Exodus 8:19 "This is the finger of God!" Today, I was struck with just how often I am so like the awful, miserable Pharaoh. It saddens me to admit it, but it is true. I travel along this journey of life things going along pretty well and hit a bump in the road. I turn to God things get better and oops I'm back a little bit further away, a little further away and then oops where did God go in my life? Absolutely nowhere, I did. Pharaoh knew that God could take away the frogs, the gnats, the flies, but he would agree to rid himself of the ugly and then immediately go back to the way he did things before with the Hebrew people still not allowed to go like God requested. I find it interesting that God requested rather than just taking his people out. God always allows us to choose to follow Him, but he may place a few frogs, gnats, etc. in our path along the way. Have you ever thought about that before? I always want to blame evil when an aggravation gets in my path. I never really thought about God placing these pests in my journey to get my attention, but I will from now on. Do you ever find yourself looking more like Pharaoh than you desire? Am I alone in realizing just how awful I might be at times? I pray that the next time God wants me to look at things a different way, I listen that I won't have to dodge the frogs, gnats and especially the boils…I pray that the next time God wants me to focus on His desires that I don't have to continually be bombarded with the pests along the way…I pray that I will realize that I don't want to be like the awful Pharaoh and have a harden heart that continually closes his heart to God and to the plans God desires for me! After all, it is just like the scripture tells us in Exodus 8 ~ Then you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God. Believing, Debbie
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Pests along the way
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Debbie, I can be like Pharaoh too at times. My mother always called it being "hard-headed." She would tell me at times that I was hard-headed. She was right! I still can be at times. That's something I need to also pray about...
A couple of things caught my attention this morning. One was after the Lord had sent the plague of frogs, Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron to take away the frogs and you can take your people into the wilderness. "Do it tomorrow," Pharaoh says. Tomorrow? Did he say "tomorrow?"
In verse 9:20, it says that "Some of Pharaoh's officials were afraid because of what the Lord had said." Many of the Egyptians hurried to shelter their animals from the hail. They had started to believe "that there is no one like the Lord our God."
No one!!...
Once again there is so much to learn from today's reading in Exodus.
Do you remember when Pharaoh order his people in Exodus 1:22 to throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile? Think about the Nile River being filled with the blood of those newborn babies being eaten by crocodiles. Such a horrible image, but now God would turn the Nile to blood.
And what was Pharaoh doing? He went back to the palace and put the whole thing out of his mind. Maybe if we don't think about our problem, it will go away. I've been guilty of that tactic.
And then there were all of those gnats! A whole lot of gnats! Exodus 8:17 said, "All of the dust in the land of Egypt turned into gnats." Think about that image.
After the rain, hail, and thunder stopped, Scripture says that Pharaoh and his officials sinned again. How? They became stubborn. Not sure that I have considered being stubborn a sin, but I think now that it is the same thing as being disobedient.
And it all happened just as the Lord had predicted through Moses!
Frankie, how could I have forgotten about Pharaoh ordering all firstborn Hebrew males to be thrown into the river?? It's also kind of ironic that on Feb 4th's lesson that "the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the first-born son of Pharaoh. who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon." This was sure enough a "what goes around did come around!!..."
Also, in verses 12:48-49 the Lord tells Moses that only "CIRCUMCISED" males could celebrate the Lord's passover. I imagine Moses realllllly stressed circumcision since he almost lost his life over not circumcising one of his sons. Quiet obviously, circumcision was very important to the Lord....
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