Good
Morning Friends,
“Now
the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the
end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.”
(Exodus 12:40-41)
The
Israelites had been living in a foreign land for 430 years. For 430 years they
had been waiting for God to take them back to the land that He had promised to
give them. There is a lesson about patiently waiting for the Lord in this
story!
Not
only were they in a foreign land for over 400 years, but for many of those years
they were living as slaves. I’m not sure when their time in Egypt changed from
their being guests of the Egyptians to their being slaves, but it had to have
been at least 80 years. They were slaves when Moses was born and suffering severe
persecution at that time. Moses was 40 when he fled from Egypt after killing
one of the slave drivers. Moses spent another 40 years living in the desert as
a shepherd for his father-in-law, so he was 80 years old when God sent him back
to Egypt to lead the people out of their slavery. At least 80 years of slavery
and probably many more than that.
80
years is more than a lifetime for most people, yet God required at least 80 years
of patience as they waited to be released from their slavery. 430 years is
longer than America has been a nation! Yet the Israelites were required to wait
patiently that long before they were returned to their own land, a land God had
promised to give them.
Can
you wait a lifetime for God to fulfill a promise He’s made to you? At times He
may require that kind of patience!
Can
you wait generations to see His blessing revealed? That’s what He asked of
Israel. That’s what He’s asked of the church as we wait patiently for the Second
Coming!
Patience
– it’s one of the hardest virtues to learn. It’s one that God requires that we
learn!
His,
by Grace,
Steve
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