God Is at Work!
Opening Prayer
Father, I love many things, many good things. Redirect my love, first of all, to ultimate things, to You.
Read Acts 7:17–34
17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’ 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’
27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Think back—and marvel—at how God has worked out his gracious purposes in your life.
Think Further
The story of God’s dealings with Abraham and his descendants is a story of a grace that refuses to be thwarted by human willfulness. It also tells us that, be they individuals or communities, God does not guide those who are his through smooth and easy routes! He made a promise to Abraham that his descendants would possess the land to which he had traveled in blind obedience. Nothing could stop that promise from being fulfilled, but the journey was long and tortuous.
Joseph’s elder brothers sold the dreamer into slavery and declared him missing, presumed dead, but that was the route that led him to become ruler over Egypt (9,10). Our reading today starts with a new king who had a poor sense of history. He not only enslaved but instigated a policy of genocide against the people of the man who once rescued his country from national disaster (18,19). But who was it that God used to train the future leader of his slaves? That leader, Moses, had to learn the hard way that “anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (Jas.1:20) and became, for forty years, a fugitive murderer on the run from the Law (23–29).
What a captivating story Stephen had to tell! What we read today is only a small part of that story; it is part of our story too. Like him, we need to learn to tell it with courage, skill and passion. What a privilege for us, who were not originally part of the story, but were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12, KJV).
Apply
Praise God today because he has complete control of human history—and you can safely entrust your life to him!
Closing prayer
Sovereign Lord, my story has become entwined with Your story. Sharpen my ability to point others to the story of Your love for them.
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