The first thing we discover in Exodus 9 is the wonderful grace of God. Kevin E. Jesmer 11-1-14
The first thing we discover in this Exodus 9 is the wonderful grace of God.
God calls a slave people his own people. Look at Exodus 9:1, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (NIV) The Lord God is not ashamed to call himself the God of the ancient Hebrews. These people were slaves for 400 years. They were not some well educated, wealthy and self sufficient people. They had some serious sin problems. But God calls them “my people”. This is the grace of God. Our God is the God who calls sinners to himself. He calls the weak and the helpless and makes them his very own. 1 Corinthians 1:25-27 reads, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” Jesus came to choose the foolish. He chose the ordinary. Jesus is a spiritual doctor who came to heal the sick and bring the spiritual orphans back to their Father in heaven. He came to save the lost. God is so graceful to call sinners to himself, forgive them and call them his own children. Wow! That grace is overwhelming love!
In this world not many people accept you and love you like this. Most of us are left all alone. People may not even want to visit us. They say that by 2050, 40% of people in the Western culture will be living alone. There will continue to be unbearable loneliness and spiritual agony. But Jesus does not leave us alone. He is not like that. He comes to us humbly and gracefully and calls us his as his own people. We are his family members. He is by our side 24/7 by the Holy Spirit, not to judge us (for he did not come to judge us), he came to love and shepherd us. In light of this grace, all we can do is say…thank you Jesus. Merci Beacoup!
We can also pray to be more like Jesus and reflect his glory. How easy it is to ignore and even despise those who have fallen through the cracks. We don’t want to be associated with the weak and those in need. We like to be surrounded by the rich, the capable, the influential and the strong. These people make no demands on us, and they bring us some glory and they are easy to be around, even enjoyable. That is ok. We all need friends with whom we feel comfortable. But there are times when God calls us out of our comfort zone to embrace the modern day equivalent of the ancient Hebrew slaves in Egypt. It may be one or two people. It may be a community that we would never embrace in a million years if it was left up to us. But God may want to reveal his glory through us by our calling such people are own people. After all, they are “our” people for they too are sons and daughters of our Father in heaven.
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