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In Christ, Mark
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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.
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