Mighty hand

DEVOTION

EXODUS

MIGHTY HAND

Ex 3:18-22

18 "The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.' 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. 21 "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

NIV

God continues to assure Moses he is the one to go and do God’s will concerning his people. He gives him specific instructions as to how to approach their departure from Egypt. Yet also in his foreknowledge he knows Pharaoh will resist this proposal from Moses and the elders to take a three days journey into the wilderness in order to worship Yahweh Elohiym. Both words are in the Hebrew text, the LORD our God. This is who Moses is to tell Pharaoh is the God of the Hebrews. The word Elohiym carries the meaning of the supreme God, which Pharaoh thinking himself to be a god among the rest of the gods of Egypt might seem offensive to him. He has ordered the Hebrews to be slaves to the Egyptians and now he is going to be told their God is supreme to him and all the gods of Egypt. God knows this and he tells Moses this would be the case, but he would show his mighty hand to prove to Pharaoh he is Yahweh Elohiym. We could focus on the plunder portion of this passage, making the case that as believers will should plunder the wealth of the ungodly, in fact there is even a scripture which indicates that fact.

Prov 13:22

22 A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children, but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.

NIV

Although this concept might be taken totally out of context, which is what it says that the wealth of sinners is stored up for the righteous. Here in this text, God tells Moses the wealth of the Egyptians has been stored up for the children of Israel to take from them when they leave. As far as the inheritance, it may not have anything to do with wealth, but rather with eternity itself, leaving the inheritance of knowing God, of being saved, of eternal life. What good is all the wealth of the sinner, if we are not born again? What good does all the wealth we leave for our children’s children if they remain sinners rather than believers? But our focus is not on that truth, but rather on God using a mighty hand in the defense of his people. We will certainly encounter people who would rather oppose the believer in God. In fact we are certainly living within a culture that wants nothing less than to remove any reference to God from the public square. They have made themselves into gods, rulers, kings and queens opposing the truth about God. Their gods are climate change, gun control, transgender openness in bathrooms and now the military. They believe their rules and regulations are supreme over God. They are as hard hearted as Pharaoh when it comes to Yahweh Elohiym, The Lord God. But he will and has delivered us from their hands, he will once again use a mighty hand to show them he is God, and we are his people. We cannot be sure when exactly this will take place. Moses was not privy as to how long the process would take before Pharaoh would relent and allow them to leave. But the fact is the fact. Someday God will show up with a mighty hand and the world and all its little gods must let loose of us and we will be taken out from here to a place we will worship God forever. In the meantime, although they would want to suppress us, to enslave us in some sense with their godlike attitudes, we can live free, unsuppressed, open, in fact living loudly our faith in God, in Jesus. We do not have to go quietly into the night, we live in the light of Yahweh Elohiym.