An Outstretched Arm

Have you had days where you feel blessed beyond comparison, and days where you feel like you are falling into a hole so deep that you’re not sure how you’re going to get out? 

It seems as though sometimes we forget that there is good in the world and evil in the world. We dwell on the evil and we expect a lot of the good. Good things are blessings, but a lot of the time, we think we deserve them and forget to give much praise in return, making the bad all that sticks out to us. 

I am just beginning to read the book of Exodus. 

I am fascinated that a book that I once would have shoved to the side is now my lifeline. 

The Bible is full of hope. 

And the devil attempted to do everything in his power to guide me away from it because he knows the power that is instilled within the pages.

In Exodus, the Israelites were being mistreated by Pharaoh and God heard their cry. 

God found Moses and told him that he was sending him to Pharaoh to bring his people out of Egypt. 

Moses did not believe that he was equipped and he told the Lord “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 

God replied “Who gave human beings their mouths?” 

I believe that we have come to fear the devil more than we fear the Lord, but why? 

Is it simply because we know that the devil brings evil and the Lord brings blessings? 

If this is so, why do we first become angry with the Lord when we are faced with evil? 

If we know that evil comes from the devil, why are we not allowing the Creator of the Universe on our side to make us strong enough to combat the devil? 

As I continued to read Exodus, Pharaoh began to mistreat his people even more. He wanted to distract them after he found out that Moses had come to take the Israelites. The Israelites became angry with Moses for they believed that he caused their mistreatment. 

Moses did what any of us would do and doubted God.

But God told Moses in Exodus 6:6-7 “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 judgement. I will take you as my own people and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”

So now the question is: Is God simply saving his enslaved people?

We are not much different than the Israelites. We are becoming angry because we believe that this is punishment that just keeps getting worse. 

But have you thought that maybe this is God?  

God reaching down with an outstretched arm. 

God taking his own people. 

We think we are being punished but I have good news, we are being saved. 

And the devil cannot win us forever.