But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” (Exodus 6:1 ESV)
Fear Not… Then Watch
It has been common in our American history for both sides of an argument to claim God’s support. While it is important, even necessary, for us to evaluate our issues according to GOD’S Word, sometimes we are too quick to claim God’s support of our perspective.
Not so for Moses in Egypt. God told Moses that when God acted in Pharaoh’s life it would be obvious. And it was. Each plague worse than the previous, with a grand finale of horror on the tribe’s last night in Goshen.
Moses could state unequivocally that God was acting… and acting in a particular way. God describes His actions with a repeat of the adjective, “strong.” God was acting at that point without subtlety, without nuance, without interpretation options.
When reading Scripture God’s actions are clearly seen. There is no room for doubt, so God’s people can, and should, speak of God’s hand clearly and loudly. But when reading the newspaper, it is not usually so clear. And at times, we have been wrong about what God is doing. We have claimed political victory where the winning was actually losing… and vice versa. We have claimed social success where our success was much closer to failure.
And when we have claimed in that way, we actually weaken our witness for Christ. We lose credibility.
There is one way to interpret events that is guaranteed, scripturally. Every current event, every present crisis, every news article is sent to us by the One True Living God for one purpose: To point the eyes and hearts of every human towards Christ.
It is all about Him… not about our rights, our profit, our success, our failures, our agonies, our worries, our fears, or us at all.
Fear not, then watch.