Are you in need of a Deliverer? Someone who’ll swoop in & pluck you out of hard circumstances? Maybe it’s been a long season of hardship & you feel teary weary? Well, I’m writing today to remind myself, & whomever needs to hear, that there’s no limiting circumstance that can thwart our limitless God!
The life of Moses, as the deliverer of Israel, is a foretelling of our Messiah, but the puzzle pieces firmly connected as I read Stephen’s account.
Stephen stands before his false accusers moments before they stone him to death, making a compelling case for Christ.
He’s stealth in his approach as he retells the history of Israel, something they all agree upon, so the council of priests listen without interruption. Little do they know that when he speaks of Moses, he secretly speaks of Jesus, & when he tells of the rebellious Israelites, he tells of the Jews who rejected the King Who’d come!
He declares, “So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, ‘Who made you ruler & judge over us?’’
As Moses receives life-giving words from his mountaintop encounter with God, however, the people reject him again. They make little-g gods & declare, “Who knows what’s happened to this complain who brought us out of Egypt?”
Jesus came & his people rejected him. He WILL return, & yet sometimes in the wait, it can be easy to fall into desperation like the Israelites & cry, “Where is this Jesus who led me out of Egypt?”
Crafting little-g gods can distract us from the difficulties…& yet the silence of waiting for our Savior doesn’t have to remain silent.
It’s in the quiet of the night or the difficult moments when we feel like we’re untangling a financial, relational or emotional mess, that we can let our words create change in our hearts.
To the same degree that Stephen hoped his words would transform the hearts of his accusers, so can we let a sacrificial hallelujah transform ours.
Father, we invite You, our Source of Light, into the dark places, external & internal. We can’t change the things we face, but we choose today to face The One Who can! Holy Spirit, help us raise a hallelujah while we wait for our Divine Deliverer!
1 KINGS 7:1-51
ACTS 7:30-50
PSALM 128:1-6
PROVERBS 16:31-33
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