God’s Providence

There is a verse in Isaiah 44 which comes to my mind when I think of this period in Jewish history prior to the birth of Moses. God is speaking and He says to the people through Isaiah, “I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground” (Isa. 44:3). It’s usually that way with God. It’s when things are grim, when the earth is spiritually barren and dry, that the Holy Spirit moves and blessing follows.

In yesterday’s devotional, we concluded by saying that God always had a remnant, those who are faithful to Him even in dry times. Now that’s exactly what we have here in the second chapter of Exodus. In this case, the remnant that we’re told about is one family, a husband and wife, whose names were Amram and Jochebed. Amram means “exalted people.” We’re not given his name in Exodus 2, but the name is supplied elsewhere in the Old Testament genealogies in Exodus 6, Numbers 3, 1 Chronicles 6, and so on. He was of the tribe of Levi, and lived to be 137 years old. Jochebed means “the honor of Jehovah.”

This princess came down to the water, where she saw the little ark. Her slave girls were there, and she sent them to fetch it. When they opened it up there was a child, and the child was crying. Seeing this touched the heart of this woman. And so the God of providence, who had ordered the steps of the princess to the Nile at the very time that Moses was there in the basket (having been placed there by his mother), caused the baby to cry and touch the heart of the woman. And He softened the heart of this high-born lady toward the Hebrew child. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, and he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” It’s not only the king’s heart, it’s the king’s daughter’s heart, too. And that’s what He did on this occasion.

God is a God of providence, not just the God of miracles. That means that He has been operating in all of the details and all of the circumstances of your life. Shouldn’t you recognize that if you believe in a providential God? And shouldn’t you thank Him for it? You say, “Well, I don’t like my circumstances.” Yes, but we have to learn to thank God in whatever state in which we are. That’s what the Apostle Paul learned to do. And furthermore you need to trust Him in those circumstances, even when things don’t seem to be going well.

Get into the habit of learning to think like God. If you get into the habit of looking for the remnant, you’re going to find it. They will not be the people the world is generally looking to for doing important things. It says in the Bible that the people God uses are the foolish, the weak, and the despised. And the reason He does that is because it’s through them that He can display His wisdom and reveal His righteousness. So look for people like that. And then when you’ve found them, get alongside them and work with them to see what God will do.