Tag: God’s character

Digging in Deeper: Exodus 10:1-4

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“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may do these miraculous signs of mine among them, and so that you may tell your son and grandson how severely I dealt with the Egyptians and performed miraculous signs among them, and you will know that I am the Lord.” So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may worship me. But if you refuse to let my people go, then tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

C.S. Lewis once wrote that in the end there will only be two kinds of people: those who say to the Lord, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom the Lord will say, “Thy will be done.” It makes for a wonderful and thoughtful bit of prose, but he’s not quite right. His point was that those who finally oppose the Lord will be able to be eternally separated from Him. In other words, their will to be separated will be accomplished. Beyond that, God’s will is what will happen. Pharaoh arrogantly thought he could oppose the Lord’s will and do what He wanted. God wanted him to know that he was going to lose this contest of wills and power. Because he hadn’t listened thus far, God was about to turn up the volume even more.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 9:13-18

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“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Tell him: This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. For this time I am about to send all my plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like me on the whole earth. By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth. However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you my power and to make my name known on the whole earth. You are still acting arrogantly against my people by not letting them go. Tomorrow at this time I will rain down the worst hail that has ever occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We’ve talked about this before, but one of the reputations God has resulting from people’s reading the Bible without understanding is that He is all anger and wrath. He looks for opportunities to judge, and delights in raining down excessive punishment on people for the smallest and silliest things. At a glance, the plagues in general, but especially this seventh plague seems to be a case in point of this. After all, what else are we to call a deadly hailstorm? Yet this plague is set within the longest narrative any of them have so far received, and this narrative paints a very different picture of God than a mere cursory reading reveals. Let’s talk today about God’s character, the judgment for sin, and why you really can’t understand one unless you understand the other.

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Morning Musing: Psalms 103:8-10

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“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One last reflection from camp today, and this one will be short because we are hitting the road early. We have talked this week about having a pure heart that reflects God’s holiness, a humble heart that willingly acknowledges who God is, a trusting heart that is willing to seek God’s kingdom ahead of our own, and today we are talking about a willing heart that is ready to live in obedience to God’s command. This morning, though, I want to reflect for a few moments on yesterday’s topic: a merciful heart. Let’s go beyond the surface.

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Morning Musing: Amos 5:7

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“Those who turn justice into wormwood also throw righteousness to the ground.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in a society that highly values the idea of justice. It’s baked into our very existence as a nation. Our Pledge of Allegiance closes by describing our country as a place of “liberty and justice for all.” One of our first and most popular superheroes’ slogans for a long time was that he stood for “truth, justice, and the American way.” Our ideals as a nation are indeed high and mighty. There’s a reason far, far more people leave their homes around the world in an attempt to live here – even illegally so – than the other way around. And yet, justice isn’t always something we get right. No society does. Let’s talk this morning about justice, God’s passion, and our aim as followers of Jesus.

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Morning Musing: Matthew 5:44

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“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever tried to count all the commands in the Bible? You could probably google it. I’m sure someone has made at least a good faith effort at figuring out the number. I suppose it could also be a bad faith effort as well where a critic is trying to justify their criticism, but you get a count all the same. Why all the commands? I mean, God is God, but why can He just let us figure things out and live our lives on our own? It gets frustrating to run into one of His commands every time we start running down a particular road. Does it really even matter if we try? Let’s take a few minutes this morning to think about it.

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