Comfort in Affliction

The secret to understanding how God delivers us from afflictions can be found in comprehending how he delivered Israel from their bondage.

“Now these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition” (1 Corinthians 10:11)

Everything that happened to Israel — their bondage, their trials, their deliverance out of Egypt — are testimonies, patterns and examples to us today. Indeed, Israel’s physical deliverance represents the spiritual deliverance we are to see.

Have you ever wondered why Israel didn’t rise up in rebellion while in bondage under Pharaoh? After all, he was forcing them to make bricks without straw and commanding his taskmasters to beat them. Why didn’t the Israelites take matters into their own hands?  They certainly had the needed manpower, especially after the ten plagues, when Egypt was devastated, weak and in mourning. Even Pharaoh admitted, “The people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we” (Exodus 1:9).

The reason Israel never rebelled is because they could not have succeeded! It was God’s work to do for them. The Lord told Moses, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them” (Exodus 3:7-8).

God clearly states, “I know their sorrows.” Beloved, if that doesn’t give you comfort in your affliction, nothing will. The Lord is saying, “I know what you’re going through, what you’re feeling. But this is not your battle. Your taskmaster, the devil, is too much for you so I have come down to deliver you.”

“I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God” (Exodus 6:6-7).