God's Special Treasure

First a personal note.  I have always enjoyed writing, but never knew how much I would enjoy writing this blog.  I have not committed to writing a blog every day of this year, but I truly miss the 2nd reflection time on the day's scripture when I don't get to write.  Sometimes writing this blog seems a more "worthy" thing to do than say, doing the dishes or vacuuming the floors.  I am sure that is something my mind wants to believe, but is just not true.  So truth is--these writings last longer than clean dishes and clean floors.  Yay!  It's crazy to me (and somewhat scary) when you tell me you are reading my blog.   But, I thank you for your interest and curiosity.  And I hope you feel it is a "worthy" way to spend your reading time and not a waste. You know you could be doing dishes or vacuuming instead:-)

Exodus 19.  What sweet scripture!  Verses 4 & 5, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine."

I have seen in my life how God rescued me from my old way of life, from slavery and bondage to sin.

I have seen how He has lifted me, as if on eagles' wings, and brought me to Himself.  There is no place I'd rather be.

God calls me to obey each day what He guides and tells me to do.  He tells me to keep His covenant--keep His commands and His ways.  This is not tedious, but freeing.  I don't have to figure out life for myself.  I can trust in the One who sees the whole of my life and knows the future and what is best and good for me.

I am God's special treasure.  His princess.  This is not arrogance to say.  He is the One who has set His love upon me.  God sees me through Christ's righteousness.  I am His child, bought with the precious price of Jesus' blood.  I am His bride, the bride that He has purified and made whole.

All the earth is my God's.  He owns it all.  Yes, at times I worry that He won't give me what is His when I think I need it.  But if I am truly "His special treasure above all people," is He going to neglect taking care of me?  I think not!

Time to let you enjoy a song while I go wash the dishes!

Full and Joyful Obedience

Exodus 11.  Plagues of locusts and darkness.

Part of God's purposes in the plagues in the land of Egypt were to give the children of Israel a history with God so they could tell their children and grandchildren about God's mighty works on their behalf. Verse 2, "and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son's son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord."

Even Pharaoh's servants were getting tired of all of this.  Verse 7, "Then Pharaoh's servants said to him, 'How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God.  Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?'"

Once again after the locusts come, Pharaoh calls "in haste" for Moses and Aaron.  He admits he has sinned against God and against Moses and Aaron (verse 16), but it is once again an admittance and not repentance.  Verse 20, "But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go."

Then the plagues of darkness comes.  Darkness that could "be felt" (verse 21).

Once again Pharaoh tries to get Moses to compromise and not take his flock and herds (verse 24).  Once again, Moses doesn't compromise obedience to God's commands (verses 25-26).  I love Moses' reasoning, "Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind.  For we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God, and even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there."

It would surely have been easier to just take the livestock that would be sacrificed into the wilderness instead of taking every animal they owned! The problem was, God hadn't revealed to them yet which animals must be sacrificed.  Moses didn't see this an an inconvenience.  He saw it as joyful obedience.

Admittance and Repentance are Not the Same

Exodus 9.  More plagues-- diseased livestock, boils on man and beast, and killer hail.

The Lord makes a distinction between His people and the Egyptians.  Verse 4, "And the Lord will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt.  So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel."

The Lord sets an appointed time to do this.  Verse 5, "Then the Lord appointed a set time, saying, 'Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.'"

Pharaoh's magicians couldn't make a showing during the plague of the boils because they were affected by the boils.  Verse 11, "And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians."

God says the plagues of the hails will get to Pharaoh's very heart.  Verse 14, "For at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth."

Pharaoh does admit his sin in verse 27, "And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, 'I have sinned this time.  The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked.'"

Yet, when Pharaoh gets relief from the plague of the hail--"And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants."

Distinction of God's people.

God's appointed time.

Results of sin can be crippling.

God reveals Himself to men's hearts.

Admitting our sin isn't enough, we must turn from sin and not harden our heart.

Compromise?

Exodus 8.  Three more plagues--frogs (eeeewwwww!), lice (aaaaahhhhhh!), and flies (uuuuggggghhhh!).  Yet Pharaoh's heart remained hardened.

Pharaoh thinks a compromise might work. Verse 25, "Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, 'Go, sacrifice to your God in the land.'" God had not told His people to sacrifice in the land of Egypt, but to go a three days journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord (Exodus 3:18). I love Moses' response in verses 26-27.  Moses tells Pharaoh, "it is not right to do so" and "we will go  . . . sacrifice to the Lord . . .as He will command us."

I love that Moses knew what God wanted His people to do and that he wasn't willing to compromise his standards to appease Pharaoh.  We are taught (and we teach our children) to be willing to compromise.  And that is okay for some situations, but not when the compromise goes in violation of what God has commanded.

God, help me to stay close to You and to know the difference between good compromise and disobedience to Your commands.

From the Adrian Rogers Legacy Bible, "Many so-called religions today are recommending culture rather than Calvary; education rather than regeneration.  But you can't stay in the world and just tack on Christianity.  You must make a full departure from the land of compromise."

Obedience and Consequences

Exodus 7.  Verses 5-7, "'And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.' Then Moses and Aaron did so; just as the Lord commanded them, so they did.  And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh."

I love the obedience of Moses and Aaron into their 80s (and beyond!).  This was probably the hardest challenge of obedience of their lives, but they followed God anyway. 

In this chapter, Moses and Aaron speak to Pharaoh as the Lord commanded .  Aaron shows his rod becoming a serpent.  The Pharaoh's magicians and sorcerers do the same and Aaron's serpent swallows their serpents.

Then because Pharaoh wouldn't let the people go, Aaron holds the rod out over the waters of Egypt and the waters turn into blood.  The Egyptians' water was blood for 7 days.  They had to dig all around the river for water to drink (verse 24). 

I think it must have saddened the children of Israel to see the Egyptians struggling so.  Even though the Egyptian taskmasters had been so hard on the children of Israel, yet it would be difficult to see them in such pain.  This is true of us who are the children of God, it hurts to see our neighbors who do not know the true God struggling and to watch bad things happen to them.  It hurts to watch, even though sometimes the circumstances in their life come about by their own poor choices.  Our desire is to see them find abundant life in God. 

Moses and Aaron obeyed God and watched Him do miracles.  Pharaoh did not heed God's warnings and suffered the consequences--not only for himself, but for all the people over whom he ruled. 

God Promises to Be Our Deliverer

Exodus 6.  Such beautiful, reassuring words from God in this chapter.  Yet, the children of Israel were under such a burden that they could not accept this, believe this, trust this as truth at this time because they were hurting so.  Look at verse 9, "So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage." 

Look at the promises, sweet words of God in verses 6-8 that they just couldn't open their hearts to at this time:  "Therefore say to the children of Israel: 'I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.  Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage:  I am the Lord.'"

Don't be too hard on the children of Israel for not being able to trust and believe at this point.  They were under such hardship and stress that most of us have never known.  I can't quote him exactly, but Rev. Ron Dunn spoke about trusting God in one of my very favorite sermons of his.  The children of Israel eventually had two choices, to trust God and cross the impossible Red Sea (Exodus 14) or to turn around and face the Egyptian army at their heels.  God sometimes puts us in situations where we can see that trusting Him is better than the alternative. 

Praise You, God, for being my Deliverer.

Enjoy this youtube video from Twila Paris--The Warrior is a Child/Do I Trust You.