God Remembers His Covenant
We begin reading about God’s delivery of the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt in today’s Bible reading. It’s a tremendous story of God’s faithfulness in watching over and providing for His Covenant people.
Before reading the book of Job, we finished reading Genesis where God had saved Jacob and his family from seven years of famine by providing the best farmland in Egypt for their sheep. Joseph, Jacob’s son was the Prime Minister at the time.
As we begin today’s reading, Jacob’s descendants have spent four hundred years in Egypt. And by this time, the Egyptians had forgotten about Joseph. The new king saw the numerous Hebrews and felt threatened, so he enslaved them, making them build cities in his honor.
God remembers His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and sends an eighty-year-old Moses to Egypt to bring Abraham’s descendants — his own people — back to the Land of Promise.
God saved His people and provided a place to live during the remainder of the famine. But they were only supposed to be there for a brief time. Four hundred years have passed and they are still living as visitors rather than living in the land God had promised to Abraham. They needed to go back home.
God remembers His covenant with Abraham. It’s not that God had forgotten His covenant. The people had forgotten. In their distress, they cried out to God and He heard their prayers. It was time for them to go back home.
Moses was eighty years old when God called him to this task. Moses has been on the run for half of his life (Acts 7:23, 7.30), fleeing from Egypt because the king wanted to kill him. But now, it’s time for Moses to return to his birthplace and lead his people — God’s people — back home.
Application
God never intended for the people to stay where He had provided for them in the short-term. But they grew comfortable where they were. They forgot who they were. More importantly, they forgot Whose they were. So had Moses.
If God can call and equip an eighty-year-old man to lead over a million people to leave their comfort to follow God, He can call and equip anyone to do anything. If you’re a senior adult, God isn’t finished with you! As long as you’re still breathing, God still has a purpose for you in His grand plan. Are there areas where you have grown comfortable where you are, doing what you’re comfortable doing … instead of following God more passionately?
Spend some time today asking God if you need to make some changes to what you’re doing and where you are. Perhaps it’s time to step out of your comfort zone into obedience.