Tag: God’s judgment

Morning Musing: Exodus 12:12-13

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“I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the ministries I follow fairly closely has a phrase they repeat pretty regularly. It goes like this: ideas have consequences; bad ideas have victims. When we believe things that are wrong, not only will we do things that are wrong, but bad things will eventually come to us and those around us. The wrong beliefs of the people of Egypt had finally brought them to the point we find ourselves addressing this morning. God was bringing judgment against the nation in the form of the death of all of its firstborn. We have talked about it once before. We’ll talk about it one more time in the days yet to come, Lord willing. Today, let’s take a look at a couple of details in this next part of the story that give us a better picture of what was really going on here, and the nature of God’s perfect justice.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 9:1-4

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“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go in 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. But if you refuse to let them go and keep holding them, then the Lord’s hand will bring a severe plague against your livestock in the field – the horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that the Israelites own will die.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve recently gotten to see one of Jesus’ parables played out right in front of me. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, a man plants a field but then an enemy comes at night and sows a bunch of weeds in the field. The man’s response to his servants’ inquiry about whether he wants them to try to pull the weeds is to tell them to let them all grow up together, and he’ll sort them out at the harvest time. He doesn’t want to risk damaging any of the wheat. A field of wheat near my house was growing with lots of big patches of weeds. The farmer just left them there until the harvest. The idea, of course, is that God lets evil exist alongside righteousness until the end at which point He’ll sort and separate. God is patient with evil. But when it gets bad enough, God can be surgical in dealing with it. He demonstrates this ability here in the fifth plague. This one is a bit more uncomfortable than the ones before it, but it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. Let’s talk about what’s going on here.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 8:20-23

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“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh when you see him going out to the water. Tell him: This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. But if you will not let my people go, then I will send swarms of flies against you, your officials, your people, and your houses. The Egyptians’ houses will swarm with flies, and so will the land where they live. But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where my people are living; no flies will be there. This way you will know that I, the Lord, am in the land, I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will take place tomorrow.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I hate flies. Are you with me in that? A few months ago, the doors of the building where my office is located were left open for an extended period of time and flies got in. Lots of flies. And they all seemed to wind up in my office. I systematically hunted them down and killed them one by one. I had to. I wasn’t going to be able to get any work done until I did. The next plague God sent against the Egyptians was the plague of flies. With this fourth plague, what has become the standard script changes just a bit. Let’s talk about what’s different here and how God demonstration of HIs power to Pharaoh is developing.

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Morning Musing: Amos 5:1-3

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“Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel: She has fallen; Virgin Israel will never rise again. She lies abandoned on her land with no one to raise her up. For the Lord God says: The city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left in the house of Israel.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had to do something you didn’t want to do? Probably so. That’s eventually part of life for all of us. Perhaps there is someone wealthy enough to have avoided that for a long time, but it doesn’t last forever. Besides, we don’t want what is good for us on our own, so having to do what we don’t want to do is part of growing up. Given that, what kind of attitude did you bring to doing it? It wasn’t likely a very good one. There was a heaviness to your doing it. You did it grumpily, angrily even. What we find here in Amos is God having to do something He didn’t want to do. Let’s talk about why that matters.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 12:25-29

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“See to it that you do not reject the one who speaks. For if they did not escape when they rejected him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven. His voice shook the earth at that time, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This expression, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of what can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what is not shaken might remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been in an earthquake? The answer to that probably depends on where you live, just like it does with about any other natural disaster. Different areas are prone to different kinds of disasters. I never thought I lived in an earthquake-prone region until I was sitting at my desk a few years ago and everything suddenly started shaking. It wasn’t a big earthquake (at least, we were far enough from the epicenter that we didn’t shake too much where we were), but it was an eerie moment. The world was moving, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. As we come to the end of chapter 12 today, the author is talking about another shaking that’s coming. But this one will be a bit bigger than what I experienced. Let’s talk about God’s shaking things up and the hope we have in His kingdom.

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