Now the Lord had caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the people of Israel, and Moses was considered a very great man in the land of Egypt. He was respected by Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people alike. — Exodus 11:3
Whatever you think of Fidel Castro, the communist leader of Cuba, you have to admit that he had staying power. Despite all the efforts of the United States to overthrow him, including the ill-fated Bay of Pigs episode and more than forty years of economic sanctions, he remained in control. Even though doctrinaire communism no longer held sway in former strongholds, this fact did not deter Castro. Nothing appeared to move him or change him! No doubt his enemies—and there was no shortage of them—wondered what it would take to remove him and bring freedom to the Cuban people.
The Israelites must have wondered how anything could change the heart of Pharaoh, the cruel tyrant who dominated their lives during their captivity in Egypt. Even a series of divinely inspired disasters had served only to strengthen Pharaoh’s resolve to oppress them and had stoked his antipathy to the Lord and his people. The Lord said, “Pharaoh is very stubborn, and he continues to refuse to let the people go” (Exod. 7:14). With each succeeding disaster, Pharaoh’s pattern of stubbornness and heart-hardening made further confrontation necessary. But through it all, the Lord was at work, determined to turn things around so completely that eventually Pharaoh would beg the children of Israel to leave.
The Lord was already turning things around for Moses. Despised even by his own people at one point (see 6:9-12), Moses was now “considered a great man in the land of Egypt. He was respected by Pharaoh’s officials and the Egyptian people alike” (11:3). The Egyptians’ attitude toward the rest of the Israelites had gone through a remarkable transformation, as well: “The Lord had caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the people of Israel.”
That God is fully capable of intervening in human affairs is without question, and that he does so is amply documented. The methods that God employs are sometimes hard for us to take or even to understand, but his objectives are always right, and his means of achieving them are just. That the prisoners should be freed from Pharaoh’s control was right, and that Pharaoh should be punished for his intransigence was equally correct. But Pharaoh’s ongoing obduracy and his unrelenting antipathy necessitated ever increasing disasters until he finally yielded.
God is committed to turning things around the way they ought to be, and he will. Even Castro’s regime eventually fell, as did Pharaoh’s! This being the case, we who live neither under Pharaoh’s tyranny nor Castro’s regime, yet find our work situations onerous or our social climate challenging, should take heart. God is at work, and ultimately, he will see that right is rewarded and wrong is punished. But he works at his speed, not ours, and he is not limited by time—he has eternity at his disposal!
For further study: Exodus 11:1-10
Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Men, Copyright ©2000 by Stuart Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
For more from Stuart Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.
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