| IF ITS TRUE FOR BE BE'S KIDS........ |
Have you ever found yourself in a miserable job situation?
Have you ever said to yourself, “It wasn’t always like this”? Have you ever
found yourself dealing with people that seemed determined to kill you? I don’t
mean physically kill you. I mean the people Jesus spoke of when he said, “be afraid of the One who can destroy both
soul and body in hell”. (Matthew 10:28). That is the type of situation the Israelites found
themselves in Exodus chapter 1.
At the end of the book of Genesis they came into town on the
coattails of Joseph’s favor and everything was fine; for a season. But over
some years the Joseph’s generation and the king with whom they had favor were
gone. The new man in charge was intimidated by the growth of the Israelites.
Yep. Some people in your life will be uncomfortable with your growth. They’ll
actually be intimidated by it. Pharaoh was so afraid he decided to do something
about it.
9
And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and
in power than we are: 10 Let us take care for fear that their numbers may
become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who
are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land. 11 So they
put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by
the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and
Raamses. Exodus
1:9-11
The King James says that he put taskmasters over them to
afflict them. Afflict meant to put down, brow beat, mishandle, or humiliate.
All because of their growth. While the growth in these verses may be numerical,
the same thing happens when some people are intimidated by your Spiritual
growth. They try to humiliate, embarrass, or brow beat you. They try to stunt
your growth. They also try to bring death to your dreams and the call of God
for your life. They try to kill your soul.
For a bit of encouragement all you have to do is check out
verse 12. It doesn’t say that the affliction does not come. In fact it does
come and increasingly so. But check out your I mean the Israelite's response.
12 But the more they
afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because
of the children of Israel. Exodus 1:12
That’s right. They didn’t die, they multiplied. Not only did
they multiply, but they grew as well. Sometimes you can’t do anything about the
haters and brow beaters in your life, but you can let the hate, motivate. Let
it inspire you to grow in your relationship with God and multiply your Godly influence
over those that realize that fighting against you is a losing battle. As Joseph
said to his brothers, what they meant for evil, God meant for good. So the same
affliction designed to take you out will take you up, cause we don’t die, we
MULTIPLY.
