December 4, 2023

Passage Read: Exodus 3-6
Meditation Verses: 5:21-23

Thought

The Israelites have been groaning under their bondage, but it evidently wasn't so terrible. Moses speaks once with Pharaoh about letting God's people go and worship him, and Pharaoh makes their jobs harder. Now things get really hard for the people! And instead of asking God to hurry things along, they get angry at Moses and Aaron for making their lives worse! Do they want to stay or go? Apparently, God needs to make life in Egypt more miserable for His people so that they'll really want to leave! But the response of the Pharaoh to make the lives of His people worse also justifies God in sending the plagues. Pharaoh's response is necessary to justify God's display of power.

Application

Sadly, quite often I'm more comfortable with the status quo than I am longing for God's better country. So God needs to make my life here more distasteful in order to turn my heart toward Him. Yet when things get harder, my first response isn't to long more for eternity, but to complain against Him for ruining what I didn't like but also wasn't so terrible in my eyes. Sure I complained about it, but it wasn't that bad, not until God started moving! So I blame God instead of recognizing that this world isn't where I want to stay. I want my heart and hope set on eternity with Christ, not on the pleasures of this doomed world. So things will go from bad to worse, so that God's people come to the point where they no longer live for this place but for the eternal home God has prepared for them.