Thread by @GPrater85015

#GeraldsDevotional
Moses – Water to Wine Part 2 – God Creates a Nation & the Enemy Tries to Stop It

This morning in part 2 of this series, we will go back to see how the foundation was set for the need of God to raise Moses to deliver His people. The first chapter of Exodus is a picture of a tremendous transition. In it we will see how God started with a family of 12 sons and

their households. At the beginning of Exodus, these descendants of Israel numbered only 70 people in total and were then living in peace and safety in Egypt.

God had promised Abraham back in Genesis 12 that He would make a great nation of him, with so many descendants that they

would be as numerous as grains of sand on the sea shore. Well, in this first chapter we see the beginning of how God keeps that promise after having delivered Israel and all of his sons from a famine at the end of the book of Genesis.

Unfortunately we also see in this chapter

another significant effort by the enemy of God’s people. He wants to stop what God is doing to keep His promises and to bless all the nations of the world through this small clan of Israelites. It is ironic to note that this new Pharaoh is attempting to use a form of eugenics

(population management) to control and ultimately to eliminate a class of people who he has determined to be inferior or a threat to his perceived power. I call this ironic because this dubious plot and theme has remained and resurfaced throughout history. It is still very much

alive among us today in open activist efforts like those of Margaret Sanger (abortion and birth control) and Bill Gates (eugenics and world population control). Just as it was with this evil Pharaoh, these are all cases where people make themselves out to be gods, categorize

people and then determine which of their lives are dispensable for the better good. Just as this Pharaoh did, they failed to understand that these people that they consider to be dispensable are actually precious blessings from God. He sent them to bless many.

But God…

He still has a plan and is still on His throne. His plan in concert with His promise is to bring life and blessings to all of the world through this small clan from Abraham and its Seed. So let’s watch today as God makes a nation out of these 70 people and the enemy tries in

desperation to stop it.

The Israelites in Egypt
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, 4 Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 In all, Jacob

had seventy descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there.

6 In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. 7 But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they

became extremely powerful and filled the land.

8 Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10 We must make a plan to keep

them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.”

11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them

down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 13 So the Egyptians worked

the people of Israel without mercy. 14 They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.

15 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and

Puah: 16 “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.

18 So the king

of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?”

19 “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in

time.”

20 So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy

into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.” - Exodus 1:1-22

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