Exodus 11:
1 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring yet one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.
2 “Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.”
3 And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
Nine plagues had already come upon the Egyptians. By this time, they knew exactly what was going on and who was behind it — the Israelites and their God!
Turning your neighbor’s rivers into blood, causing frogs to crawl up in their beds, and killing their cattle with hail, among others, weren’t exactly the top tips on how to make friends… There’s no doubt that by this time, the Egyptians hated the Israelites. They were sick of them.
And yet, here comes Moses with another one of his God’s brilliant ideas. Go ask your neighbors — that’s right, the Egyptians who hate you — to give you silver and gold. Give you, not sell to you.
What is God thinking? Does He want us to antagonize the Egyptians even more? Is He trying to get us all killed?
No. He was simply trying to teach His people how to use the power of asking. Notice that He was already planning on giving the Israelites favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. But the Israelites would only find that out if they went and asked them.
Lesson?
God wants us to have the courage, the brazen face to ask what we want even of those least likely to give us anything. In other words, if somebody has what you want, just go and ask. It doesn’t matter if he’s your enemy. And it doesn’t matter the size of your request either. Gold and silver? Of your enemy? Just ask!
We of course, with all our fears and shyness and other little monsters scaring us in our minds, wouldn’t dare ask such things even of our friends.
What is God thinking? That’s what I want to know.
And that’s how I want to think too.
Faith with boldness and certainty goes hand in hand. If i use my faith and doubt,what i ask, i will not get. God has already prepared the blessing for me and He knows that i want it but if i start asking myself if it will really work, then the blessing will not be materialized in my life. The Israelites had a chance to receive gold and silver but they doubted since the blessing was with their enemy but God was there waiting for them to ask, even if what was theirs was in the hands of the enemy and they were afraid to ask. The same way, if we are shy and doubt to ask, we will never receive what we want.
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