Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Big Tax Refund

Exodus 3:21-22 NLT
And I will cause the Egyptians to look favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go so you will not leave empty-handed. Every Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and from the foreign women in their houses. You will dress your sons and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth.”
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Another reversal jumps from the pages of the Bible. And this time it's wealth that is redistributed. Throughout Genesis I saw a lot of position, prestige and status reversals. There were some plot spoilers where riches were caused by God to multiply for the person being mistreated. The spotted, stripped, and speckled sheep and goats scenario between Jacob and Laban was a situation where God saw to it that his people weren't swindled. And that's what this is all about.
God isn't arbitrarily shuffling the money deck and then dealing a bad hand to the Egyptians while dealing off the bottom of the deck for his people. No, not at all. God is righting a wrong. That's what a God of justice does.
So before you get your gimme hands ta grasping consider if you've been doing right by others with what God's given you!
Far too often people in the church start naming and claiming blessings, promises, riches, happiness and botox from their personal God genie. But they fail to see how long the injustice period had gone on. They choose to ignore the fact that literally days after one of the greatest wealth redistributions in history the lotto winners were full of fear and complaints. Riches will not make you happy. More will not solve your problems.

But God is keeping score.
Bingham Park at 20:30 03/06/13
And he loves to make things right. So if you've been done wrong God has a plan to give you justice. Consider it a heavenly savings plan.
There are plenty of God's people who have been taken advantage of. You may be one of the people suffering in silence, groaning to God as your hard earned cash is clothing the rich in Versace and Prada. But rest assured God will hear you. And someday and in some way the wrong will be righted.
Can you trust God? Can you let him provide for you?
Moses here gets the Exodus master plan from God. And as a reminder he's Abraham's God. He's Isaacs God. He's Jacob's God. That's an impressive list. God made sure each of them had plenty. Each started out with meager beginnings and each faced an obstacle of significant portion. But in each case God provided.
God is faithful. He always provides what you need.
And far more than riches you need a heart change. Remember that all though these former slaves turned into the wealthy making a stunning exit left rich they quickly and repeatedly were unsatisfied.
So make sure you desire the right riches. God does want to right the financial wrongs but more than your bank balance it's your heart that needs to be rescued.

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