"Let My People Go!"

I recently read the story of Pharaoh and Moses, and several thoughts came to mind. I read the first plague, the second plague, the third plague, and by then you want Pharaoh to get it. I read the forth plague, and by then the magicians are starting to tell Pharaoh "Acknowledge that this is from God." Pharaoh continues in his stubborness. The thought crossed my mind, "Why can't Pharaoh get it? He is seeing God work in a mighty way, yet he continues lying to God." Then you get to the point where Pharaoh is trying to negotiate -- trying to bargain with God. Pharaoh refuses to see God's sovereignty and wants to retain control. Again, the thought crossed my mind, "Seriously. No one is that stubborn." (I will save the God hardening Pharaoh's heart for a later post!)
When those thoughts started going through my mind, the Holy Spirit started reminding me of Scripture after Scripture of "pharaohs" who followed the lead of the ancient leader of stubbornness rooted in pride. God was putting His power, might, sovereignty, control over nature on display for the nations of Israel and Egypt to see. There is no denying that God was at work. Even the Egyptians who do not worship God started recognizing that God was at work.

Isn't it the same way today? Can't we see God at work in nature? Look at nature. We cannot recreate the colors that God creates in nature. The Grand Canyon, mountains, lakes, forests, etc. We can see the force of nature that testifies to a powerful God behind the nature. Look at hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. God's Word makes it clear that He has revealed Himself to all mankind through nature, most directly in Romans Chapter 1. How many people today see God at work in nature, and try to explain nature as something other than created by God? How many people today see God revealed in nature but take it for granted? Maybe they are afraid like the Egyptians, but they do not submit themselves to the Lord over nature.

Even the Israelites who worshipped God and saw God work in this mighty way seemed to forget God's power and might. The Israelites who watched God control nature in an act of judgment against the Egyptians did not trust God to allow nature to provide for them in the desert journey. Even though the prophets reminded the children of Israel about God's ability to judge for failure to repent and submit to His sovereignty such as God had shown in Egypt, the children of Israel became the hard hearted nation that was judged.

Even though we have the benefit of the Old Testament and New Testament, we still ignore God's ability to judge. We think that a loving God would not judge His people or any people (except maybe our greatest enemies -- always someone else). Even if we claim not to think that way, it is often how we live our lives. As I read the story of the plagues, I was convicted of the fact that I seem to ignore God's power, either to bring about good for His people or judgment on the unrepentant. The power of God is an awesome thing! Snakes, blood, frogs, bugs (two kinds), plagues on livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and last and greatest of all, death of the firstborn sons. God controls every aspect of nature for His glory and purpose so that He makes His name known. He still uses nature to accomplish His purpose. Nature is to remind us that this earth is fallen and under the consequences of man's sin. Nature groans for the day of redemption. All of nature is controlled by God and the negative aspects of nature are a result of the sin of man and a judgment on mankind. What a powerful God that we serve!

It is time for us as a church to start realizing that God is powerful, God still judges, and we need to examine our lives, repent, and lead others to repentance by our example. God still uses nature to judge mankind. It is time to bow our knees in recognition of God's power and judgment. God is still a God who judges those who commit sin, and the sins of the church (especially the church in America) will not continue to go unjudged forever. We do not want to be like the Israelites, but we are headed down that road.

Not only did Pharaoh fail to see the sovereignty of God, he lied to God. Part of what I like about this story is that Pharaoh seems to think that he is getting away with lying to God, even though God told Moses at the beginning of the story that Pharaoh would not change his mind. You can imagine Pharaoh thinking each time that he begs Moses to intercede on behalf of Egypt to end each plague, "I will fool God. I will tell Moses' God what He wants to hear so that I can manipulate God to get what I want." How many people in the world do just that? The health, wealth, and prosperity gospel seems to teach this -- if you just tell God what He wants to hear, He can be manipulated into blessing you with more earthly riches than you can imagine. Too many people make promises to God during times of hardship, only to go back on their word when things are going well again. Once the plague ends, back to business as usual leaving God out. Even regenerate Christians do this. Yet we see that God knew what was going to happen and brought it about for His purpose. God does the same today. He is not fooled by our lies to Him. He is not manipulated by our misrepresentations. The plagues and judgment became worse and worse on Egypt until the plague came that would not be released -- the death of the firstborn. We should take this as a reminder that God will only allow it to look like He is being manipulated for a season, then His longsuffering runs out and He judges. What a humbling thought! It should also be a source of encouragement for the church because God will judge the evil in this world. He is the God who sees and will have the ultimate say. We can endure suffering knowing that it will not go unpunished. Just as God told Moses the end, we know the ending as well -- God wins and the devil is bound and cast into the pit prepared for him, his angels, and the unregenerate.

Pharaoh decided he was going to bargain with God. God gave Pharaoh one command - let my people go three day's journey into the wilderness to the mountain of God to offer sacrifice to God. Pharaoh started out not willing to let the people go. Then he decided he would let the people go, but once the plague released, he went back on his word. Then the men could leave, but the women and children had to stay.Then he decided the people could sacrifice in the land of Egypt instead of going outside of Egypt to the mountain where Moses saw the burning bush. Pharaoh kept coming up with his solution instead of submitting to God's will. How often do we do this? We fail to realize that we do not have any bargaining power when it comes to God and keeping His commandments, but we try to negotiate. "I will follow this commandment, but not these that were written when times were different." "I will do this, God, but only if you give me this." "I will follow this commandment in this situation and that situation, but not all the time." "I promise that I will change once God shows me He exists by performing this sign, wonder, miracle, etc." "I promise that if you heal me, I will do whatever You require." God's Word makes His expectations clear. When He commands it, we have no bargaining power before God. There is no grey area with God. We are either following His commands or we are in sin. It is because of this that our sins are so numerous - we often do what is good, but we don't do what is most to God's glory or what He requires of us. One sin that is infinite for us is our failure to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength. Every second of our lives that we are not loving God in this way is sin because we are breaking the greatest commandment. What a humbling thought! Thinking of sin this way should keep us from sinning further by trying to bargain with God.

The Gospel is such great news! Looking at Pharaoh, we should learn lessons about human nature and ourselves that should make us more greatful for the Gospel. We sin more than we can ever know. Every act of our own before regeneration is a sin. There is no way that we can keep the commands of God. Without the Gospel, we would be hopeless. Yet, God has revealed the Gospel to us through His Son. God revealed His Son in the story of the plagues and Passover. A future post will address this issue.

Sorry that this post seems to jump from one topic to another without any real flow! My brain does that sometimes and I don't feel like editing it right now.