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TOPIC: GOD HEARS OUR CRIES AND MEETS OUR NEEDS
Joseph, his brothers, and all that generation died in Egypt, but the Israelite families were fruitful and multiplied so greatly that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. He feared their numbers and put slave masters over all the Israelites. However, the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. Eventually, the edict came every newborn Jewish boy was to be thrown into the river, but every newborn girl could live.
God saw us reigning in life as kings, heirs with Christ. Before his death, Joseph had spoken a promise to his brothers.
“I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” (Genesis 50:24).
When God encourages His people to seek His face, He is urging them to live in such a way that His eyes can be turned in their direction. “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” (Psalm34:15). This is what happened to the children of Israel when they were in bondage in Egypt. God heard their cries.
As a baby, Moses’ life was not only graciously spared by Pharaoh’s daughter, but she adopted him and provided him with the training of the most advanced nation in civilization at the time. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
Years later, Moses visited his own people and observed them in bondage of slavery. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people, and in anger, he killed the Egyptian and hid himin the sand. When Pharaoh heard this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled to Midian. There he lived for forty years learning the ways of the wilderness, its resources, and its climate. God was preparing Moses to spend the next forty years in the wilderness with the Israelites.
It was here that Moses saw the burning bush and God began to speak with him. “And the LORD said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver themout of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring themup fromthat land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…’ ”
(Exodus 3:7–8).
God gave specific instructions through Moses for each household of Israel to sacrifice one spotless lamb and to place the blood of that lamb on the doorpost of their house. The blood of the lamb was a sign for the death angel to pass over that house. This sacrifice is known as the Passover. “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13).
God, through Moses, brought deliverance to His people through His gracious provision for their greatest needs, starting with their salvation.
