On several occasions, I’ve looked thoughtfully over at that frog. I have
wondered what went through the minds of Abraham and Sarah when God
told them in their old age that they would have a son. Really? Sarah, realizing her child-bearing years were well behind her, laughed at this idea.
But God was reliable … a son was born!
What did Joseph think about the trustworthiness of God when his
jealous brothers threw him into a
desert cistern, leaving him there to
die? He had to wonder if God had
also abandoned him. Yet, many
years later, in a face-to-face encounter with those same brothers,
Joseph was able to say with conviction, “...you meant evil against
me, but God meant it for good, to
bring it about that many people
should be kept alive, as they are
today” (Genesis 50:20). God was
fully trustworthy.
Then, there’s the story of Moses leading the people of Israel out of
Egypt. As they were camping by the sea (Exodus 14), they looked back in
horror to realize that the Egyptians—all of Pharaoh’s horses and chariots,
horsemen, and troops—were closing in on them. The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord. “They said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are
no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? ... For it would have
been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’”
(Exodus 14:11-12). They had concluded that Moses and the God he represented were unreliable, that they couldn’t be trusted.
Moses replied, “‘...Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the
Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see
today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you
have only to be silent’” (Exodus 14:13-14). God was again faithful and
totally trustworthy. By his power, the sea parted, and the Israelites walked
through on dry ground. As the Egyptians pursued them, the waters flowed
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