Never Forsaken: It was all Part of His Plan

Image credit: Gemini and me

but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. Exodus 1:7-8

 God is a good and just God. When Abraham had journeyed to the land of Canaan, God knew what the people of the land; the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites would do and what they would become, but they hadn’t become that yet. He knew their great-great-great grandchildren would be wicked and awful, even more than Sodom and Gomorrah in Abraham’s day, but they weren’t there yet. Even though God knows what will happen, He still give us the benefit of living it out. If He dealt with us ahead of time, don’t you think we’d wonder if it really would have come out the way He said it would? God is good and just. He didn’t punish the people of Canaan in Abraham’s day because their sin hadn’t reached a level deserving of them being wiped out of existence. He knew the day would come, but it wasn’t there yet. In fact, He told Abraham in Genesis 15:16, " In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

 But the challenge remained, what was He to do with Abraham and his descendants? God had promised the land to him, but the land wasn’t ready to be handed over, and it wouldn’t be for nearly 500 years. I wonder, if God had allowed the Israelites to remain in Canaan during that time, would they have been subject to the downfall of the people there as well? We see time and time again in the Old Testament that the Israelites were tempted and swayed by the people they lived nearby. So, God has to get them out of Canaan and through a rather complicated story they end up in Egypt. They thrive there, multiplying in number beyond what could be normally expected, but God’s people have a lot to learn. They need to be shaped into the people He has desired, taught hard lessons that led to great understanding. God knew that the best way for this to happen, for them to grow towards the people that He had designed them to be, was for them to experience slavery. That’s a hard truth. God knew that the people of Israel would become slaves in Egypt, He told Abraham it would happen more than two hundred years before it took place in Genesis 15:13, “Then the LORD said to him, ‘Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.’” He told Abraham that he could know this for certain. It had already been decided. This was a part of God’s plan. It had a purpose and it was going to be worth it, but it still had to be very hard.

 Oftentimes in our lives, God has to take us through hard things in order to get us to the good that He has planned for our future. Sometimes this is a short season, other times it can be the equivalent of 400 years of slavery. Whether the season is long or short, though, we can be certain that if God has us there, He has a very good reason. Maybe it’s timing, maybe it’s growth, maybe it’s shaping us in other ways, but whatever the reason we can trust that if God has us there, it is intentional and it will be worth it.

 This study, NeverForsaken, has us looking at the story of Moses and the people of Israel as they go through their wilderness season. As we embark upon it, it is only fitting that we acknowledge that none of it was a surprise to God. It’s not like He provided for Joseph and his father, Jacob’s, families by moving them to Egypt during a famine and then – oops - they ended up in slavery. God knew the end from the beginning, and He planned it out carefully and perfectly. It may not have felt that way when the people were oppressed and crushed by their task masters, toiling in the fields and building Egypt’s famous cities by the sweat of their brow and the pain of their labors, but that didn’t make it less true. In the same way, whatever we face in our life, God knew it ahead of time. If He has us in a season of waiting, or pain, or grief, or even slavery, He has us there for a purpose and it will not be wasted.

Here’s the Thing: God knows your pain. He knows your struggles and hardships. He knows the season you’re in, and He has a perfect plan to make it all worth it. It may not feel like it today. It may not feel like what you’re going through could ever be worth it, but that’s where faith comes in. Just as a woman in labor may despair of even making it through the night, she is filled with joy when her baby is placed in her arms. Even so, someday, unimaginably, we too will have the blessing of seeing what God has done in and through these hard times and we will worship Him for He is good and sovereign and wonderful!