Pharaoh issued the command to kill every baby boy born to the Hebrew people (Ex 1:22). What a wondrous reversal of this unjust law that God, in His mercy and justice, would lead Pharaoh's very own daughter to break her father's law and begin the deliverance of the Hebrews (Ex 2:5-10).
The Lord worked a similar reversal in the case of Joseph, as we read last week in Genesis. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery (Gn 37:28), meaning it for evil, but God used the evil action for good, to rescue his entire family (Gn 45:5).
The Lord always has the upper hand. In any situation of injustice and depravity, God undermines the evil regime in the most wonderfully creative ways. In addition, evil undermines itself, and begets its very own downfall (see e.g. Jgs 7:21-22). God can work all things, including the forces of evil, to bring about good (see Rm 8:28; Gn 50:20). Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Rm 5:20).
We Catholics live in the midst of a faithless, perverse, and corrupt generation (Phil 2:15). We are bombarded by the triumphs of injustice and unholiness. So it is possible to lose hope in the coming of the kingdom of God. "Fix your eyes on Jesus" (Heb 3:1). Jesus has conquered sin, evil, unholiness, and death. Difficult times require great faith. The deliverance of Moses by Pharaoh's very own daughter shows that "for God all things are possible" (Mt 19:25). Believe that God knows what He is doing.
| PRAYER: | Father, day by day, help me to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7). |
| PROMISE: | "The Lord hears the poor, and His own who are in bonds He spurns not." –Ps 69:34 |
| PRAISE: | St. Camillus gambled away all his possessions. After hearing a sermon, he repented and gave his life to the Lord's service. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College