Exodus 13 -- Freedom Was A New Concept For Them

The way out of Egypt is described in this chapter.  The people had eaten the Passover Meal, received treasures from the Egyptian people, and now were packed and ready to go.  The shortest route to the Promised Land, following the Mediterranean coastline, held obstacles though.  My commentary said that the Egyptians had army posts along that route, possibly to prevent the Philistines from invading.  They would not have had time to receive notice of Pharaoh’s orders freeing the Israelites and might have caused problems.  Additionally, the Israelites had never had training for war, and they’d be seen as an invading force by the Philistines.  My commentary said, “If you permit the Lord to direct your steps, expect to be led occasionally on paths that may seem unnecessarily long and circuitous.  Remind yourself that God knows what He is doing, He isn’t in a hurry, and as long as you follow Him, you’re safe and in the place of His blessing.”

 

Freedom was an unknown concept to the Israelites.  Eleven or so generations had lived in Egypt as foreigners – and most of them had been slaves.  They’d be depending on Moses, who was depending on God, and it would be important for them not to squander their freedom by making poor choices.  My commentary said, “There are two freedoms – the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true, where a man is free to do what he ought … It’s a mark of maturity when we learn that freedom is a tool to build with, not a toy to play with, and that freedom involves accepting responsibility.”

 

Father God, please help my sons as they grown into young men to temper their natural desire for freedom with the knowledge that You will be their leader for a lifetime.  Don’t let them be hoodwinked by false freedom, thinking Your rules are too confining.  Instead, let them see that as men, they are free to do what they ought, accepting responsibility for themselves and using that freedom to grow in You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 11 & 12 -- The Tragic Results Of A Hardened Heart

All of the events I’ve read about in Exodus were coinciding with promises God had made to Abraham hundreds of years before.  God had told Abraham about the Egyptian captivity and how He would bring His people out of Egypt after 430 years of slavery.  Passover would become their new independence day.

 

God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart to get them all to this point.  Moses had been told to warn Pharaoh that whatever Pharaoh did to the Israelite firstborn would determine how God treated Egypt’s firstborn.  Pharaoh had ordered Israelite firstborn sons killed or drowned (remember Moses in the basket?).  And now Pharaoh faced payback.  Every firstborn male in Egypt died that night.  Every house lost someone.  And all of the firstborn livestock died as well.  God keeps records of birth order, even among the animals!

 

Amazingly, with the Egyptians grieving over their losses, God caused them to think well of the Israelites, and they freely handed them their gold as gifts.  It was actually payback for the years of wages Egypt hadn’t paid while keeping the Israelites enslaved, and it also was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would leave Egypt with great prosperity.

 

Father, You always keep Your promises, and You are always right on time.  Help me to be firm in my faith about this, knowing that You never leave or forsake, that You are in total control, and that nothing is ever beyond Your ability to make happen.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 10 -- God Continues To Harden A Heart

It has been really amazing focusing on the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.  Here God tells Moses, “I have made him and his officers stubborn so I could show them My powerful miracles.  I also did this so you could tell your children and your grandchildren how I was hard on the Egyptians.”

 

Had Pharaoh’s heart not been hardened, he would have missed out on all of the great displays of God’s power.  And imagine these beaten-down Israelites who’ve been enslaved all their lives hearing Moses tell them that God was doing this for their children and grandchildren!  That gave them hope for a future many had never thought would come.

 

Moses and Aaron had to tell Pharaoh that refusing to be sorry for what he had done wasn’t paying dividends – it was very costly for his entire country.  The king’s officers even boldly asked him, “Don’t you know that Egypt is ruined?”  Pharaoh’s heart was so hardened that he no longer cared about his country.  He was consumed with rage toward Moses and his God!  After enduring the locust plague, Pharaoh surprisingly admitted, “I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you.  Now forgive my sin this time.  Pray to the Lord your God, and ask Him to stop this punishment that kills.”  In the midst of the consequences of his sin, Pharaoh needed God’s help.  But as soon as the heat was off, he relented.  And God then turned up the heat another notch:  “The Lord caused the king to be stubborn again …”  God was doing this for the purposes He’d cited earlier.

 

God then brought 3 days of absolute darkness to Egypt, while the Israelites next door in Goshen had all the light they normally had.  Pharaoh once again wanted to compromise rather than comply.  But with God, 95% obedience equals 100% disobedience, and “the Lord made the king stubborn again, so he refused to let them go.”

 

Our own hardness of hearts and stubbornness always comes at a terrible cost to us and we choose it despite the fact that it makes no sense economically or spiritually.  We kick at the goads even though God is in total control.  That’s the terrible effect of sin in our lives.

 

Father, help us to recognize this very human stubbornness – this wanting our way despite the fact that we’d be better off having it Your way.  Please help us to see when something makes no sense and reveal that our pride is doing the talking, and help us to shuck it off and let You be God.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 9 -- More On The Hardened Heart

“The opposite of a hard heart is a heart that fears God, and that reverential fear motivates us to obey the Lord’s commands,” my commentary said.  “The hard-hearted person is ignorant of God and His truth.”

 

God next sent a pestilence that killed all of the Egyptian farm animals that had been left in the fields.  With no movement by Pharaoh, God then directed Moses and Aaron to throw soot into the air, causing painful festering ulcers and boils to appear on the Egyptians and their cattle that remained.  How it must have galled Pharaoh to see his people and animals affected but none of the Israelite people and animals affected!  “He continued resisting the Lord and His servants, and each act of disobedience only hardened his heart more.  ‘He who is often reproved and hardens his neck will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.’”

 

After getting no response from the boils plague, God prepared to send the hailstones plague.  “Pharaoh’s heart had become harder, so God’s disciplines had to become more severe.”

 

It is important that a hard-hearted person understands that God has dealt with him in mercy.  God directed Moses to tell Pharaoh that He could have simply wiped them off the face of the earth.  He also must understand that God also had dealt with him in grace.  “Apart from the sovereign will of God, Pharaoh would not have been the ruler of Egypt.”  Yet Pharaoh didn’t honor God’s mercy or His grace.  The Lord’s hailstorm wiped out the flax and barley crops.  Any person or animal caught outside was killed by the hail or by lightning that ran along the ground.

 

All of this destruction caused Pharaoh to send for Moses.  He then “acknowledged the justice of God and admitted that he had sinned.  However, his confession was insincere because it didn’t lead to obedience.”

 

Father God, there is a sorrow for the consequences we are having to endure as a result of our actions.  But that is not repentance.  There’s sorry for getting caught, but that is simply shame.  What You desire is a broken heart that willingly admits that disobedience is sin against You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 7 & 8 Hardness of Heart

There was something totally crazy I noticed here.  When God had Moses do something, the Egyptian priests tried and at first succeeded in doing the same things, even though it was always to their detriment!

 

Who would want a snake running around loose inside their home?  God turned Aaron’s rod into a snake.  Instead of running, the Egyptian priests decided they could match it, and “created” a second snake!  Now there were two slithering through the palace!

 

When God turned all the water in Egypt to blood and the people had no water to drink, they dug fresh wells beside the Nile to get fresh water, and the Egyptian priests quickly turned it into blood, again to everyone’s detriment!!  It happened a third time with the frogs!  They were so concerned about being one-upped that nothing else mattered.  You’d think the king would have been screaming at them, saying, “Are you CRAZY???!!!”  But hardened hearts do very crazy things – irrational things, even to their own detriment.

 

My commentary described a hardened heart:  “It means to see clear evidence of the hand of God at work and still refuse to accept His Word and submit to His will.  It means to resist Him by showing ingratitude and disobedience and not having any fear of the Lord or of His judgments.  Hardhearted people say with Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?”  It also said, “If we walk contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to us.”

 

Pharaoh even tried to bargain with God – to negotiate the will of God.  “Once we start to negotiate the will of God and see how close we can get to the world, we have already disobeyed Him in our hearts,” it added.

 

Father, hardheartedness is such a terrible thing.  It causes us to fail to realize that every decision we make is against ourselves!  How stupid is that!  Please break hardheartedness and cause us to again seek after You.  When we turn around, bless us richly so we’ll know You are God.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 5 & 6 What To Do When Things Are Headed South

Moses and Aaron were sent by God to Pharaoh.  But they knew in advance that he wasn’t going to agree to their demands, because God had already told them Pharaoh’s heart would be hardened.  They should have expected no less!  Their first meeting, asking for a break for the people to attend a feast to God, might have taken one week to perform.  Pharaoh didn’t like it at all, and not only said no but also ordered that deliveries of brick-making supplies  cease, causing much additional work for the Israelites and beatings for the leaders, who had no way to successfully meet the new demands.  This caused them to oppose Moses.

 

Facing such opposition, Moses went back to God and spoke honestly about the situation:  “God’s chosen servants must expect opposition and misunderstanding … and leaders must know how to get alone with God, pour out their hearts, and seek His strength and wisdom.  Spiritual leaders must be bold before people, but broken before God and must claim God’s promises and do His will even when everything seems to be against the,” my commentary said.

 

Nothing God plans will fail.  “Whenever we feel that the Lord has abandoned us and doesn’t really care, we need to remember His assuring words, ‘Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you,’” it added.  “In times of despair, it’s best to ignore our feelings and simply do what God tells us to do, leaving the consequences with Him.”

 

Father, that’s where I am right now.  I hold fast to Your promises and trust You.  Your word has never failed me.  I know You are right in the middle of my situation and in control.  You’ve heard my cry.  I trust You.  Help me to cast my cares upon You, knowing You will take care of me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Exodus 4:18-31 The Turning Point

Moses got his full wake-up call, “Go back to Egypt,” from God.  He also was given a blow-by-blow account of how the king would become more and more hardhearted and he knew ahead of time that it would take the death of the king’s first-born son to make him finally relent and let the Israelites leave.  Moses and his family left Midian to do God’s will.

 

God also had called out Moses’ brother Aaron and sent him to Mount Sinai to meet Moses.  He joined him on his assignment.  Upon arrival in Egypt, they met with all of the older Jewish leaders and related what God had already done.  Moses performed the miracles for his own people, the Israelites, to have them see God’s power, “and the Israelites believed.  When they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their troubles, they bowed and worshiped Him.”

 

Father God, show me the way.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford