For This Purpose

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 20, For This Purpose.

"But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." Exodus 9:16.

These words are spoken directly to Pharaoh. The most powerful man on the known earth, who considered himself almost a god, who had armies, treasuries, an entire empire under his feet. And it's to this man that God sends a message, right in the middle of the plagues, even before hail falls on Egypt: you are only standing because I decided you would stand.

Stop. Let that land. Pharaoh believed his throne was his own conquest, his own strength, his own right. But the text reveals something entirely different: "I have raised you up." Not even the highest power in the ancient world escaped God's hand. God was not reacting to Pharaoh. God was using Pharaoh — the whole time — for a purpose far bigger than Egypt.

And what was that purpose? Two things, stated with total clarity. First: "to show you my power." The plagues were not only punishment for stubbornness. They were revelation. Each plague dismantled, one by one, the false gods Egypt worshiped — the god of the river, the god of the sun, the gods of the sacred animals. God was saying, plague after plague: none of these idols rule anything. I rule everything.

And second: "so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." Notice the reach of that. God wasn't acting only to free Israel — though that mattered profoundly. He was acting so that whole nations, people who had never heard of Him, would come to know His name. The purpose was always bigger than that one moment in Egypt. It was bigger than Pharaoh, bigger than the plagues, bigger even than Israel's own deliverance.

And this verse doesn't stay buried back in ancient history. Centuries and centuries later, the apostle Paul quotes this very line in his letter to the Romans, explaining God's sovereignty over all of human history. What happened with Pharaoh in Egypt still echoes into the church today — living proof that God rules even the situations that look completely out of control.

And that changes how I look at my own hard circumstances. Because sometimes we face a difficult situation, a hard person, something that feels unfair beyond reason — and the question that surfaces is "why is this happening to me?" But maybe the better question is different: how might God's name be proclaimed through this? God doesn't waste even the hardest moments. He used Pharaoh for a bigger purpose — how much more will He use your story.

So today, before breakfast, write on a sheet of paper one hard situation you're facing right now. And next to it, write this question: how might God's name be proclaimed through this? You don't need the answer ready. You just need to start looking at your difficulty with the right eyes — the eyes of someone who knows God has purpose even in what still hurts.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.