Calm through the Storm

One of the most popular verse in the book of Exodus is this:

The Lord to Pharaoh –

“But for this purpose, I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the Earth (Exodus 9:16).

More than ten times that Moses and Aaron is convincing Pharaoh to let God’s people go, but God at the same time allows Pharaoh to harden his heart. Why? In order God to show case Egypt and Israel His power for His greater glory. Remember that God will never take an action without a purpose. In this case, God’s purpose is to make His name be known. While doing that, however, God is also turning that circumstance into Israel’s favor behind the scene. In the surface, Pharaoh is strong, but on the background, the Egyptians’ fear of God’s wrath is increasing even more. In parallel to our personal lives, outside factor brought by the enemy seems scarier and stronger than we do, but deep inside, our faith, even as small as a mustard seed, can turn our circumstances into blessing, and it can overcome our sin, our self, and the world. It is as it is written in 2 Corinthians 4:

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

As we see here, we cannot truly grasp what is the overall big picture of God’s plan, so what is it to us?

Simply, this only means that we have to put our full faith and trust to God.

When Israel is on exodus, Egyptians were on their tail pursuing them; while upfront is the Red Sea. That only means Dead End for them all. In times like that, when they no longer know what to do, they started to look up unto God and ask for help. Lo and behold, the Red Sea was divided into two and they were saved (Exodus 14).

This is also the same condition of our life. Because of sin, we are surrounded by the threat of eternal death everywhere; but as we look up to God, where our true help comes from, we found salvation. What an amazing grace!

Here we see that faith is the forever assurance of the things we hope for, the evidence of the things we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). In faith, though we do not fully understand God’s commands and instructions, we follow Him still because we know that God will never harm us, so we cling on to God – both in good times or in bad times of our life.

Also, if we are living our life for God, we know that testing of our faith are meant to purify us from things that are not of God, so that what will remain, are significant things that is inconsumable by fire (Please see 1 Peter 1:7, James 1:2-4).