Day 16 with Moses: The Lord can use your enemies to bless you.

“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 about there having to be 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, 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. Their reason for doing this was to keep that competing liquor store from placing a store there. 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, an 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. She had a stern demeanor and seemed to cater to the more traditional students, those coming from wealthy homes, higher society sorts. So, I dreaded interactions with her. Although I did well in her classes, she never really made overtures to me as she did to some of the other young women.

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 I was suffering.

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 the paper. I had worked all night and finished the paper in just enough time to get it in on time. My mother was driving me to the college to turn the paper in and we got caught in traffic waiting on a train! So, when I got to the office to turn in the paper (running!), they refused it 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. As I started away from the door, I bursted into tears. I was desperate. Suddenly, I see the previously mentioned professor coming toward me and she asked what was going on. 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 felt about me before, on that day, she blessed me.

Today we continue to find Moses exiting Egypt with the great host of his people. 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! Interestingly, the Lord had prophesied this happening to Abram many 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 enemies to the people of God for hundreds of years—blessed them.

Make no mistake, when your life is submitted to the Lord, His plan for you may be enabled through your enemies.

For today let us discover what Moses discovered:

The Lord can use even your enemies to bless you.

#40dayswithmoses