January 29
Ex 8:1-9 | PS 24 | Prov 6:1-5 | Matt 19:13-30
God is never haphazard. He is a God of order. Also, though He knows beforehand exactly how people will respond, He does not override their free will. Some are troubled when it says in Exodus 9:12, "But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses." People will state, if the Lord hardened Pharoah's heart, then it wasn't really Pharoah's fault. There are two Hebrew words for our one English word hardened. One word means: "stubbornness, rebellion" which is what Pharoah did in his own free will against God. The other Hebrew word means, "to make firm", like clay hardening in a fire, which is what God eventually did to Pharoah. It was Pharoah who hardened his heart against God, and it was God who eventually strengthened Pharoah in that position. C.S. Lewis said, "There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'"
When we come to the plagues, they can seem almost random: flies, frogs, water to blood, etc. The Israelites had been in Egypt for 400 years, and though they might have intellectually believed in Him, and might have even worshipped Him, after so long, they doubted whether he was any match to Egypt and their gods. Like many pagan cultures, Egypt worshipped a pantheon of gods. So when God sent the ten plagues they were directed at specific Egyptian gods so that both the Israelites and the Egyptians would come to realize that there was only one true God. This was wonderfully depicted in the Sight and Sound play, "Moses". The first plague of turning the Nile to blood was a judgment against Apis, the god of the Nile, Isis the goddess of the Nile, and Khnum, the guardian of the Nile. The plague of the frogs was against Heqet, the frog-headed goddess of birth (frogs were deemed sacred and were not to be killed). The plague of gnats, was a judgment on Set, the god of the desert. The plague of flies, was against, Uatchit, the fly god. The plague against the livestock was against both the goddess Hathor and the god Apis, who were both depicted as cattle. This pattern carries through for all the remaining plagues against Egypt. Again, God is a God of order, not randomness.
We would do well not to just see this as a story that happened over 3000 years ago to a bunch of people unrelated to us now. Like the Egyptians there are no shortage of false gods and idols that we have erected in our own lives. They might not have names like Isis, Heqet, etc., but anything and anyone that we place above our God is actually an idol. That might mean money, education, position, our family members, self (there is no shortage of self-love). Like Pharoah, we are rebellious in nature. Most want their things, their way. Most seek their own will over God's will. Like the Israelites, those that do adhere to a faith now, mostly do so in some ritualistic manner devoid of any real trust or real belief. To be the vessels of God that He desires for us, for our own good, we need to humble ourselves and submit (unlike Pharoah), rid ourselves of idolatry (unlike the Egyptians), and place our hope and trust in the One True God (unlike the Israelites). Like the true characters in this story, God will allow our own free will, but those who hold to it do so to their own peril.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: