Egypt – Page 17 – Praying Pint

4. His commandments are not burdensome

Exodus 20:1 And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:29     Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!

Jeremiah 32:39-40     I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.

Acts 2:39     For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

John 14:21    Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

1 John 5:3     For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

God spoke and said that we should have no gods before Him, a command for us to follow. He spoke of more commands for a righteous and moral living. We know these first commands as the 10 commandments. Some call them the “do’s and don’ts”. Prior to giving these commandments, He told Moses to get the people ready for He wanted the people to hear Him speak to Moses. He set limits for how close the people could come. The Israelites had just been told that God had chosen them for a treasured possession and they were to listen and obey Him. The Israelites answered together saying “All the Lord has spoken we will do.”

God is now allowing the people to hear Him speak to Moses. They had prepared themselves for three days and were to come to hear God speak to Moses. When God came down to the mountain and it was covered in smoke, fire, and the whole mountain trembled. He called Moses up to Him and spoke. The Israelites were set at a distance away from the mountain but could certainly hear God speak.

And what do you think the people said when they heard God speak? They trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

I wonder how many times we want others to speak to us rather than God. Is it because we think we can distance ourselves from Him? Do we think we are going to be less accountable? Do we think it will be easier to discount this person rather than neglecting God? Do we think serving, following, obeying is burdensome?

We should desire to be close to God, seek Him, listen to Him, trust Him, and obey Him. Being close to Him is a choice just as being distant from Him. Staying close requires faith, reliance, hope, and trust. Being distant requires nothing and in return sees and hears nothing, leading us down a path of disruptive living.

Choose to be close. Choose to hear. Choose to listen. Choose to obey.

1. Because He is God

Exodus 18:8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

Nehemiah 9:9-15    “And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea,  and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day.

Psalms 66:16    Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

Psalms 71:17-20    O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.  So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.  Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?  You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

Psalms 105:1-2     Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

Psalms 145:4-12     One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.  On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.  They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.  They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.  The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.  All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!  They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,  to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

When we choose to intentionally commit to know and understand God and begin to humbly serve, honor, glorify, worship, follow, and obey Him we will see new wonders, mighty deeds, awesome power, steadfast love, and being witness to these, we speak rejoicing. We speak joy. We speak love. We speak hope. We speak kindness. We speak reliance. We speak about trust and faith.

“Come and hear…. I will tell what He has done for my soul,” “One generation shall commend your works to another,” “Proclaim your might to another generation,” “Make known His deeds,” “I will proclaim your wondrous deeds”

We rejoice in times of plenty and in want. Why? Because God has become our rock, refuge, and hope. In Him and His purposes and plans, we confidently place our faith because He is God.

Refused to obey Him and thrust Him aside

Exodus 17:1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Psalms 95:8     do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Hebrews 3:8-9     do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,  where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

Exodus 34:9    And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Deuteronomy 31:17    Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

Acts 7:37-39    This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’  This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.  Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,

“Is the Lord among us or not?” “Our fathers refused to obey Him, but thrust Him aside, and in their hearts, they turned to Egypt.” The grumbling and doubting seem to be a pattern. I don’t think it is any different now than it was back then. Desiring, seeking, relying on, clinging to, and trusting in God is rejected at the heart, mind, and soul level. We are not immune to this type of thinking, however, we can take these thoughts captive and cast them out as soon as they pop into our head. We can choose not to thrust Him aside. We can choose not to live like He does not exist.

How are we to do this? We need to keep God’s word in our heart and mind. We need to intentionally change our ways according to His word and how the Holy Spirit leads us. We need to change our way of thinking about self first and desire to do whatever it is He has planned for us. We need to change from the way we live for self and change to living for God, seeking Him, wanting to honor and obey Him.

Commit to reading His word each day. Listen to what His word says to your heart and mind. Talk to God often. Walk in faith, trusting Him and His precious promises.

It is a choice….

Exodus 16:4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”

Deuteronomy 8:2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

Joshua 24:15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

It is a choice to make between serving God and serving self. It is a choice to be humble when pride is knocking at your door. It is a choice to seek God first when everything in you says to handle it yourself. It is a choice to wait on God’s perfect plan and purpose when timing of our trial/trouble is weighting us down. It is a choice to trust in, rely on, and cling to God when chaos fills our lives. It is a choice to desire Him rather than a fix to our problems. It is a choice to want to spend time in His word and hear Him speak to our heart when we seem to be burdened with busyness. It is a choice to not grumble. It is a choice to keep unity. It is a choice to allow yourself to be wronged. It is a choice to forgive others. It is a choice to be joyful. It is a choice to say no to things of this world that replace God in our lives. It is a choice to do what is right even when others are not. It is a choice to make disciples. It is a choice to share the Gospel. It is a choice to be kind. It is a choice to be generous. It is a choice to praise and worship God. It is a choice to dwell on things of God. It is a choice to be thankful. It is a choice to encourage others. It is a choice to find refuge in God. It is a choice to used by Him.

Choose this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Do all things without grumbling

Exodus 16:1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Psalms 106:7     Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.

Psalms 106:13     But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.

Psalms 106:25    They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the LORD.

1Corinthians 10:9  We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

Numbers 14:27-30     “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.  Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you:  your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me,  not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

Philippians 2:14     Do all things without grumbling or disputing,

I don’t know what is worse, to not believe there is a God, or to know there is a Powerful, Mighty, Limitless, Creator – “God” and grumble about His care, purpose, plan, and love for those who are called by His name. One denies God exists and the other denies His omniscient and omnipresence in and through His creation. One gives no thought and the other denies His faithfulness and steadfast love.

For those who deny God exists there is not much hope outside of God softening their heart to Him and giving them one more chance to receive Him. For those who believe that God exists and they grumble through life, blaming God, and discounting God, this is very sad state of mind to be in.

We all have moments in our life where we question “why” are the trials that hit us not stopped by God. Scripture tells us that God allows some trials and troubles to come our way to test our heart. It is not as though God does not already know but rather to show us the state of our heart, our faith, our trust and our reliance in the awesome hands of God.

We do well to learn from those in the past and not repeat the same humanistic views. We do well to lean not onto our own understanding but through prayer and thanksgiving let our requests be known to God. Relying on Him, trusting in Him, clinging to Him – this is where hope and faith grow and mature.

Whatever it is you are facing – place it in God’s hands and allow Him to work His perfect plan through it all.

How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

Exodus 7:7 Now Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Exodus 7:10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded.

Exodus 7:20 Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded.

Exodus 8:17 And they did so.

Exodus 9:14 so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

Exodus 9:27 Then Pharaoh sent and called Moses and Aaron and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.

Exodus 10:3 So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?

Exodus 10:16 Then Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me.”

Exodus 12:28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Exodus 12:50 All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt

Exodus 13:3 Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place.

Exodus 13:17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.

Can you see the committed following of Moses and Aaron, and as well the hardening of the hearts of the Egyptians. Though they saw first hand the might wonders, signs and works of God they denied them and the power of God.

Before doing what the Lord God asks of us we need to be willing to hear and willing to act. There will be those who oppose God. There will be those who will join God. There will be those who will follow God.

It is apparent who is opposing. They will say and do things that expose their heart of stone. They will try to explain away God. God is not hindered or blocked. His plans and purposes will come to pass.

Joining and following God is more than words. It is a change of heart, mind, and soul. It is permanent. It is life changing. It is life long. True commitment will be seen by their actions “so they did as God spoke“. They want to hear God’s whispers and will hear them speak into their heart. They will act on His leading. They will trust in His promises. They will grow in their humbleness toward Him. They will cling to Him, rely on Him, and trust in Him. They seek and desire to honor and glorify Him.

However, it does not take much hardening to deafen our ears to be able to hear God speak to our heart. The quickest way to hardening our heart is through busyness. We seem to find this excuse permissible and justified in our commitment and walk with Him. We need to be intentional in our walk with Him and be able to discern when busyness over takes us. We need to know what is non-value added into our lives and say “no more”. We may need to say no to some good things to be in control of our intentional walk with Him.

I don’t know how many lives of people I have seen where God intervened in their busyness by some trial or troubling event. God did not take them through and easy path – He led them straight to the Red Sea where there was no way back and no way forward but by the Hand of God. These people were changed because there was a new “God induced”, “God priority” set in their lives. If this is what it takes to renew, refresh, recommit, and establish a new level of commitment to humbly serve, honor, glorify, follow, and obey, I wish it on all people, rather than watch them spend another day without God being their joy, peace, love, hope, courage, strength, power, refuge, and guiding light.

I will harden his heart

Exodus 4:21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

Deuteronomy 2:30-33     But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day.

Joshua 11:20     For it was the LORD’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses.

Psalms 105:25    He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.

Isaiah 6:10     Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand wit

Isaiah 63:17     O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.

Romans 1:28    And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Romans 9:18    So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Romans 11:8-10     as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12     and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,  in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

1 Peter 2:8    and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

Ezekiel 3:6-11     not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you  But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.  Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.”  Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.  And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

One of the more difficult biblical concepts to understand is that of God hardening the hearts and minds of certain people. What are we to make of texts like these, which explicitly or implicitly speak of God hardening the hearts of people? These questions involve very deep mysteries, mysteries about God’s sovereignty and how it interacts with our freedom.

There was a time when people thought that God was at the center of all things and they instinctively saw the hand of God in everything—even terrible things. Job said, The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised … if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil? (Job 1:21; 2:10) Thus the ancients would commonly attribute everything as coming from the hand of God, for He was the “first cause” of everything that happened.

The ancients were thus much more comfortable attributing things to God than we are. In speaking like this, they were not being superstitious or primitive in their thinking; rather, they were emphasizing that God was sovereign, omnipotent, and omnipresent, and that nothing happened apart from His sovereign will. They believed that God was the primary cause of all that existed.

We need to understand that the ancient biblical texts, while often speaking of God as hardening the hearts of sinners, do not mean to say that man had no role, no responsibility. Neither do they mean to say that God acts in a merely arbitrary way. Rather, the emphasis is on God’s sovereign power as the first cause of all that is. Hence He is often called the cause of all things and His hand is seen in everything.

In man’s enlightened, superior, highly educated, and self-reliance, man moved himself to the center and God was gradually “escorted” to the periphery. Man’s manner of thinking and speaking began to shift to focusing on secondary causes (those related to man and nature). If something happens we look to natural causes, or in human situations, to the humans who caused it.

We are dealing with the mysterious interrelationship between God and Man, between God’s sovereignty and our freedom – Mysteries. In the face of such mysteries we have to be very humble. We ought not to think more about the details than is proper for us, because, frankly, they are largely hidden from us.

Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”

None of us can demand an absolute account from God for what He does. Even if He were to tell us, could our small, worldly minds ever really comprehend it? My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, says the Lord. Yet we try to put God in a box we can humanly understand.

We should be careful to admit the limits of our knowledge when it comes to interpreting “hardening texts,” in which God hardens the hearts of certain people. These must be approached carefully, humbly, and with proper distinctions as to God’s sovereignty, our freedom, His mercy, His justice, His plans, and His purposes. (Charles Pope)

We do well to put God in the center of all things and man’s existence totally subjective to His sovereignty.

But they understood none of these things

Exodus 4:1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

Acts 7:25  He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

Psalms 106:7  Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.

Luke 9:45  But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it.

Luke 18:34  But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Psalms 78:42  They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,

Mar 4:11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’” And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

“They will not believe or listen to my voice”. This is what Moses said to God when God told him to go speak to the elders. Note in Acts where Paul explained what happened to Moses – the people did not understand.

What keeps people from understanding, listening, remembering, perceiving, or grasping things of God?

Could it be a hardened heart? Weak heart? Lukewarm heart? Proud heart? Worldly heart? Greedy heart? Self-seeking heart? Fearful heart? Faithless heart? Yes these can all happen but why?

Being complacent and living in prosperity, not thinking about needing God. It is a sad place to be, to think you do not need God everyday for every moment. It gets worse from here. When we see little need for God there is no time spent in His word, no time in prayer, no time seeking to serve Him, no time to worship Him, no time to honor Him.

How do we think we will see any of His mighty works, or loving kindness, or grace, or mercy, or forgiveness, or power, or strength, or peace, or courage, or healing….. if neglecting God is the norm for our daily life.

The same neglect will void any understanding of His word and knowing how to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey.

The same neglect leaves us defenseless from the darts of satan in our lives.

“And though they said all is well, destruction came upon them unaware”

If his word is not breath, food and water for your soul there is little hope for honoring Him. If humbly serving, following and obeying Him is not your first goal in life there is little hope for honoring Him. If honoring Him is not the first thought in the morning and last thought at night, how will it ever happen. If His word is not feeding your heart, mind, and soul how will their be fruit.

My strength comes from the Lord.

My hope is in the Lord

My life is in the Lord’s hands

My peace, joy, and love comes from the Lord

My soul rejoices in His promises

My ears seek to hear His leading

My eyes desire to see His mighty hand

My heart loves the Lord

They did not know the time of your visitation

Exodus 3:17 I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction

Genesis 15:13-21     Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

Genesis 46:4    I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again

Genesis 50:24     And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Exodus 4:30 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Luke 1:68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation

Psalms 8:4     what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Luke 19:44     and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

I’m intrigued by:

God’s all knowing “They will be afflicted for 400 years”,

God’s love “I will go with you”, “bring you up”, “redeem His people”

Man’s rejection “because you did not know the time of your visitation”

Is it possible to see the hand of God at work in and around us and see it? Yes it is. However, seeing it does not mean we recognize it as work of God. It does not mean we trust and rely on Him. It does not mean we are right with God. It does not mean our heart, mind, and soul are worshipping Him and giving Him glory. It does not mean we are serving Him. It does not mean we are in obedience to Him.

To those who are looking, longing, desiring, waiting, and seeking God, they will know His presence at all times. They will see His hand at work even through the affliction, trial, and troubles. They will have peace, rest, refuge, courage, strength, power, might, and hope. They will have trust, reliance and faith. They will be searching and know the work of God through out each day. They will be listening and know God’s whispers of guidance. Though sudden hurt and fear may come upon them they will stay true in God’s ever loving hands.

If you are not walking with God you may not see or hear things of God though they are right before your eyes and shouted into your ears. “because you did not know the time of your visitation”

A complacent walk with God will not see Him or hear Him because the heart and mind are hardened with a love for things of this world above humbly serving, honoring, glorifying, following, and obeying Him.

I am the Alpha and the Omega

Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me,

Exodus 6:3     I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.

Job 11:7     “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

Psalms 90:2    Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Isaiah 44:6     Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

2 Corinthians 1:20     For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

Revelation 1:8    “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 4:8    And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

Aren’t you amazed at the response “I am who I am”? When someone asks you who you are, you might say John Smith, brother of Bill and Tom, Son of Brad and born in the city of X, county of X, country of X in the year of XXXX. You might continue on and say you are married to Martha and work for IBM as a VP of technology. You might say to volunteer at such and such organization(s).

God however has no beginning or end. He has no father, mother, brother, sister, and is complete in Himself. He is not bound by time. He is outside of all that is created. He is all knowledge, wisdom and understanding. He is all love, righteous, and justice. He can do more than we ask and much more than we can imagine. He is all powerful, mighty, and Holy.

And though we see Him partially, like though a fog, we will see Him fully in eternity. We will understand His holiness, love, majesty, power, wisdom, and the fullness of “I am”

We serve a living God without limit.