God's work in Satan's work

“But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites  …  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.” (Exodus 1:12, 21)

            Satan's work is to persecute the church, God's people.  Satan's work is to afflict them with hard labor (Exod. 1:11).  In other words, Satan's work is to oppress the God's children.

If we look at the background of today's text Exodus 1:12, 21, it is the story of Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died (v. 6), and “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph (v. 8).  At that time the Israelites were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied from seventy, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them (vv. 5, 7).  So he told his people, “Come, let us deal wisely with them” (v. 10).  So he appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor (v. 11), because when war broke out, the Israelites would fight with their enemies and flee from the land of Egypt (v. 10).  Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had the people of Israel build for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses (v. 11).  But what is surprising is that the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied and more they spread out (v. 12).  As a result, the Egyptians were dread of the sons of Israel (v. 12).  Therefore, the Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously (v. 13), making their lives bitter with hard labor (v. 14).  Furthermore, King Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives, Shiprah and Puah (v. 15), to watch over the Hebrew women when giving birth, and to kill the male and leave the female alive (v. 16).  But these midwives, who feared God, disobeyed the king's command and saved Israeli male children (v. 17).  Therefore, God was good to the midwives who feared Him (v. 20) and established households for them (v. 21).  “Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive” (v. 22).

As I meditated on these words, I thought about the work of Satan who persecuted the church. Satan, like Pharaoh, king of Egypt, afflicts us with his foolish wisdom by burdening us, the people of God, who prosper and are mighty.  Satan oppresses us.  He compels us to labor rigorously and makes our lives miserable with toil.  Furthermore, he is trying to get us to death by any means.  However, the surprising thing is that we see God's work in the midst of this Satanic work.  The work of God is found in the context of today's text Exodus 1:12, 21 in two ways.

First, although Satan oppresses us, the more we are oppressed, the more God multiplies and strengthens us.

God is strengthening us, growing and revitalizing us, the more we suffer tribulation and persecution.  I am reminded of the words of a preacher.  That we cannot grow in a greenhouse.  For some reason, I think that we are trained while learning the word of God through the furnace of suffering.  Although Satan puts a heavy burden on us, so we live in hardship, but in the midst of Satan's work, God works all things together for good so that we can become more and more refined and powerful workers of God, and grow and revive.

Second, although Satan deceives us into committing the sin of (murder), God does not let us committing the sin of (murder) by making us to fear God rather than man, but rather giving grace to us, who obey and participate in God’s work of salvation (delivery) and making our house prosperous.

Although Satan is working to tempting us commit murder by making us to hate our brothers in Christ, God gives us abundant grace to resist the Satan’s temptation in fearing God and instead obey the Lord's command to love our neighbor.  He gives grace abundantly not only to us but also to our household.