THE CHRISTIAN WALK

Friday, July 18, 2025

RAISED UP FOR A PURPOSE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let My people go, so that they may worship Me." If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.'"

The Lord set a time and said, "Tomorrow the Lord will do this in the land."

And the next day the Lord did it.

All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died. Pharaoh sent men to investigate and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land."

So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals. The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you My power and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Exodus 9:1-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we saw in Exodus, chapters 7 and 8, Pharaoh, the supreme leader of the nation of Israel, refused to heed God’s command to allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness on a three day journey so to bring Him worship and offerings.

And so God sent punishment on Egypt by way of a series of curses (also referred to as plagues) upon Egypt, each with the purpose of displaying His almighty power, a power that couldn’t be fully replicated by any of Pharaoh’s magicians and sorcerers.

First, the waters of Egypt were turned to blood, including the sacred Nile River.

Then, an invasion of frogs was sent, followed by swarms of gnats and flies.

Through all this, Pharaoh faked the appearance that he was willing to comply with God’s order just to get out of the current circumstances that he and the Egyptians were suffering through but as we saw over and over, his heart was never sincere as he went back on his word time and time again.

Well, as chapter 9 opens, we find God sending another warning to Pharaoh via Moses, saying:

“This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’ If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the Lord will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.”

And with that, the Lord set the time that this would happen, telling Pharaoh it would be the next day.

Well, the next day came and everything happened as God said it would as “all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.” This was confirmed by the men that Pharaoh sent “to investigate” the Israelites livestock who discovered that “not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died”.

Now, of note, this was the first of the curses sent by God where there was a loss of life involved and so we see how the Lord was upping the ante on Pharaoh and his people, and yet, he still refused to give in.

And so God took things to another level and brought on widespread human suffering as well.

For in our passage today, we read where Moses and Aaron “took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh” before Moses tossed it into the air, immediately causing festering boils to break out on all “men and animals”.

Can you imagine this? An entire nation of people and their animals all afflicted by festering, infectious, painful sores simultaneously?

The impact on the Egyptians was instantaneous as we read where Pharaoh’s magicians were unable to “stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them.” Note here that these magicians didn’t possess any power to cure themselves. None of the gods they served were of any help.

You would think that this latest curse would change Pharaoh’s hardened heart but it didn’t. refusal to surrender to the will of God. Once again, his stubborn refusal to surrender to the will of Israel’s God led to his family, his people, and himself having to suffer greatly.

The scriptures tell us that Pharaoh’s refusal to give into the Lord led to even greater consequences. For God sends yet another message to Pharaoh through His faithful messenger, Moses.

“Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Friends, can we not see that these are powerful words, not just for Pharaoh but for us as believers today? For just as the Lord was speaking into the stubborn, hardened heart of Egypt’s leader, He is also seeking to address our lives today and how we all too often show a obstinate refusal to be obedient to Him.

Listen again to what the Lord said here:

“For by now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you My power and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Essentially here, God is telling Pharaoh that He didn’t have to send all many individual curses on Egypt. Rather, He could have just sent one deadly plague that would have wiped them off the earth!

Wow! Are you hearing that message loud and clear?

For what has kept the Lord for wiping any one sinner or collection of sinners from the face of the earth now or at any other time in human history? Are we so bold to think we are any better than the Pharaoh we’re reading about here in Exodus? Do we believe that we are any more deserving of God’s mercy than he was?

Frankly, if I’m honest, I know that I deserved to be wiped off the earth way before now and it’s only by God’s amazing grace that this hasn’t happened and the undeserved, unearned salvation He has given through His Son Jesus.

Can I get a witness from anybody?

So why hasn’t this happened? Why haven’t we been wiped off the face of creation?

Well, I believe we find the answer by looking a little deeper into the Lord’s word to Pharaoh for He says:

“I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you My power and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Friends, the Lord raises us up each day for a purpose, so that His power might be revealed to us and His name proclaimed in all the earth. And so each day that we awaken, we are raised up for His purpose, not ours, and when this happens, we need to keep realizing that His mercies are truly new to us every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23) and His grace is present in the very air we breathe. Through this, we find His glory and power revealed and so from that point forward each day, we can proclaim the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to everyone we encounter as we seek to share His greatness and goodness with others.

Indeed, our God is merciful. Just the fact that I am writing this and soon you will be reading it is a full testimony to that. The Lord raised us up this day for a purpose and he didn’t choose to wipe up off the face of the earth. Let us rejoice and give thanks in this truth, then tell others about all He has done, is doing, and is yet to do in our lives as we seek to serve Him in obedience, seeking and carrying out His will as we enjoy the blessing of life that He provides.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

TARGETED

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship Me. If you do not let My people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies; even the ground will be covered with them.”

“‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where My people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. I will make a distinction between My people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow.’”

And the Lord did this.

Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.”

But Moses said, “That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? We must take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, as He commands us.”

Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”

Moses answered, “As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the Lord, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Only let Pharaoh be sure that he does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

Then Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to the Lord, and the Lord did what Moses asked. The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained. But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go.

Exodus 8:20-32

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

A week of experiencing blood-filled waterways followed by a frog invasion and gnat infestation, each lasting a day.

This was what the Egyptians had to endure as God brought targeted judgment on them after their ruler, Pharaoh, refused to honor the Lord’s command to let the Israelites go so to offer sacrifices and worship Him outside of Egypt.

You’ll recall that while the magicians of Egypt were able to replicate turning water to blood and producing frogs, they were unable to make sand turn into gnats, something they attributed to the finger of God. Indeed, there was much more that God could do that couldn’t be produced by the mystical, dark arts of the Egyptian sorcerers and we see this play out as the fourth curse (or plague) is unleashed. Look at these closing verses from Exodus, chapter 8:

And the Lord did this.

Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.

Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.”

Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”

In what had become a pattern, we find God using Moses to deliver His message to Pharaoh. In this instance, Moses was to “get up early in the morning” and then go to “confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river”. He was to tell him the following:

"This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship Me. If you do not let My people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies; even the ground will be covered with them.”

Note here that this fourth curse would further display God’s work as He promised to “deal differently with the land of Goshen”, the land that had been given to the Israelites back when Joseph was the second in command to the Pharaoh of that time, a Pharaoh who was far more willing to treat the Israelites with honor and dignity.

What would the differential treatment involve?

Well, God would send swarms of flies to overrun the entire nation of Egypt with the exception of the Goshen region. The Israelites there would remain completely fly-free.

And so just as God was targeting the Egyptians with judgment, He also targeted His people with safety and protection. In His own words, this distinction between the Israelites and Egyptians would let Pharaoh know that the Lord was in the land of Egypt and moving in power.

With the stage set, we know that Pharaoh still refused to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt because the Lord did what He said He would do. For we read where “dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials” as well as all of Egypt except Goshen as “the land was ruined by the flies”.

This prompted Pharaoh to once again call for Moses and Aaron where we see him make an offer, saying:

“Go, sacrifice to your God here in the land.”

The absolute stubborn nature of Pharaoh to oppose the will of Israel’s God is on full display. For his request is nothing short of believing he can negotiate with God, like he had some position of power to play from.

Well, we see where his proposal was a solid no-go from Moses, right out of the gate as he says this to the Egyptian leader:

“That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? We must take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, as He commands us.”

Moses spelled out two reasons why the suggested compromise wasn’t a good idea.

First, if the Israelites sacrificed in the presence of the Egyptians, they would be at risk of being attacked and stoned because the sacrifices would be “detestable in their eyes”.

And secondly, as well as more importantly, God had commanded them to leave Egypt to make a “three-day journey into the wilderness” and it was there that the sacrifices were to be offered up to Him.

How did Pharaoh respond to Moses’ rebuttal?

Well, as we have seen previously, he pretends to surrender on the outside although he had no intention of doing so on the inside.

First, he makes another false promise, saying:

“I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.”

As Moses responds, we find him giving Pharaoh an assurance but also a warning.

The assurance was this:

“As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the Lord, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people.”

And this was followed by the warning:

“Only let Pharaoh be sure that he does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

So Moses carries out his assurance, praying to the Lord and asking for the flies to be removed. We read that “the Lord did what Moses asked” and the “flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people” with not a single fly remaining, a miracle in its own right.

But as we have seen prior, Pharaoh once again failed to make good on what he said he would do because of his hardened heart that “would not let” the Israelites go.

Friends, in our message today, we find several important takeaways that we can apply to our everyday lives.

First, God can move in whatever way He so chooses, often times surgically.

In this message, we saw Him display the power to afflict a nation with a blanket of flies but deny those flies access to an entire region, in this case, Goshen. It’s believed the area was around 900 square miles and only a wonder-working God would be able to set divine boundaries that wouldn’t permit a single fly into that area. Call it a biblical (and literal) “no-fly” zone.

If the Lord can move in these ways, we shouldn’t ever rule out how He might afflict one place in the world while blessing another within the same immediate proximity. We also shouldn’t underestimate His ability to move within any sinner to precisely pinpoint and target an area of needed spiritual improvement.

The second takeaway is that God will continue to be patient in allowing us to change our ways, despite our prior track record of disobedience.

On three prior occasions, God demanded that Pharaoh allow His people to leave so they could go and worship Him, and on all three occasions, Pharaoh failed to honor the Lord’s demand. And yet, as we see in our passage today, God gives Pharaoh yet one more chance to be a man of his word.

I think we can see the patience of our Lord in these Pharaoh encounters and if we’re honest, we can see that we have exhibited Pharaoh-ish behaviors in the past where He was patient with us as well. Let’s give thanks for that, knowing that God will stay with us and strive to help us overcome our stubborn disobedience.

Finally, we need to be careful not to try and negotiate any compromise with God when He commands us to do something.

God had made it clear that Pharaoh was to let the Israelites leave Egypt so to travel for three days into the wilderness and worship Him with offerings.

But what did Pharaoh try and do? Didn’t he try and alter God’s plan so it would suit him better, telling Moses to have the Israelites offer the sacrifices in Egypt?

You know, I’m afraid we do this too often ourselves. God tells us to do or not do things, and we try to look for places of compromise so that we can satisfy His desires as well as our own.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works. Not even close.

When God demands something, the person or persons He is demanding that something from are expected and required to respond in exactly the way the Lord commands, without deviation or concessions.

In the end translation, no one has the right to ignore God, override God, or make demands of God as if He is somehow subordinate to a sinful man or woman.

When God calls us to think in a certain way, we need to think that way.

When God calls us to speak a message a certain way, we say just what He wants.

And when God calls us to do anything, we do it at the time, in the place, and exactly the way He wants.

Nothing else is acceptable outside of absolute obedience to the Lord.

Do otherwise, and rest assure, you can be targeted by Him for punishment and correction.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

THE FINGER OF GOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats."

They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats.

But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God."

But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said.

Exodus 8:16-19

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Lying in the presence of God is never a good idea.

Unfortunately, Egypt’s Pharaoh didn’t quite grasp this when he decided to make a false promise to Moses.

You’ll remember that God had unleashed the second of what will end up being twelve curses (also referred to as plagues) on the Egyptian nation. That curse involved an onslaught of frogs that found the way to get into everything, including an invasion of Pharaoh’s palace. This frog incursion became so severe that Pharaoh summoned Moses and his brother Aaron, asking for Moses to pray to God so the frogs would be taken away. If Moses would do this, Pharaoh vowed that he would let the people of Israel go to conduct sacrifices to God.

With this, Moses prayed and God removed the frogs but Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites. The scriptures tell us that his heart remained hardened as he continued to hold the Hebrew people hostage within their oppressive enslavement.

And so as we see in today’s scripture verses, God continued to bring punishment on Pharaoh and his nation. Look again at this passage here as we continue studying from Exodus, chapter 8:

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats."

They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats.

But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God."

But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said. Vv.16-19

Unlike the first two curses, note here that God doesn’t give Pharaoh the courtesy of knowing what was to come. Rather, He just issues the following command to Moses:

"Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats."

And so Aaron did as God asked, stretching “out his hand with the staff” and striking “the dust of the ground”. When he did this, we read where “all the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats” and those “gnats came upon men and animals” alike.

Have you ever encountered a gnat before?

They are essentially a very small fly and I don’t think I need to tell you how annoying a single fly can be let alone swarms of millions upon millions. They are especially drawn to moisture and body heat which makes human beings and animals like magnets for them. Couple this with the propensity of a gnat to bite and it’s a bad combination.

So how many gnats are we really talking about?

Well, someone has estimated that there are around 1.5 septillion grains of sand in Egypt and if you want to see how that looks written out, here you go:

1,504,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

That’s a lot of gnats and only God could produce numbers like that.

Now, imagine the impact of this on Egypt as hordes and hordes of swarming, flying, biting gnats appeared everywhere, so many in number that there was no escaping them. It had to make the blood filled waters and massive frog intrusion seem mild and tolerable by comparison. But there was something else very different about this latest curse from God, something that sent a powerful message to Egypt that seemed to register with everyone except, yes, you guessed it, Pharaoh.

For the scriptures tell us that no matter how hard they tried, the magicians of Pharaoh could not "produce gnats by their secret arts", not like they were able to do previously with changing water to blood and creating frogs.

And so, we see where they went to Pharaoh with only one viable explanation.

"This is the finger of God."

In other words, what was happening couldn’t have occurred any other way except through the power of the God of Israel, who was also the Maker and Master of all, even if the Egyptians failed to understand or acknowledge it.

This statement was before Pharaoh for consideration and he couldn’t deny the evidence that was before him, especially as the pesky gnats bit away at him, his family, and his people. Yet, despite the inability of his magicians to duplicate what God had done, despite the magicians’ testimony that the gnat invasion was from the finger of God, despite all this, the scriptures tell us that Pharaoh continued to harden his heart.

As we read this, we can take heart that at least the magicians had come around to give Israel’s God the honor He deserved. They came to see that the finger of God is powerful and able to do the miraculous.

Of interest, later in this Book of Exodus, we will see the finger of God at work again, this time inscribing two stone tablets which will contain His ten commandments before giving them to Moses at Mount Sinai. (Exodus 31:18).

We also will see God’s finger mentioned in the New Testament, Gospel of Luke. There, Jesus mentions that He drove out demons by the finger of God while telling His listeners that the Kingdom of God had come to them (Luke 19:20).

Today, the very finger of God is still at work, writing His expectations and desires on hearts that are often as hard as stone, like Pharaoh’s was. As He does this, He seeks to draw us ever closer to His Kingdom, driving out any demons that may plague us along the way as He shapes and molds us to be the people He wants us to be. All we need to do is submit ourselves to Him and understand, like Pharaoh’s magicians, that no one has the power to do what He can. Indeed, He can make the impossible possible and the improbable probable.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

FALSE GODS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.'"

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.'"

So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.

But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord."

Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile."

"Tomorrow," Pharaoh said.

Moses replied, "It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God. The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile."

After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them.

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

Exodus 8:1-15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Seven days. A full week.

This is how long the people of Egypt had endured all their water sources, to include the sacred Nile River, filled with blood.

You might think that this first curse sent from God would be enough to convince Pharaoh, the nation’s leader, to let the Israelites leave the country as the Lord commanded but he didn’t.

And so as we see in today’s scripture passage from the first fifteen verses of Exodus, chapter 8, God gives Moses the following orders:

"Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.'"

Well, it’s obvious that a mere threat wasn’t enough for Pharaoh to do as God demanded and so we find Him providing this guidance to Moses:

"Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.'"

And so it was. The scriptures tell us that Aaron “stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt” and as he did, “frogs came up and covered the land”. They were everywhere and in what is a bit of biblical comic relief, we read where “the magicians” who served Pharaoh were also able to make “frogs come up on the land of Egypt” by way of “their secret arts” but note that they weren’t able to do what would have helped their fellow Egyptians. Just as they weren’t able to turn the waterways back to water from blood, they also weren’t able to use their sorcery to get rid of the frogs. As we’ll see, only the true God of Heaven and earth could do that.

Well, Pharaoh might have gotten away without being impacted by the blood-filled waterways but the frogs were a different story. For just as God had promised, they infiltrated Pharaoh’s palace, getting into his bedroom, onto his bed, and into his ovens and kneading troughs. It had to be disgusting and frustrating. The frogs also invaded the homes of Pharaoh’s officials all of Egypt’s people.

All of this obviously had gotten Pharaoh’s attention for the scriptures tell us that he summoned Moses and Aaron, asking them to pray and ask for the frogs to be taken. If God would do that, here’s what Pharaoh promised to do:

“I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord."

With this, Moses asks Pharaoh when the prayer should be rendered and Egypt’s leader opted for the next day.

Why did Moses do this?

He tells both Pharaoh and us:

"It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God. The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile."

Here, it’s important to note that Moses wanted Pharaoh to know that the frogs would be taken away for one chief purpose, so he (Pharaoh) would know without question that there was no one like the Lord God of Israel.

And so it was. We read where Moses did lift up the prayer as asked and God answered it as the “frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields”. There were so many that they were “piled into heaps”, resulting in a reeking odor that went over the while land. In other words, Pharaoh and the Egyptians could all smell the results of God’s mighty judgment that had been carried out on them but as we see at the end of our passage, Pharaoh wouldn’t make good on his part of the bargain. Instead, “he hardened his heart” after he saw the relief had come, choosing not to “listen to Moses and Aaron” all as the “Lord had said”.

Two curses (also referred to as plagues in some translations) were obviously not enough and so we’re going to see the Lord continue to bring punishment on Pharaoh and Egypt over their wickedness.

Now, maybe you might be wondering, “Why did the Lord choose frogs?”

The answer is found in the Egyptian culture. For just as the Nile was sacred to the nation and its people, so were frogs. In fact, they were thought to possess divine powers and the Egyptians actually worshiped a goddess named Heqet, who had the form of a woman but with a frog’s head. They believed that she breathed life into the bodies created by her husband, the god Khnum, from the earth’s dust. Thus, it was against Egyptian religious law to kill a frog and now they had more dead frogs than they knew what to do with.

In the end translation, God had once again turned a false god worshiped by the Egyptians into a curse that worked against them.

This made me think a little bit about us and our culture today. For how many false gods are worshiped by people around the world that God often turns into a curse against them?

Consider and ponder these points.

First, we are a society obsessed with money and typically people are not very good stewards of what the Lord has blessed them with. In fact, this problem has grown in such magnitude that most people don’t even acknowledge that their money is gift from God in the first place.

To take this issue to an even higher level, people have learned to worship money so much that they can get it, even if they don’t earn it through a thing called credit. Yes, that’s right, people can actually spend and spend and spend, getting more and more and more things while going further and further and further in debt.

And then, when the credit runs out, not only does a person lose the ability to purchase outside of their means but they too often then realize that they don’t have enough real money to be able to pay for what they have borrowed.

Indeed, the worship of money as a false god can become a curse to anyone. It’s why Jesus warned that no one can serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24).

To this, we can add the matter of possessions because typically, people use credit to get anything and everything they want, and do it immediately. The instant gratification of credit is like a drug that consumers can’t get enough of. In fact, in general people have lost sight of what’s a want and what’s a need...and there is a distinct difference, believe it or not.

When it comes to possessions born out of an attitude of materialism, unchecked purchasing results in possessions actually possessing the one who has them.

And then there is this false god, the false god of substance abuse which includes alcohol or drugs.

How many people can’t get through life without having their sense of reality altered by these substances?

And let’s not pretend that indulgence only happens at bars or parties. For millions upon millions of people are tethered to alcohol and drug abuse or addiction right in the comfort of their own homes, places that seem to be safer because they are out of the public view.

But think about that for a moment. For there isn't anything we do that is out of of God’s sight. Nothing is hidden from Him.

And when we lean on alcohol and/or drugs in life, substances that impair our ability to think and make proper decisions, we are disconnecting from the power of the Holy Spirit and the Lord who operates within it. Instead of just going to the Lord with our circumstances, we think we can drink, snort, ingest, or inject things into our bodies that can detach us from our worries and stresses.

But here’s the thing.

Once the high goes away, the problem you tried to escape is still there waiting for you to come around. And too often, people complicate their issues through the substance they use to try and get away from it. For many people turn to alcohol and/or drugs so frequently that abuse quickly becomes addiction and addiction is nothing short of worshiping and serving the false god substance that one is addicted to.

Finally, let’s add sex to this category for people obsess over it so much that it becomes a quasi-drug that can also lead to addiction as well as broken relationships through infidelity and sex-related diseases.

When did we lose sight that God gave us the privilege to have sex only within the confines of a marital relationship?

I know, maybe you will say that it hasn’t been like that within your entire lifetime. Think about how sad that statement is in and of itself.

Friends, society has taken something God intended to be beautiful and abused it to where it is a false god that is worshiped. It has led to sinful pornography invading the internet to where people can indulge in it very discretely to satisfy their desires. We’ve also see countless incidents of sexual assault leading to rape in its worst form, people violated so another can fulfill their own sexual wants. It’s a sad state of affairs and one we can’t afford to ignore.

Now, I could keep going but I think the point has been made. If we’re honest, there are as many false gods being worshiped by people today as there were in the days of the Bible where we find the Egyptians, Greeks, and the Romans among others.

And we had better believe that God is just as angered by the sinfulness He sees in our culture as He was back then. Yes, He might not be turning our waters into blood or sending frogs across our nation but He has other ways to send signs and judgment. We shouldn’t underestimate how He might act to address our trangressions.

And so this message comes down to one simple question:

Are you worshiping any false gods in your life?

If so, now is the time to turn to the Lord, the only One worthy of your devotion, desire, and worship, the only One who can show you true joy, peace and contentment in life, the only One who can help you manage and get through any circumstances you might be going through.

Indeed, today is the day you can turn your life around and head in the right direction forever. Place your belief, faith, trust, and hope in God and you’ll never go through a day afterwards when you will regret it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Monday, July 14, 2025

LIVING WATER

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. Then say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.'"

The Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs'-and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars."

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

Seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile.

Exodus 7:14-25

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In the initial thirteen verses of Exodus, chapter seven, we find Moses and Aaron performing the first of what will be several magnificent acts of God intended to convince Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt.

In this first act, you’ll recall that the staff of God was cast down in front of Pharaoh and became a snake. Then, after Pharaoh’s wise men, sorcerers, and magicians through down their staffs which became snakes, the snake from the Lord’s staff swallowed them up, a sign of His superiority over evil, demonic forces. Despite witnessing this, we saw where Pharaoh refused to set Israel free.

And so as we see in today’s passage, the Lord God Almighty ups the ante in a big way. Look again at our passage for today from verses fourteen through twenty-five:

But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

Seven days passed after the Lord struck the Nile.

Here, we read God attacking the water systems of Egypt, turning the Nile and all streams, canals, ponds, reservoirs into blood.

Can you imagine if that would happen in the waterways around where you might live? I mean, last time I checked, water is a basic survival need for living things, right?

And so put yourself back in ancient Egypt for a moment and your sources of water, to include the sacred Nile River, were now filled with blood and there were some clear second and third order effects from this.

First, all the fish died because they needed the water as much as the people did. Further, fish were a food source for the people and so . Water and fish, two life sustaining resources were now gone.

Second, all the dead fish and the blood filled water bodies gave off a terrible stench. The smell must have been horrific, impacting something else important for survival, the air that was breathed.

Well, indeed, death was in the air in Egypt as Pharaoh’s stubbornness had brought great suffering on his people. The blood shed by the Israelites under the oppression and harsh treatment of their slavery was now visible to all the Egyptians, represented in their blood filled waters.

Another important point of consideration here is that the Egyptians worshipped the Nile, treating it as if it was a god. Now, their river god was rendered completely useless by the one true God. What was once a river teeming with life and promise was now full of death and destruction. The same things happens within anyone who decides to worship false idols and gods today. They become spiritually dead inside.

Well, despite the mighty sign that God had sent, we read where the "Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts". I find it interesting that while they could turn water to blood, they couldn’t reverse what God had done. For if they had any legitimate power that might begin to rival God, then they should have been able to turn the blood filled waters back to their original state.

But they couldn’t.

So what was the outcome of this latest display of God’s incredible power?

The scriptures tell us that Pharaoh's heart hardened once again and he "would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said". Instead, he just “went into his palace and did not take even this to heart."

Here’s something else he didn’t take to heart. He didn’t show an ounce of concern for the people he governed. There’s little doubt that he had clean water stashed away for his own care and so his actions show just how self centered he was. For while he enjoyed the luxuries of being the ruler, his people scavenged for any water they could find. Such is the attitude of someone who is hardened.

As we close out this message, do you know someone who might have or has had a hardened heart?

Maybe you might have had one at some time in your life. I know I have. Not proud to say that but we’re all imperfect people and it’s okay to confess mistakes we have made in our past, especially if it can help someone else in the present.

So what’s bad about a hardened heart?

Well, one thing is that it refuses love others. It also can lead a person into having a bad attitude about life in general. Further, a hardened heart can create a selfish spirit inside, one with little or no compassion for the welfare of others. And finally, it can lead someone to refuse to trust in the Lord, the only One who can soften and cure their hardened heart.

Pharaoh’s hardened heart took away the life sustaining water needed by the Egyptian people. A hardened heart today takes away Jesus from life, the Savior who brings life sustaining water that can quench our thirst forever. He told us so Himself as He spoke to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in the Gospel of John:

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

And the woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." (4:13-15)

Friends, a person is doomed at death without the living water found in Christ Jesus.

So where do you find yourself today?

Is your heart hardened like Pharaoh’s which led to him having no regard for God or concern for anyone but himself as the waters of his nation were filled with blood?

Or have you found the living water of Jesus Christ, a living water that wells up into eternal life so that you will never thirst again.

If you’re like the Pharaoh of Egypt, come to Jesus and change the way you see and live your life forever. He’s ready to receive you with open arms and give you a heart like His own.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

Sunday, July 13, 2025

PLACE YOUR BELIEF IN GOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "When Pharaoh says to you, 'Perform a miracle,' then say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,' and it will become a snake."

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake.

Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake.

But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.

Exodus 7:8-13

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Early in Exodus, chapter 7, we find Moses and Aaron being sent back to Egypt’s supreme leader, Pharaoh, by God but this time with more than just a request to let the Israelites go to participate in a sacrifice to God. For on the occasion of this visit, they were to "tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country."

In other words, let the Israelites leave for good.

Further, God tells them that "though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he (Pharaoh) will not listen to you." And so, despite their best efforts to convince Egypt’s leader to let the people of Israel go, Pharaoh was still going to stubbornly refuse to listen.

And so the scriptures tell us that God promised to "lay my hand on Egypt” through “mighty acts of judgment” in order to “bring out” His “people the Israelites”. Ultimately, after experiencing His mighty power, the Egyptians would know that He was “the Lord”.

In essence, God was telling Moses and Aaron that there had been enough talk. He was ready to begin acting.

So as we pick up this story in verses eight through thirteen in this chapter, we find God begin to put His power in full display for Pharaoh. We find Him commanding Moses and Aaron to throw down the staff of God before Pharaoh, a staff that Moses already knew held special miraculous qualities. For you will recall that when God called to Moses from the burning bush, he showed Moses how the staff could turn into a snake and indeed, it would be used again for this before Pharaoh.

So we read where Aaron “threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials”, and they all watched it turn into a snake just as God said it would but obviously this didn’t impress Pharaoh. We know this because he turned around and summoned his "wise men and sorcerers” along with “the Egyptian magicians" and they managed to do “the same things by their secret arts." The scriptures tell us that each one threw down their own staff and they also became snakes, obviously the work of the devil and not God.

Well, surely at this point, Egypt’s leader had to be feeling puffed up, gloating over how he had shown these two Israelites that the magic trick they put on display wasn’t unique for even his sorcerers could replicate the act. He must have been thinking that the God of Israel was no more powerful than the gods of Egypt but he was quickly going to see just how very wrong he was.

For just when the staffs of the Egyptian wise men, sorcerers, and magicians turned into snakes, those snakes were swallowed up by the snake from Aaron’s staff. In other words, God’s power had reigned supreme over the dark magic performed by Pharaoh’s men but despite this, we that Pharaoh didn’t surrender himself, just as God had predicted. Instead, we read that his "heart became hard and he would not listen to them" and this was setting the stage for God to up the ante, increase His display of power, and place more pressure on Pharaoh to comply with His wishes.

You know, today we see a lot of modern day Pharaoh-ish behavior in people, don’t we? People who refuse to believe in God despite the consistent, awesome works of His power on full display around them. As you read this today, maybe you have been like that at some time in your own life.

Friends, the Almighty God, the Lord Almighty, is never in hiding. He is always revealing His infinite greatness and goodness to and through His creation. And yet, people still are reluctant to believe in Him, asking for more and more signs that He truly is real. Too many people are like Thomas, the disciple of Jesus, who refused to really acknowledge He had risen from the dead unless he was able to touch Him, putting his fingers into the holes in Jesus’ hands and side.

Pharaoh saw God’s incredible strength on display first hand and still refused to bow down to Him. Unfortunately, he will stubbornly continue to reject the Lord, despite seeing increasingly damaging consequences falling on him and his people.

Today, let’s not make the same mistake and submit ourselves to the One who is our Maker and Master, the One who has given us more than enough evidence that He exists, the One who doesn’t just want us to worship Him but to believe in His Son so He can live with us both now and forever.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.