Exodus 1:14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
Verse 14 isn’t that long, yet several words jump out at me: bitter, harsh labor (x2), ruthlessly. It sounds like their treatment wasn’t just difficult, it was grueling. How do you hold on to God in the midst of trials that seem so endless?
Exodus 1:15-16 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”
That is a question that we all have to wrestle with at some point, but for me, holding on to Isiah 43:19 helps: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Even when I cannot yet perceive it, God is there, He is working, He is making a way in my wilderness.
Exodus 1:17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
God of the desperate, Thank You for the power of hope. Thank You for my certainty that, even if I cannot yet perceive it, You ARE working, You ARE making a way in every wilderness and wasteland. Help every single person reading this prayer to hold on to that indelible truth, no matter the wilderness or wasteland they traverse. Help us, Jesus. Amen.
Exodus 1:18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
Have a blessed day.