 41 and then
I realize once again how small I am and that all the answers lie in
Him. There is no one like Him. I will end off with a few quotations
from Job:
"Who is this that questions My
wisdom with such ignorant words? Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Tell Me if you know so much." Job 38: 2,
4
"Do you still want to argue with
the Almighty? You are God's critic, but do you have the answers?"
Job 40:1
"Are you going to discredit My
justice and condemn Me so you can say you are right? Are you as
strong as God, and can you thunder with a voice like His?" Job
40:8, 9
Lord, You are absolutely in
control. You are Sovereign and we give our lives to You. Please
forgive us our sins and lead us into Your life everlasting. As we
know only there will be true peace and quiet. Thank you Lord.
Amen