God's Gracious Purpose

 Often, we wonder why God does what He does. Then, there are times He tells us exactly why He takes certain actions. Either way, we can know that God never does anything that is out of line with His character. Since God is love, He never does anything or allows anything to be done that is not loving from His perspective. Yes, He allows Satan and his demons to do hateful things, but all the time, God is hoping those things will turn our hearts to Him, and we will triumph over Satan's devices. We see the gracious purpose of God well in how God carried out the plagues in Egypt against Pharaoh and the people of the land. (Exodus 9:15,16) God could have stretched out His hand and struck the people with a plague that would have obliterated them from the earth. However, He let them live through the plagues because He had a purpose. His gracious purpose was to use the plagues to show His power and to make His name known in the whole earth. This shows us how God cares for everyone.

The Bible is clear that God wants everyone to come to repentance and know His name so they can enter a relationship with Him. He doesn't exclude anyone from coming to Him. (II Peter 3:9; I Timothy 2:1-6) Therefore, God demonstrates His great power to all of us in various ways. We see Him in His creation, as He shows Himself to us. We see Him in His wrath against our sins. He reveals Himself to us in our heart, so we have no excuse not to trust in Him. However, we have the choice, just like Pharaoh had the choice in Moses day. We can reject the revelation of His power and His name. This grieves the heart of God, but He desires for us to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We can only do that by our free will choice to respond to His love by our own love. I pray we will all make the right response and put our trust in Jesus, whom the Father has given a name that is above every name, so that everyone will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Exodus 10-12.