ETERNAL has a reason.

Ken Graydon

I wonder how often you have been in a particular situation and you look back at the events leading up to it – then with 20/20 hindsight you can see how each step has come about. There was a plan in place that is being worked out. It should give us some comfort, if we are being obedient, that the CREATOR of the Universe takes ‘time out’ to intervene in our personal life for our long-term benefit.

Have you had a situation that you thought would be really bad – but it turned out to bring some real blessing into your life in some unexpected way? ETERNAL has a reason for doing things. Let us look at Genesis 50: 15 - 20

15 Now Joseph's brothers saw that their father had died, and they said, "Perhaps

Joseph will hate us and return to us all the evil that we did to him." 16 So

they commanded [messengers to go] to Joseph, to say, "Your father

commanded [us] before his death, saying, 17 'So shall you say to Joseph,

"Please, forgive now your brothers' transgression and their sin, for they did

evil to you. Now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God

of your father." ' " Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers

also went and fell before him, and they said, "Behold, we are your slaves."

19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I instead of God?

20 Indeed, you intended evil against me, [but] God designed it for good, in

order to bring about what is at present to keep a great populace alive.

Joseph understands that ETERNAL had a plan, these 72 people will become over a million in the 435 years of their stay in Egypt. If the brothers had not sold Joseph into slavery the Israelites would have disappeared as a people.

I don’t think we need to read the story of Moses being put into a basket in the Nile, so that he could be saved by a princess and given a leadership education to equip him to lead the Hebrews to their new land – it’s well known and it demonstrates, once again, that ETERNAL has reasons for doing things, that only become clear later.

Now we can look at a passage where ETERNAL plans with Moses how the Israelites can be shown that Moses has the authority to be a leader. ETERNAL puts the pieces of the plan together. Look at Exodus 4: 1 – 9.

1 Moses answered and said, "Behold they will not believe me, and they will

not heed my voice, but they will say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.' "

2 And the Lord said to him, "What is this in your hand?" And he said, "A

staff." 3 And He said, "Cast it to the ground," and he cast it to the ground,

and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it. 4 And the Lord said

to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand and take hold of its tail." So Moses

stretched forth his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand.

5 "In order that they believe that the Lord, the God of their forefathers, has

appeared to you, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of

Jacob." 6 And the Lord said further to him, "Now put your hand into your

bosom," and he put his hand into his bosom, and he took it out, and behold,

his hand was leprous like snow. 7 And he said, "Put your hand back into

your bosom," and he put his hand back into his bosom, and [when] he took

it out of his bosom, it had become again like [the rest of] his flesh. 8 "And

it will come to pass, that if they do not believe you, and they do not heed the

voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the last sign. 9 And it

will come to pass, if they do not believe either of these two signs, and they

do not heed your voice, you shall take of the water of the Nile and spill it

upon the dry land, and the water that you take from the Nile will become

blood on the dry land."

During the first of the plagues brought upon Egypt because they will not let the Hebrews go, Pharaoh appears to be ‘getting away’ with telling lies and punishing the people. Now Pharaoh is told the reason – he’s only a small player in this drama. ETERNAL is using Pharaoh to show that no matter how important you think you are, the conclusion will be as ETERNAL has planned it. Lets visit Exodus 9: 13 - 21

13 The Lord said to Moses, "Rise early

in the morning and stand erect before Pharaoh, and say to him, 'So said the

Lord, the God of the Hebrews, "Let My people go so that they may worship

Me. 14 Because this time, I am sending all My plagues into your heart and

into your servants and into your people, in order that you know that there is

none like Me in the entire earth. 15 For if now I had stretched forth My

hand, and I had smitten you and your people with pestilence, you would

have been annihilated from the earth. 16 But, for this [reason] I have

allowed you to stand, in order to show you My strength and in order to

declare My name all over the earth. 17 If you still tread upon My people,

not letting them out, 18 behold, I am going to rain down at this time

tomorrow a very heavy hail, the likes of which has never been in Egypt from

the day of its being founded until now. 19 And now, send, gather in your

livestock and all that you have in the field, any man or beast that is found in

the field and not brought into the house the hail shall fall on them, and they

will die." ' " 20 He who feared the word of the Lord of Pharaoh's servants

drove his servants and his livestock into the houses. 21 But he who did not

pay attention to the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in

the field.

Did you notice that now ETERNAL is dividing the Egyptians? Those who accepted ETERNAL’s, word were able to protect themselves and their possessions, the others would die. ETERNAL is planning that non-Hebrews who believe in Him will be able to participate in the Exodus. These will be the strangers present at Mount Sinai, when the Ten Commandments are given. It’s also part of a much longer term plan that allows people like us, who are not Jewish but who love and obey ETERNAL, to be included in the promises of the Tanakh.

Now, let’s look at Exodus 20:15 - 18

15 And all the people saw the voices and the torches,

the sound of the shofar, and the smoking mountain, and the people saw

and trembled; so they stood from afar. 16 They said to Moses, "You speak

with us, and we will hear, but let God not speak with us lest we die."

17 But Moses said to the people, "Fear not, for God has come in order to

exalt you, and in order that His awe shall be upon your faces, so that you

shall not sin." 18 The people remained far off, but Moses drew near to the

opaque darkness, where God was.

The drama at Mount Sinai was planned by ETERNAL, it was to be a face-to-face encounter that would live forever in their memory but the people did not want to face ETERNAL, they wanted someone to go meet with ETERNAL, then come back and tell them what He had said. Notice this, ETERNAL wanted to deal directly with them, the people wanted the word of ETERNAL filtered through someone else.

We see this in many groups now where someone, who claims to be a leader, wants to interpret the words of ETERNAL and be paid for doing it. These are the shepherds that ETERNAL is very upset about. In this group, where we try to take responsibility for ourselves, there is no formal leadership structure. The only position available is to be a servant, we have one leader, ETERNAL who, as the Shema reminds us, is ONE.

ETERNAL wants to meet with you, wants to answer your prayers, wants to offer revelations for your life, wants to participate in your healing – but He gave you free will, you can choose.

ETERNAL does things for good reasons to give you the opportunity to have a relationship of ‘oneness’ with Him. Look back at the steps that brought you to where you are today. You have been part of ETERNAL’s plan.

Turn now to Deuteronomy 29: 1 – 8

1 And Moses called all of Israel and said to them, "You have seen all that

the Lord did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all

his servants, and to all his land; 2 the great trials which your very eyes

beheld and those great signs and wonders. 3 Yet until this day, the Lord has

not given you a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear. 4 I led you

through the desert for forty years [during which time] your garments did not

wear out from upon you, nor did your shoes wear out from upon your feet.

5 You neither ate bread, nor drank new wine or old wine, in order that you

would know that I am the Lord, your God. 6 And then you arrived at this

place. And Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, came

out towards us in battle, and we smote them. 7 And we took their land, and

we gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and to the half

tribe of Manasseh. 8 And you shall observe the words of this covenant and

fulfill them, in order that you will succeed in all that you do.

Is this your experience? Do you succeed in all that you do? This promise is in the Tanakh because it is true. If we are obedient to our part of the covenant – if we are choosing to do ETERNAL’s will for us, we will be successful.

ETERNAL has a reason for wanting you here, for intervening in your life, for taking you off whatever strange pathway you had chosen. It is up to each of us, as individuals, to approach ETERNAL to find His will for our life and the way He wants to be served. May we each take the opportunity to be obedient, to be blessed, to be successful.

AND SO BE IT

Questions for discussion

1.      Joseph was blessed yet he married an Egyptian, his half-Egyptian sons were adopted by Israel to be the start of tribes. What does this show us about ETERNAL’s ways of choosing people? [Remember that the Moabite Ruth was King David’s grandmother]

2.     Can you think of other examples in Moses’ life where ETERNAL had put a plan in place, years before, to meet a particular need?

3.     How would the golden calf incident affect the Hebrews choices in having a face-to-face relationship with ETERNAL?

4.     Are there incidents in your life, that you can share with this respectable group, of ETERNAL acting in your life, where something that initially seemed bad turned out to be a blessing?