The Day of New Beginnings

Lift Up Your Countenance

 

The following passages of Scripture tell how the Children of Israel came into bondage in Egypt.
 
Ex. 1:
8* ¶ Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
 9* He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
 10* "Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land."
 11* So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.
 12* But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.
 13* The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously;
 14* and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.
 
Ex 3:
 Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.
 24* So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
 25* God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.
 
Ex. 4:
29 Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the sons of Israel;
 30* and Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses. He then performed the signs in the sight of the people.
 31* So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped.
 
Ex. 5: 
4 But the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labors!"
 5* Again Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now many, and you would have them cease from their labors!"
 6* So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying,
 7* "You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves.
 8* "But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'
 9 "Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words."
 
Ex. 5:
19* The foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, "You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks."
 20 When they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them.
 21* They said to them, "May the LORD look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us."
 22* Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me?
 23* "Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all."
 
Ex. 6:
1* ¶ Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land."
 2* God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD;
 3* and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.
 4* "I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned.
 5 "Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
 6* "Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
 
It’s important to understand the sequence of events that led to God bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Israel cried to God and the Lord heard their groanings and sent Moses to deliver them. Then things got interesting.
 
Not only did Pharaoh not let them go, he made things worse for them. In these passages of Scripture God is teaching us a key principle for maturity and hearing the voice of the Lord. Back up in verse 9 of chapter 4, Pharaoh said, "Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words." 
 
Pharaoh sought to burden down the children of Israel to the point that they disregarded the Word of God. His intent was to cause the Word of the Lord through Moses to be considered as a false word. This would be accomplished by getting Israel’s focus off God, and onto itself. Before all of the hardships imposed by Pharaoh were increased, Israel’s response to God’s Word was,“So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD was concerned about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed low and worshiped (Ex.4:31).” It wasn’t only the designs of Satan, however, that brought Israel into greater hardship. God was in it. Before He brings us out, things always get worse because it’s through hardship that we learn to crucify self and stand as a God oriented people. The Lord was bringing Israel out of bondage in order to create for Himself a worshipping people. We never become worshippers while our focus is on self. The self focus has a way of rejecting the Word of the Lord and refusing to hear. It cares only for its own welfare when the chips are down.
 
Ex.6:9:
 So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage.
 
Israel did not listen on account of their cruel bondage. It was just as Pharaoh intended. They were despondent. The literal reads, “They were short of spirit.” To be despondent, or short of spirit, means we are self focused and have fallen from our awareness of the presence of the Lord. When our spirits “fall” we cannot hear what God is saying. We are excluded from His presence. 
 
Gen. 4:
3* ¶ So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.
 4* Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;
 5* but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.
 6* ¶ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
 7* "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."
 
When Cain’s offering was rejected by the Lord, his countenance fell. The word “countenance” in this context means more than just a facial expression. It is a metaphor for his life force or spirit. In his anger, something in Cain’s spirit drew back from God. He “fell” from the Lord’s presence. In verse six God asks Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?” Cain became despondent or “short of spirit” just as the Israelites did in Exodus. Cain was self centered. In his anger over Abel being accepted by the Lord, Cain committed murder. 
 
Every time we become despondent over a situation, our countenance falls. Our spirits withdraw from the presence of the Lord. Our spirits fall because the Lord’s good pleasure is not in us at the moment. In verse seven God speaks, "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?” The Hebrew word for “well” is yatab. It can also be translated “pleasing”, or, “pleasing to”. If we are pleasing to the Lord, if we are God conscious  instead of self conscious, our “countenance” will be lifted up. Our spirits will maintain an abiding in the Lord’s presence, and our capacity to hear His Word will not diminish. This is a key to a consistent walk with God.