Practical Wisdom from the Word of God

Exodus 3:20-22(NKJV) ²⁰So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.  ²¹And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty-handed.  ²²But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters.  So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

I want to look at a force that can work for the believer that will help produce daily victory if we learn to trust in it.  That force is the force of favor.  As we come to the end of a day that may not have been all we expected, if we believe in the favor of God on our lives it will help us to know that he is at work producing something that will cause us to win in the end.

As I looked up scriptures on favor, I found that most of them did not deal with having favor with God, but with the Lord giving his people favor with man.  As I struggled with exactly where the Lord was leading me with this, I went back to the story of Israel’s journey from Egyptian bondage to freedom in the land of Canaan.  One scripture in particular connected this journey with the idea of favor.  That scripture was the one quoted above.

Exodus 3 is a very famous chapter.  This chapter details Moses’ burning bush encounter with God.  Moses had been in exile from Egypt for forty years.  His attempts to help Israel had ended in disaster but now the Lord is about to send him back to Egypt in order to deliver Israel by God’s power and not his own.  Among other things, this chapter highlights much of what the Lord is giving to Moses to equip him for the task.  The list is impressive.  God gives Moses:

·       An encounter with God.

·       The revelation of what God will do.

·       Identification of who Moses is in the plan.

·       The revelation to give the people as to who God is.

·       A plan of God as to how to proceed.

·       A promise of the power of God made available.

Verse 20 is a powerful statement of how God is going to move on Israel’s behalf.  “So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.”  To me, this list of things God gives Moses and this statement of how God is going to judge Egypt should be followed by a great “Amen!” and be the end of the chapter.  However, it is not.

The next two verses do not look like they are as important as the ones preceding them.  Yet it is with this statement that God ends his equipping of Moses.  He is going to give the people of Israel favor with the Egyptians.  The Lord places this on the same level as all of the other things on this list.  In fact, it is by favor that they will plunder Egypt.

The idea of plunder is very important in bible days.  If a nation is conquered by another nation, the conquerors have the right to take whatever they want from the conquered.  If there is no plunder, the victory is not complete.  Plunder was how conquest was paid for.  A truly powerful nation grew rich because it took from those it defeated.  That is just the way it was.  If Israel was to conquer Egypt completely, there had to be plunder.

I find it interesting that Israel obtained its deliverance from Egypt by the power of God.  However, Israel plundered Egypt by obtaining favor from the Egyptians themselves.  There are some interesting things about this favor. 

First, it came through the women.  Each woman went to her neighbor and asked her to give some gold, silver and clothing.  Had the men gone it might be said that they obtained this plunder by intimidation.  However, women intimidated no one.  Although Egypt was defeated by the power of Israel’s God, the things they obtained as they left were given freely from the Egyptian women to the Israelite women.  This is important to show that it is not by the power of Israel that they plundered Egypt but by favor that comes from the Lord.

Second, they put the gold, silver and clothing on their children.  This was not about selfishness.  This was about providing for their families and the future.  This also showed their children that God was able to provide in the midst of impossible circumstances.  This plunder was the legacy that Israel took out of Egypt.

I want to point out something here.  Israel was not being unfair to Egypt by taking these things.  Abraham was the richest man in the east.  His descendants were also wealthy.  They came to Egypt because of famine not because they were poor.  They had the resources to buy what they needed.  Joseph brought them to Egypt because that is where the food was and so he could better protect them.  They did not come to Egypt empty handed. 

While in Egypt, everything was taken from the Israelites.  They lost their goods, their freedom and all opportunity for the future.  The things that Israel took from the Egyptians repaid what had been taken from Israel.  This was fair and just.

Let me draw your attention once more to the fact that this came because God gave Israel favor with the Egyptians.  They simply asked and the Egyptians gave them what they asked for.  In Exodus 12 we see the fulfillment of the promise in Exodus 3.

Exodus 12:35-36(NKJV) ³⁵Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.  ³⁶And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested.  Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Notice the past tense here.  This scripture is taken from the part of the story just before Israel leaves.  The plagues had come and Egypt was ready to let Israel go because the people feared they would all be dead if they did not.  However, the past tense in these verses indicates that this did not happen because of the plagues.  We do not know exactly where in the process the Israelite women went to the Egyptian women, but it does not seem to be after the death of Egypt’s first born.  This is important to show that the favor God granted was not because of the fear Egypt eventually had of Israel.

I do not believe the Egyptian women had any idea why they granted the requests of their slaves.  It defies logic that they would give the Israelites so much of their treasure, but they did.  God moved on them in such a way that they favored the Israelites and willingly gave them whatever they asked for.  Favor became a powerful weapon in Israel’s arsenal.  I believe God wants to make it a powerful weapon in the arsenal of the church this year. 

What is favor exactly?  Come back next time  and we will see.

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