Weekly Devotion 3.20.2011

A God who Hears His People's Cries

Exd 6:5-8 NLT - [5] You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. I have remembered my covenant with them. [6] "Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and I will free you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with mighty power and great acts of judgment. [7] I will make you my own special people, and I will be your God. And you will know that I am the LORD your God who has rescued you from your slavery in Egypt. [8] I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It will be your very own property. I am the LORD!' "

As we see the devastating situation in Japan unfold, we as a society inevitably ask the inevitable question:  where is God?  Why doesn't He hear us?  That is the great question of old.  It is the cause of atheism, agnosticism, and apathy towards religion.  The thought that there is no God or no God who cares for humanity is a frightening one.  How are we to know there is a God listening to us during times like these?  How are we to know whether our cries dissipate in a dark void with no one on the other side? 

The simplest explanation cannot arrive by philosophical argument; it must come from experience.  I have seen the Lord hear His people's cries firsthand.  Almost 13 years ago a tornado wrecked our entire community, and were it not for the grace of God, a group of young children and children ministers would not have been in the only room left standing.  There were stories of miracles and angels, of things apart from the natural order of things.  There are countless tales all throughout humanity of divine intervention, of a God who hears His people's cries and responds.

Look to the Israelites.   When the Lord calls Moses to the mountain, He proclaims, "You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. I have remembered my covenant with them."  I love this verse.  Moses' unique writing method often applies human attributes to God.  We can picture God literally hearing the groaning of His people with some infinite celestial ear.  This is how we ought to think about God during the times of trouble, when we scream to God and do not receive an answer.  His ear is surely large enough to hear you.  Yet it is often in our times of greatest desperation that God answers us.  Why?  Who can say?   It is the resolve of God to test us to strengthen our faith and to bring Him glory.  God often uses the pain existent in the world from sin as a method of redirecting badness into goodness.  He is like the chef who can take burnt food and somehow transform it into a delicious and edible dish.   Remember that when you are shouting out to God.  He hears you, and He is planning something wonderful for the cause of Christ!

 

Weekly Devotion 3.13.2011

The Power of a Living God

Exodus 9.13-15

Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says:  Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.  For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.  But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

 

I've been reading about the plagues of Egypt during my one-year tour of the Bible.   I noticed something I've never noticed before:  the Lord gave Pharaoh teases of his power.  The Lord didn't need plague after plague to receive Egypt's attention.  With one sweep of his hand, the whole land could have been swallowed in His wrath.  This brings us to an interesting observation concerning the Lord's motivations:  his display of power demonstrates his sovereignty.  Notice what he says to Pharaoh:  "For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth."  You see, Pharaoh's magicians were able to duplicate most of the plagues the Lord sent.  They used "magic" to do this.  But the Lord proved he harnessed even nature itself.  He brought his display of power through the natural order of his creation.  Had he wished, he could have struck down Egypt with a plague from which they would never recover.  But he didn't.

 

Why did he refrain?  He explains to Pharaoh, "I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."  Can you think of times the Lord has performed wonders in order that he might receive glory?  One need only read the gospel accounts to realize this.  There is power in our living God.  The old hymn proclaims, "There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb."  Do we really stop to consider what those words mean?  Do we really recognize the power of God?  The power to heal?  The power to restore broken relationships?  To save those we think unsavable?  Perhaps this is why we do not see more healing, restoration, and salvation—we have forgotten the power of God.

 

You see, the very God who brought wrath upon Pharaoh in order to demonstrate to his people his full power is the same God living in you and me!  Think about it.  Why do we so often live in defeat?  Why do we proclaim anything impossible?  The Lord who was raised from the dead, the Lord who spoke the universe ex nihilio, is the same God who can work in the lives of people TODAY. 

 

Will you allow the power of God to be shown in your life?  The world needs to see it.  We've already won the war, but we live too often as a defeated people.  Let us live in victory!  May the Lord's power rest upon us, and may he be glorified among the earth!