“but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.”
~ Exodus 1:7
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know how large your extended family is? Your grandpaa is one of sixty-six grandkids on his ma’s side of his family. Your grandpaa’s ma had five sisters and seven bros. Joseph had eleven bros. By the time that Joseph’s dad – Jacob – who God renamed Israel, and Joseph’s eleven bros relocated to Egypt because of a devastating famine in the land of Canaan, there were seventy guys, gals and kids in the extended family of Jacob or Israel. Exodus 1 is an account of a rapidly growing people group of guys and gals – who were the Israelite people group of guys and gals. Verse 7 says, “but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.” It concerned the Egyptian Pharaoh – who was possibly Ahmose, so much that the Israelite people group of guys, gals and kids was growing so quickly that he told two Israelite or Hebrew people group midwives that he wanted them to kill all the Israelite people group baby boys at the moment that the boy was born. The midwives used the excuse that the Israelite people group gals were much more vigorous than the gals who were the wives of Egyptian guys and that by the time that they got to the rocks – which was the delivery stool, the Israelite people group ma had already left with her newborn kid. For not killing newborn baby Israelite people group boys, God blessed the Israelite people group midwives by giving them families of their own. Because nothing was working to halt the rapid growth of the number of Israelite people group guys, gals and kids – including forcing the Israelite people groups guys to do the hard work of making bricks, laying mortar and working in the fields, the Egyptian Pharaoh told the Israelite people group gals that they had no other choice but to throw their newborn baby boys – right after their kids were born, into the Nile River. The Egyptian Pharaoh also told the Israelite people group gals that they did not have to throw their baby girls into the Nile River. 430 years after Jacob or Israel relocated to Egypt – to a very fertile region known as Goshen, with his family of seventy guys, gals and kids, the Israelite people group of guys numbered somewhere around 600,000 guys. Your grandpaa thinks that the number of Israelite people group guys, gals and kids to be somewhere around two million at this time. Egyptian guys and gals were very afraid that the Israelite people group guys would one day join an enemy nation to overpower them and that the Israelite people group guys would then just pack up and leave Egypt. After using the Israelite people group guys for centuries as slaves – to help them do the work that they did not want to do, the Egyptians were not about to . . . then God put into motion His plan for having His specially chosen guys, gals and kids return to the land of their forefathers.
Do you like living in status quo environs or do you like living in dynamic change environments? Does it scare you to leave the comforts and amenities of your culturally and socially conditioned life surroundings to enter a new world filled with strange and foreign cultural and societal norms – even if your present lives are being beaten up and pummeled with abusive and untenable expectations from the guys and gals in the world around you? Just as God had His specially chosen guys and gals on a change stage, God has His specially elected guys, gals and kids on a change stage. You are always going to be facing a change. God’s staged changes for you at this time are to help you grow into adulthood. Bit players like a ma, a dad, school, sports, music, health, friends, etc. are all on the different stages that God has you playing the star role. God – as God the Father, is also always proactively involved on your individualized different life stages as God – God the Spirit, to help you learn your lines and act out your roles. Even though God – as God the Father, has already written your final applause lines, God – as God the Father, is still going to have you learn every one of the life cues that He wants you to learn so that you will always be proactive, effective Christ-follower contributors within His body of Christ-follower guys, gals and kids for the sake of His kingdom.
God just needs one life to birth a family of Christ-follower guys, gals and kids When your grandmaa and grandpaa were for about seven weeks in 1976 in Colombia on a South American Mission summer team, a stop on the ’76 South America Mission summer team’s itinerary was a three day stay in a town called Maicoa. Maicoa is a Colombian black market town that is located right on the Venezuelan border. Maicoa is located on the edge of the Guajira Peninsula. The Guajira Peninsula is the home of a large indigenous population of Guajira Indians. The Guajira Peninsula is a windblown, sandy desert region. Your grandmaa and grandpaa – along with the other guys and gals who were on the ’76 Colombia South America Mission summer team, stayed in a cheap, dirty hotel while they were in Maicoa. The three nights that your grandmaa and grandpaa stayed in the Maicoa hotel, your grandpaa pushed their bed right up against the door so that . . . strong wind gusts caused the sign right outside their hotel room window to whir all night long. Gunshots were heard throughout the nights. A Colombia South American Mission field team missionary couple lived in Maicoa. The first day that your grandmaa and grandpaa spent time in their house, Buck showed them where a bullet had struck his house’s door jamb. Buck also introduced your grandpaa to about a half a dozen Guajira guys who he was teaching Biblical truths to in his house’s backyard. There were very few Christ-followers in 1976 among the Guajira Indians. Because Buck taught Biblical truths to some Guajira guys, there were 20 years later in the Guajira Peninsula over 2,000 baptized Christ-follower Guajira guys, gals and kids. Are you hoping to invest your lives one day into the lives of other guys and gals by teaching them Biblical truths?
Exodus 1 (697)