7 days to go:- An appeal to get me up a hill in the middle of the night for a powerful cause.
Joseph, his brothers, and an entire generation are gone. For the next two hundred years, the Bible records no leader, no judge, no prophet, no name worth mentioning. Just silence. Just ordinary people living ordinary lives in a foreign land. However, it was the best moment for the Israelites.
“These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventyin all; Joseph was already in Egypt.6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.” (Exodus 1 v 1-7)
Between the death of Joseph and the rise of a new king (who did not know him) stretches roughly two hundred years of silence. In that time frame, the Bible records no named leader and no dramatic event; in fact, nothing noteworthy except one thing. Throughout Genesis, we have been used to a named person doing extraordinary things, acknowledging God as they did. But now there is no named leader, and yet something is still happening. The Israelites were fruitful, they multiplied, they increased, and they filled the land. For those of us who firmly believe in leadership, here is another example that shows that there are times when God can work in a community, even a nation, without one. I often see churches (that are waiting for a minister to join them), actually not decreasing but increasing in many ways in that interim period. The members suddenly start to get involved in the life of the church as never before. It becomes a time of mobilisation and growth.
In the silent years when there was no reporting, God was at work.
Look at the language Moses used in this. Fruitful. Multiplying. Increasing. Filling the land. Moses deliberately used language that echoed Genesis 1. This was the creation mandate being fulfilled, not through the vision of a great leader, but simply by God.
We have become deeply dependent on leaders. Being a leader, I’m a firm believer in them! God does raise them and appoints them for a reason. But Israel’s two centuries of silent growth remind us that the people of God do not need a leader to be faithful. They need to know who they are and whose they are.
God had made promises to Abraham. Those promises did not require a human leader to keep them moving. They required a faithful God and a people who kept living for Him. A lesson for us all.
Missions Paul 