Picture yourself in this situation: You have been working for someone most of your life, your boss has been extremely cruel, your wages have been barely at subsistence level, and you feel downtrodden and oppressed. For all practical purposes, you are nothing more than a slave.
Suddenly you are freed from that most unbearable situation. You are free to leave and start life all over again. There is only one problem – you have no financial resources, no way to make the trip, no funds to start someplace else, and no way to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to be free.
So, you go to your boss and ask him for money for the trip and for getting started after you reach your new location. As far-fetched as it may sound, your boss gives you the money. He does not just give you a little, he gives you a lot! In fact, he gives you so much he impoverishes himself.
Sounds like make-believe, does it not; like a children’s happily-ever-after story, the kind that never happens in real life. Only this one did happen; not in the exact details I have used, but in principle. It is recorded for us in the Bible in the book of Exodus. You know the story: The Israelites were the cruelly oppressed people, forced to “make bricks without straw.” Suddenly God intervenes in their lives and Pharaoh says, “Get out!” But the Israelites had no resources for making the journey, they were poverty-stricken. God had foreseen this problem, however, and had made plans to overcome it.
He had said to Moses, “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people (Israelites), so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman and any woman living in her house are to ask her neighbor for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so, you will plunder the Egyptians.” (Exodus 3:21-26)
What God promised did indeed come to pass. (Exodus 12:35-36)
The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. They gave them what they asked for; so, they plundered the Egyptians.
The Egyptians did something completely contrary to normal human behavior. They voluntarily and freely gave these downtrodden slaves what they asked for, so much so that the Biblical account says the Israelites “plundered” the Egyptians.
The usual meaning of plunder is to rob or seize or take by force; yet the Egyptians actually plundered themselves. They did this because God had made them favorably disposed toward the Israelites.
How did God do this? We do not know. We only know what the text tells us. It is obvious that the Egyptians acted freely and voluntarily of their own wills. Yet they acted that way because “the Lord had made them favorably disposed toward the Israelites.” God in some mysterious way moved in their hearts so that they, of their own free choice, did exactly what He planned for them to do. God sovereignly intervened in the hearts, the desires, and the wills of the Egyptians to accomplish His purpose for the Israelites.
In whatever situation we may find ourselves, each one of us can trust that God can and will work on our behalf to bring about His perfect plan for us. Sometimes we may know His plan; sometimes not. But either way, God’s sovereignty reigns. We just need to trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
This blog is an exerpt from “Trusting God” by Jerry Bridges.