God Uses Conflict to Accomplish His Plans - Psalms 105-107

 Psalms 105:23-25 (ESV)

Then Israel came to Egypt;

Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

And the LORD made his people very fruitful

and made them stronger than their foes.

He turned their hearts to hate his people,

to deal craftily with his servants.

In Psalm 105 we are reading a song about the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.  They were slaves in Egypt and God sent Moses to deliver them.   The above passage is very insightful as to how the relationship between Israel and Egypt unfolded.   God blessed the nation of Israel and began to multiple them.  Remember, under Joseph’s rule they were saved from the seven year world wide famine.   In that time Israel grew to be a large nation in the middle of Egypt.  Although the Egyptians enjoyed the free labor, the nation began to become quite difficult to manage.   But, not only did God make the nation of Israel fruitful, He also stirred up the Egyptians to “hate” His people (Isaiah 45:7).   This pressure became the catalyst of their deliverance.    We often, rightly so, see conflict as bad.  But, often God uses conflict in a way to accomplish His plans (Acts 15:36-41).  God brought a conflict between them to force the issue of His divine deliverance.  The interesting part about this is how God did a great work to accomplish the nation of not just leaving, but leaving with an entire bounty of goods and in great peace.  Note:

Psalms 105:37-38 (ESV)

Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes who stumbled. Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon it.

This is what God can do in the midst of conflict.   He can cause great conflict to come to calm.  He can change the disposition one person has toward another.  Of course, we know that God also allowed the anger and fruition of the Egyptians to return and they pursued Israel in anger to the middle of the Red Sea.   Of course, God can and did deal with that, as well.   God can deal with all types of stress in relationships between people in many ways and many outcomes.