The process of deliverance

I have been reading the book of Exodus and am struck by how many analogies can be drawn between the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt and our lives as Christians.

To begin with, God has a plan to deliver His people - to rescue us from our afflictions and to bless us with good things (Exodus 3:8, Romans 8).

But that doesn't mean life is easy.

I think that many people, when they think of the Exodus, think of the plagues God sent on the Egyptians and how He led the Israelites into freedom, parting the Red Sea to make their escape possible.

But we don't think so much about how the Israelites lived in slavery for 400 years (Exodus 1:11, Exodus 12:40). Ever since sin entered the world, life has been hard, and God allows His people to experience suffering. The difference between the suffering of God's followers and the suffering of those who don't belong to Him is that we have hope. God promised long before the Israelites became slaves that they would be enslaved and mistreated, but that He would deliver them (Genesis 15:13-14). Similar to when Jesus promised that His followers would have troubles but that in the end, they would overcome (Troubles).

Even when God initiates His plan to save His people, the suffering doesn't end. In fact, it gets worse. The first time Moses goes to Pharaoh to tell him to let God's people go, Pharaoh responds by working the Israelites harder (Exodus 5:6-21). The Israelites react as many of us do when life gets harder - they complain to Moses and blame him for this added misery. We assume that when bad things happen, someone must be to blame. Is God not as good as I thought He was? Is there someone in my life who is at fault? Did my own sin cause this? We fail to realize that when God acts, the Enemy feels threatened and needs to show that he is still powerful. I love the following example of this concept:

"So [in obedience to God's instructions] Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned the wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs" (Exodus 7:10-12).

I love this passage because it is an image of the truth that no matter how the Enemy tries to compete with God and make us trust more in the evil that is in the world than we trust in God, God's work always trumps the Enemy's. No matter how much goes wrong in your life, God is still more powerful, and His plan to do you good will be the one that triumphs.

" 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' " -Jeremiah 29:11

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28