Exodus 1

I love the book of Exodus.  Like seriously.  It's a real favorite of mine.  Today, in my Bible in a year reading plan, I got to reread Exodus 1.  I have to tell you, sometimes I tend to skim first chapters--they are great, but sometimes, I just want to get to the heart of things.

Today, though, I slowed down.  And I saw the heart of things in this first chapter.

This last week has been difficult.  At every turn, we have been met with more and more bad news.  Our neighbors lost their grandson whom they were raising in a tragic and painful way.  New friends have lost a parent.  A dear friend of Andy's lost his father to a long, painful battle with lung cancer.  People around us in all parts of our lives are hurting and in pain.  It's been nearly consuming me.  I have spent so much time just wondering why it is happening, and what it is I need to be doing in the midst of all of this.

Today, I got the start of an answer.  Because Exodus is truly a testament to the faithfulness of God.  It is God clearly working out the events of history to lead up the the ultimate event: Jesus.

I love to look the big picture and small details in Scripture.  In Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham and renewed it with Isaac and Jacob.  He promised that their people would be numerous and that they would have the land of Canaan.  Four hundred years later, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are long dead, and the Israelite people have certainly grown.  Pharoah and the Egyptians are fearful of their strength.  Pharoah asks Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives, to kill any male Israelite babies at birth (they don't).  The people are strong, they are a force to be reckoned with, but they are slaves.

I wonder how it must have felt to be an Israelite.  Could they see the big picture? Or were they focused on the details? Did they trust that at the exact right time they would be delivered?  Did they believe that God would hold true to His promised and give them more than they could ever imagine? Or were they only able to see the yoke of slavery that surrounded them?

In my own life, I wonder, how often do I get focused on the small details?  How often do I feel like I'm being tossed under a bus because I can only see the here and now?  I so want to trust in the big picture.  When life seems grim, hard, and impossible to navigate, I want to trust in the God of big pictures.  I want to know that at the end of the darkness there is a light.  The Father of Light.  The God of the Big Picture.  The God who does immeasurably more than I could ever think or imagine.