When Everything Changes!
By Rev. William Dohle
It happens to everyone...
You're going along, minding your own business. Doing nothing really out of the ordinary to call attention to yourself...just living life. When suddenly... BAM!
Everything changes!
What follows brings turmoil to your once peaceful life.
When could this happen... well...
You could have had a good paying job when... BAM! ... You're laid off!
You could have just been living when... BAM!... A Heart Attack!
You could be enjoying your family when... BAM! ... Cancer!
However it happens, the moment everything changes is never a good one! When it does happen, we long for better days. We yearn for the days of health and well-being. We pine after the days of a steady income and less stress over money. We want, above all else, to escape from whatever has changed our lives.
This moment happens, not just to us, but also to the people of Israel.
Between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus a lot has changed. The Bible tells us "Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers, and became so numerous that the land was filled with them."
In other words... time has passed for the people of Israel in Egypt. And that time has brought... babies! More babies than they can count. So many babies in fact that the land is filled with Israelites babies and their babies' babies!
The prosperous time has come! No longer are they stranded in Canaan, a people of just a single family. Now the people of Israel are so numerous that the land can't hold them!
Wow!
But now... everything is changing! For a new king who doesn't care for Joseph and what he did for Egypt has ascended to the throne.
And now the time of stressfulness has come! For this king, seeing the number of Israelite babies has decreed that boy babies born of Israelites are to be killed after birth. Girls may life. And the rest of the Israelites are to be worked ruthlessly. "They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the field."(Exodus 1:14)
Everything has changed...and it's not good!
Still God is working in their lives. "God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own."
God is still watching out for them!
And God watches out for you too! The question we pose most often after everything has changed is simple and yet so profound.
"Where are you, God?"
Thinking that God is only with us when things are going right. Thinking that for some reason nothing should change if we truly believe in God, we get hung up on this question.
And yet... God is with us, just as he is with the people of Israel. God isn't found high above in some highest heaven. He's down here...with the midwives. He's here where people respect God enough to disobey their civil leaders. He's here where people are struggling and fighting oppression on every side. He's here where death is at every turn. He's here...in the details of their lives.
And God is with you there too. The fact that everything changes doesn't mean that God has changed. God is still faithful, no matter what. God's promises remain with us both when life is at its best and when life is at its worst. And God will see us through, one way or another, to His Promised Land.
God we live in a world of changes, a world of dangers and disasters. Give us faith that we might see your unchanging love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment