Randy Suits

When All Hope Is Gone – God Takes the Initiative

“Rise up, O LORD! May Your enemies be scattered; may those who hate You flee before You.”

My greatest earthly inspiration Eve, encouraging me to take appropriate action when needed,

Joseph was second in power only to Pharaoh in Egypt, when he sent for his father, 11 half brothers, his brother Benjamin & their families (75 in all ) to tend their sheep in Goshen. They lived well through the remainder of a 7 year famine that had forced them to accept the invitation of Joseph. Joseph, in the wisdom given to him by the Most High God, had prepared for the famine in the preceding 7 years of excess plenty. God had told Abraham, Josephs grandfather, “for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.” With the family now settled in Goshen of Egypt, the count for the fulfillment of the 400 years began. Israel prospered and thrived in the lush pastures of Goshen but Pharaoh became concerned by the number and strength of Israelites in Egypt and enslaved them. Since God had promised the land of the Canaanites to Abraham’s descendants how could they, as slaves, claim what was promised them and maintain God’s timetable? Pharaoh demanded that all boy babies be killed at birth when Moses, the deliverer, was born. After hiding him and nursing Moses for 3 months his mother placed him in an arc in bulrushes. For her, all hope was gone. God took the initiative. He brought the sister of Pharaoh to the river. When she heard the baby cry, she took him and raised him in the house of Pharaoh. (God is always standing in the shadows keeping watch over his own.) When Moses at age 40 visited his people he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew and buried his body. When he returned the next day, he tried to intercede between two of his countrymen when one was abusing his brother, “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, ‘Surely this thing is known’. He fled to the back side of the desert rejected by his own people. Again God took the initiative. In the next 40 years, God untaught Moses the error, ungodliness, arrogance, self-sufficiency and pride of Egypt and retaught Moses in humility, simplicity of life and dependence upon God. Moses, well trained in Egyptian knowledge, and a man of confidence at 40 was not qualified to lead a nation out of bondage to a land of freedom. Moses at age 80 was seasoned, humble, and ready to look to God for all answers before acting. In Egypt, the Israelites called out to the Most High God for deliverance from the cruelty of their Egyptian masters. Moses had long since abandoned the idea of leading his people out of bondage, but it was time. The 400 years had expired. All hope was gone……. for man. God again took the initiative. He spoke to Moses out of a burning bush and instructed him to return to Egypt and lead his people to the promised land by his prescribed words through a series of plagues.  The steps God ordered and the absolute obedience of Moses is one of the best examples of a man overcoming his natural responses in favor of following the daily plan of the Most High God and seeing the unfailing power of the Most High God defeat the enemy. Through out the Bible, we see that God always takes the initiative to glorify His Holy Name. It is always seen by those who are taught by him. It is written, ‘And they shall be all taught of God.’ (John 6:45) It’s time for God’s people to reclaim the glory prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Let us call out to God Most High that he will take the initiative that we might follow him in perfect peace.

In Christ, Kochany