40 Days with Moses 2025 Year of Exposure Day 16: The Lord can even use our enemies to bless us.

“Now 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. And 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.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭12:35-36‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

My mother and father birthed a church when I was not yet seven years old. We started in a small storefront building on Piedmont Road in Atlanta. The thing is, after only being there a short time, the owner of the storefront said we had to go.

The backstory is that a liquor store wanted to move into that area and there was an ordinance requiring a certain distance between a liquor store and a church. Apparently, the liquor store had made our landlord “an offer he couldn’t refuse,” to evict us. So, my father didn’t know what he was going to do; but as always, he took it to the Lord in prayer.

Here, I’ll make a long story short:

A competing liquor store chain made it financially possible for us to move just across the street to a larger storefront building with a better orientation toward the street and much better access to parking.

Bear in mind, this offer came without any action on the part of my parents. But obviously, this other liquor store had found out what was going on. Their reason for making our relocation possible was apparently to keep the competing establishment from placing a store in that area. But God used their motivation to enable my parents to have an even better place for their little church.

Now, some may wonder whether it was right to take money from the owner of a liquor store. Well, there was nothing illegal about the transaction and there were no strings attached to it. It was God’s way of providing for our little church to survive.

On that day, the liquor store owner, a possible enemy in purpose, served to help our church survive.

Here’s another story:

When I was in college I had a professor who I thought didn’t like me very much. [Being a person who generally assumes that I will be liked, I’m pretty sure I was correct in my estimation.]

This professor had a stern demeanor and seemed to cater to the more “traditional” students: those coming from wealthy homes, higher society sorts who had alumni family members. I was there on a scholarship.

Although I did very well in her classes, she never really made overtures to me as she did to some of the other young women. So, I dreaded interactions with her.

In my third year of college I developed a bad case of mononucleosis. The lack of sleep and sporadic eating caught up with my immune system. I didn’t really miss many of my classes, but was suffering, to say the least.

Within this period of time there was an important paper due in one of my classes and there was a deadline for getting it to the office designated to receive it. I had worked all night and finished the paper in just enough time to get it in on time.

Now, my mother was driving me to the college to turn the paper in, when we got caught in traffic waiting on a train! So, arriving, I ran to the office to turn in the paper, only to have it refused, as I was about five minutes late. I stood there dismayed for a moment, then turned around from the person who had rejected the paper, bursting into tears as I exited the building. I was desperate, feeling that I had no recourse.

Suddenly, I see the previously mentioned professor coming rapidly toward me, asking what was going on. Sobbing, I explained the situation (I must have looked like the hind wheels of destruction).

Well, don’t you know, she marched her stern self to the office where the paper was to be turned in and gave them several pieces of her mind, asking if they were trying to “kill me” (I had explained to her about the mononucleosis). Needless to say, they took the paper and found it in good order.

No matter how she had felt about me before, on that day, I found favor in her sight. And she blessed me.

In our opening scripture we find a little backstory pertaining to the exiting of Egypt.

You see, the Lord had formerly instructed Moses to tell the people to ask the Egyptians to give them gold, silver, clothes and so on. Amazingly, as the Hebrews exited Egypt, they did so with great amounts of wealth and supply from the Egyptians, because “the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested.”

You may not realize that this was something promised to Abraham hundreds of years before!

“Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭15:13-14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Sure enough, the people were not only allowed to leave their situation of bondage, but did so with plunder from their oppressors. That day, the Egyptian’s—though currently enemies to the people of God—blessed them.

Now, in looking for signs that our promise from the Lord is approaching, we may become dismayed because we just can’t see how it is even possible. But make no mistake, when the Lord has made a promise, and those to whom He has promised have remained faithful, He will bring the promise to pass, even if it requires a blessing from an enemy.

For today let us discover what Moses discovered:

The Lord can even use our enemies to bless us.

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!