Theme: PRAYING AND WAITING ON THE LORD ALWAYS
Text: : “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt…” – Exodus 12:40-42.
Comment: It is well known that in ancient times, the children of Israel rendered slave labour to the Egyptians. “And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.” (Exodus 1:14) Seeing that “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” the king of Egypt directed the Hebrew midwives to kill the male children of the Israelites, an order they refused to obey, for which God blessed them. Thereafter, Pharaoh commanded all the people to cast every male child of the Hebrews into the river but to keep only the females alive. (Exodus 1:15-22) However, they cried to God “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob…” (Exodus 2:23-25) He delivered the Israelites in His due time. A day did not exceed His appointed time. - Exodus 12:40, 41.
Throughout the long and varied history of God’s people, as recorded in the Holy Bible, it is evident that the men and women who gave themselves to the practice of God’s righteousness gave prominence to prayer and waited for Him to come to their aid. People who today are being similarly oppressed in any part of the world should pray and wait for God to deliver them in His Own time. – Psalm 60:11, 12; Isaiah 45: 20-22; etc.