Saturday, May 20, 2017

BOOK: Exhortations

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Volume 6 ... #2 
God Has A Plan For HIS People ... God Never Fails


The examples given us in the Bible show us God's deliverance for HIS people.

God will never fail in HIS plan.

God does not forsake HIS people.

We build up our faith in God when we read examples in the Bible such as the following:

Exodus 1 ... And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.


... And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.


*****

Things were very bad for the children of Israel, and they were going to get worse.

 
 Exodus 1 ... And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 

... And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.


*****

Moses was born at this time.  His mother hid Moses for 3 months and when she could no longer hide the baby Moses, she made a raft and put the baby on the raft and set it into the river.

Exodus 2 ... And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. 

Then said his sister (Moses' sister) to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.


*****

None of these things happened by "accident".  All was planned by God.

As we read Exodus we see God has a plan for deliverance of HIS people and that plan will not fail.

We also see that God is in control over all ... even the wicked men of this earth are under the control of God... God can and will bring about HIS plan and they will never be able to stand against God.

God makes a way of escape for HIS people:

Here is a miraculous deliverance story presented by Pam Padgett, a member of our little church group: 

Pam says:  

My older sister had been at college two years when I started attending the same school.  She dated a man who was a member of a fraternity, and she had become a member of the fraternity's "women's auxiliary", assisting with fraternity social functions.  She was very excited for me to join the social circles she was in, and especially wanted me to meet members of the fraternity.

The first week of school my sister invited me to go to a student bar where many of the fraternity guys gathered on Thursday nights.  I went, but found what was going on there to be so bad (lewdness, drunkenness ) that I was unable to stay and I walked back to the dormitory.

A week or so later my sister asked if I'd go to an outdoor luau with one of the freshmen pledges at the fraternity.  The luau site was about 20 miles away near a river, and there would be a campfire.  The setting was very appealing to me, plus I was excited about having a date, and I agreed to go.

Then, a few days before the luau, my sister told me that arrangements had been made for one of the other fraternity guys to take me to the luau because my date would be spending the day at the luau site building a hut for us ... a young man I had never even met was building a hut "for us"!

Suddenly the reality of this luau became very clear to me.  This was not going to be people sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows.  The lewdness and drunkenness I had seen at the student bar was probably mild compared to what would be going on at this luau ... and I wouldn't be able to walk home.

I told my sister that I couldn't go along with this and did not want to go, but she kept insisting that it was too late for me to back out, that it was too late for this guy to find another date. 

I turned very strongly to God, asking Him to somehow get me out of this situationThere seemed no way out

At one point I asked God to let me have appendicitis, preferring to be in a hospital having surgery than to go to this luau.

The morning of the luau I woke up and checked to see if I might have any pain that would indicate appendicitis, and was disappointed that I felt fine. 

I kept praying for God to somehow work this out.  Time was really running out! 

When I looked outside, it was raining a little, but not much. However, the rain became heavier and heavier as the day went on.

Around 2 pm I received a call from the fraternity guy who planned to take me to the luau site.  He told me how sorry he was to have to tell me this, but the luau had to be cancelled. 

The luau site had been totally flooded, washing away all the huts that had been built, which would include the hut my date had built for us.    He told me how long the luau had been held at this same site (many years) and, although there had been rain at times in the past, nothing like this had ever happened before, flooding and causing the luau to be cancelled.

I rejoiced, knowing that God had delivered me.