Deuteronomy 4:37 And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt.
Can you imagine being in Joseph’s shoes? Joseph was sold as a slave, lied about by his brothers, thrown into prison by Potipher and Pharaoh, and left to rot wondering where God was. Sometimes things are rough in life, but they are even more difficult when we don’t know why the things that are happening are happening.
Sometimes I get in trouble because I try to judge what someone’s motives may be. I put a sinister motive to what they are doing. You know, if someone is your enemy and you don’t trust them, nothing that person does can please you. Yet at the same time we can do the same thing to God. Something happens in our life and we automatically assume some devious motive from God. The kicker is that sometimes even when good things happen, we miss it because we distrust God’s motives.
In Deuteronomy 1:27 Moses says to the children of Israel, “And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt.” The strange thing is that Joseph could have questioned God for sending him into Egypt and Israel did question God for freeing them out of Egypt. In other words, sometimes we don’t know what God is doing and we almost never know why.
In Deuteronomy 4:37 the Bible gives us the motive for which God led Israel out of Egypt. It says, “And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt.” That is why God brought Israel out of Egypt. It wasn’t because He wanted them to starve or to perish. It was because He made a promise to them. He loved their fathers and He loved them.
The lesson for us today is to judge what you don’t know about God by what you do know about God. When you don’t understand what God is doing, judge Him by what you know to be true of His character throughout history.
For instance, Deuteronomy 4:24 says, “For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” God is a God Who loves us and is jealous over us. He has a vested interest in us. Verse 31 says, “(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee.” So, we know that about God’s character. When I am sold into slavery or when I am freed from that slavery, I need to realize that God is a merciful God. He won’t forsake me.
Deuteronomy 4:32 says, “God created man upon the earth.” So, God is our creator. He made us, He is merciful to us, and He loves us. When you know God’s character, it helps you to understand and interpret what you don’t know about God.
So, do you understand where God is today? Maybe you do not. Do you understand what God is doing this morning? Maybe you do not, but we can learn from these people to judge what we do not know about God by what we do know about God and His unchanging character.