Scripture
23 “One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. 24 He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man’s defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn’t. 28 ‘Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as
a foreigner in the land of Midian. There his two sons were born. Act 7:23-25, 28-29.
Application
Do you have prayer requests you have made to God that you have not seen the answers? What if God told you that He already answered your prayers 15 years ago, but you were too focused on your own method to see it? Well this is the scenario in today’s devotional.
Dozen of years earlier, before Jacob and the children of Israel set foot in Egypt, God told Abraham in His covenant with him that his children would spend 400 years in slavery in Egypt (Genesis 15:13-18). Then He would deliver them. However, ended up spending 430 years. Was it God's fault?
According to our scripture reading for today, God sent Moses to rescue the children of Israel from Egypt. You can read the full story in Acts 7:17-29. However, if you dig deeper, you would notice that the divine helper, Moses was born at the 350th year of slavery of the children Israel. This was 50 years to the end of the slavery as God foretold it. However, the people he was sent to rejected him.
This is what happened. In his raw zeal to deliver his people, at the 390th year of slavery, Moses killed an Egyptian. Then his own people told on him. So he ran away from Egypt. This pushed the clock of deliverance back another 40 years. It could have been that had they cooperated it might not have taken that long. The irony was that the children of Israel were still crying to God for deliverance not recognizing that their deliverer was already among them.
Before you blame the children of Israel, examine your life. Have you been hostile and driven away the people God sent as answers to your prayers without knowing? Retrace your steps again.
Prayer Points
1. Lord help me not to look down on anyone.
2. Help me to be open for You to use the familiar the unfamiliar for my life.
3. Holy Spirit help me to recognize my Divine helper in disguise.
2 comments
@Matiluko Ayodeji Ebenezer. Thank you so much for the feedback.
Thank you sir, honestly I have not heard the analysis of years it took the Israelites to be free from bondage like you have explained it and it brings more clearity. Thank you for all you’re doing for God!