What does “all things work together for good” mean? In view of God’s sovereignty, “good” must be from God’s perspective. The book of Exodus is built upon the book of Genesis. Exodus has many different themes, but one major theme is: “God is fulfilling His promises.” The children of God had been in the land of Goshen in Egypt for about 400 years since the death of Joseph. From Exodus 1 to 12, we estimate that by then their population must have grown to about 2 million. With Goshen being a very good and fertile land, would they leave Egypt to return to the Promised Land? The sovereign God works in marvelous ways. He works through individual lives step by step, e.g. God spoke with Moses personally, God provided Aaron to assist Moses, etc. The sovereignty of God involves everything. He deals with both the general things as well as the specifics. We may not have the benefit of seeing things from hindsight, but we have the confidence and assurance that “all things work together for good” (even though we may still not know what lies ahead) because our God is the sovereign God.

In Exodus 1:1-7, we see the fulfilment of God’s promises unfolding. Everything happens according to God’s will and plan, not ours. Over the 400 years that God’s children had been in Egypt, they did not lose their identity nor assimilate into the Egyptian society. In history, Israel’s enemies had tried to destroy Israel or to cause Israel to lose its identity, e.g. Pharaoh, Babylon, the holocaust, etc. But they all failed because of God’s covenant promises to Israel. The 2 million children of God could be traced back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Gen 12:2-3, 15:1, 5-6).

Similarly for us Christians today, God has also made His covenant promises to the Church. As believers, our identity is in Christ. We have God’s special grace, and He works in our life for His purpose.

The Egyptians were worried and afraid of the growing population of the children of God, so they tried to destroy them by oppressing them and killing their newborn baby boys (Exod 1:13-16). Satan was behind this work as he opposed God’s work and did not want the children of God to follow God or to multiply. But even the suffering of the children of God was part of God’s fulfillment of His promises. It moved the children of God to leave Egypt and to return to the Promised Land. Truly, all things work together for good for the believer in Christ, even in the midst of suffering, and even death.

This is a reminder to us that this world is not our friend nor our home. We are strangers and pilgrims in this land. Our calling here is to be a witness for the Lord.