Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 9:16 (New Living Translation)

But I have spared you for a purpose—to show you my power and to spread my fame throughout the earth.

God is talking to Moses. God is talking about Pharoah.

God was going to bring His people out of Egypt. There were many ways to do this. One simple way was to snap a finger and boom, it was done. That wasn’t God’s choice.

Instead, God was going to use Pharoah—a person famous throughout the world—to declare the glory of God to the world. Pharoah was to be a preacher. History shows that Pharoah was a great preacher of God’s glory. Thousands of years later, a few billion people know of Pharoah, Egypt, the plagues, the Exodus, the Red Sea, and Pharoah’s glorious death.

All praise to Pharoah for his sacrificial service to God. Huh?

Yes, Pharoah gave his life to the glory of God. Huh?

Yes, through Pharoah’s death and the death of his army, people then and 30 centuries later know about the power of God.

Strange that God would use Pharoah to declare His glory. Is it any stranger that God would use me? Not really. No stranger than God using anyone else rich or poor, famous or unknown, and any other extremes we could consider.

God uses each of us in different ways on different days in different situations. Sometimes it makes sense to us, usually it doesn’t. Still, God help me in my unbelief as You use me in unbelievable ways.