Forty years pass. The Hebrews are hard at work for Pharaoh. Moses tries to fit in with the Hebrews, defending one of them, and ends up fleeing for his life. He ends up in Midian where he will spend the next 40 years. It’s no accident that he was forty and then another forty years pass. God does everything on purpose and for a purpose.

Forty is the number of years he will wander with the Israelites after he becomes their deliverer. It’s the number of days of Jesus’ temptation. It’s the number of days the spies went into the Promised Land. It’s the number of days Jonah warns Nineveh. It’s the number of testing.

What was being tested? Would Moses side with his kindred? Yes. Will Moses remember his God? Yes. At the end of the 40 years in the wilderness, Moses fails the test. I guess we’ll come to that another day. Today is what matters today. Sort of. We remember the past because we remember God’s goodness to us. We remember His promises. We look to the future because we know the promises will be fulfilled.

But today? Today we look to Him. We see Him. We see Him in front of us. We see Him in us. We see Him at work. We see His love and goodness. We follow Him today. If you want to finish well, you hold fast to faith today, not the faith of yesterday or a future hope of what your faith will become. You need faith today.

God is at work today, even though 40 years pass, even though 400 years pass. God is at work today. His goodness is still good. His love is still loving.

The Israelites are moaning and groaning. They call out to God. It says that God sees them. It says God understands, knows, and acknowledges what’s going on.

Did He have His eyes closed for hundreds of years? No. He saw the deliverance. He was never unsure of what the future was. He knew they weren’t abandoned. He knew they were His chosen people. He knew they were going to the Promised Land.

Remember the number of testing? 400 is 40 ten times, ten being the number of authority, of kingdom.

Have you ever wondered if His people would have followed Him out if they hadn’t gotten to the point of moaning and groaning? It won’t be long before they are moaning and groaning, wanting to go back to Egypt! What if God had tried to take them sooner? God is never late. His timing is perfect. We matter as individuals to God, but we need to not forget we’re part of a much bigger, perfect story.