building a nation

Getting perspective from the Old Testament seems to depend upon the truth that the stories and characters and events portrayed are examples, illustrations, and warnings we can learn from and apply in our lives.  The Old Testament still testifies to the important truths about God and about us.  We are now in the book of Exodus, the story of a people who started as a family that grew into a nation.  It occurred to me this morning that one of the forces that formed the nation was oppression.  For four hundred years the people of Israel, descendants of Jacob, were foreigners in Egypt.  Pharaoh felt threatened by their rapid expansion and prosperity and so he enslaved them.  From his standpoint he eliminated a potential danger to his authority and he also secured manpower to build his cities...a win-win from his point of view.  But in a "back door" kind of way he preserved family purity for the most part among the people of Israel.  Who among the Egyptians would want to associate with a people who were so despised and so treated as slaves?  Consequently, over the course of 400 years as the people of Israel expanded there would have been little intermarriage or intercultural exchange.  Over the course of the same period of time if the people of Israel had remained in their homeland they might well have become dispersed and diluted and lacked a clear identity.  So in a strange way, living as strangers in a land as slaves preserved and established Israel with a cohesive identity with the strength of character that can only come through suffering.  In our day Christians are becoming despised and characterized as "dinosaurs" of civilization among developed nations of the world.  In other places they are overtly tortured and imprisoned for their convictions and faith.  There is persecution of these children of God and one result is that God is separating a people for himself...a nation of believers across time and distance.  We may wonder sometimes why Jesus hasn't returned yet.  The people of Israel may have wondered for 400 years why they were in slavery when they had been given the promise of freedom and prosperity in their own land.  I think the example we find in Exodus tells us that there is purpose in the passage of time and that God's plans will show that purpose and be fulfilled, just as they were as Exodus unrolled.

1 Corinthians 10:¹¹ These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.

Revelation 15:³ They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying:

"Great and marvelous are Your works,
Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!

blessings,

Rob Smith