Skip to main content

 

As we continue...from Noah to the Exodus is a huge leap forward in time, but a revelation to ponder. If you have ever read the Book of Exodus in the Bible, you’ll see that God is completely trustworthy. He does what He promises to do. Hundreds of years before, God told His covenant partner, Abraham, that Abraham’s offspring would be “strangers” in a foreign land and would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years, but then God would punish the nation that had enslaved them and they would come out and away from that nation with great wealth. (Genesis 15:14-16)

Imagine being enslaved in a pagan culture for 400+ years as slaves. You’d develop a “slave mentality”. The Israelites were enslaved longer than the USA has existed. They were accustomed to hearing about and even being influenced by the gods of Egypt. Please understand, there was spiritual power at work here. The power behind the Egyptian gods was demonic but it was real. The 10 judgements, or 10 plagues that fell upon Egypt, were judgements to show that the gods of Egypt were not worthy of consideration let alone worship. God alone is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. There is no other God but Him alone.

The 10 plagues judged the 10 most worshipped demon-gods of Egypt:

Hapi, the god of the Nile…water turned to undrinkable blood
Heket, the god of fertility who was portrayed with the head of a frog…frogs everywhere
Geb, the god of the earth/dust…dust turned into gnats/lice
(God makes a distinction between the Israelites here & NONE of the following plagues affected them)
Khepri, the god of creation/rebirth who was portrayed with the head of a fly…flies everywhere
Hathor, the goddess of love and protection who was portrayed with the head of a cow…livestock struck dead
Isis, the goddess of medicine and peace…festering boils on everyone, making even the Egyptian priests ceremonially unclean
Nut, the goddess of the sky…burning hail stones from the sky destroying the barley & flax and trees
Seth, the god of storms and disorder…locusts devouring the wheat crop and the rest of the green vegetation in Egypt
Ra, the sun god…the most worshipped god in Egypt…darkness so profound it was palpable for three days
Pharoah…he was worshipped as a god, as the incarnate son of Ra. His firstborn was his heritage and hope. Pharoah articulated this judgement. The first-born of man and beast died that night as God passed over Egypt…all except those who took God at His Word, believed and acted on that Word.

The Lord God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is the only true God. He alone can satisfy the deepest needs of humanity. God will dismantle anything in our lives that has, in essence, become an idol, anything other than Him that we try to derive worth, identity, purpose and meaning from for daily living. No one else and nothing else can take His place in our lives if we ever expect to, once again, become fully human. Only God can save, redeem, rescue, restore and heal. More about this tomorrow as we look at God’s rescue of His covenant people.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

 HIS POWER...HIS PROMISE Helping people walk in the Spirit the devotional below is seminal! The devotion below is today from Oswald Chambers. I makes me think of some I have known that have assumed that the Lord doesn’t want them empowered by the Holy Spirit or that He won’t manifest Himself in them because they have reasoned otherwise. Given ministry opportunities to have the Holy Spirit confirm the Word of God with demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power, they rely on how they feel, their experience thus far and not on the reality that the will of God in mission and ministry is either done in the Holy Spirit’s Power or not at all. Our capacity to do what Jesus does has nothing to do with our imagined capacity, but upon the indwelling power of God through is. Now to Him who is able to do far above and beyond what we could ever imagine or think, by His power at work in us now, to Him be glory…   Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus told the parable of the bags of gold as a warning ...
Post a Comment
Read more
 HE IS RISEN! IT IS FINISHED! After the Israelites had passed through the Red Sea by God opening the way for them to be saved, the whole of Pharoah's army, his horsemen and chariots pursued God's people into the opened way. Once they were all in, the waters flowed back into their place with suddenness and fury. Not one of the enemies survived. All perished in those waters. When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, all that sin contained, the full measure of the rebellion of mankind for all time, all the wickedness that was ever in human hearts were absorbed into the Lamb of God as He died our death, received our just judgement from God for all time, taking all that sin and death contained. In Him, sin and death died once and for all. They were overwhelmed, covered and drowned in the sea of His precious blood, poured out for the sin of the whole world. Not one enemy remained alive, all were stripped of their power to hold us in slavery to sin any longer. All their weapons were confis...
Post a Comment
Read more
 CONVICTION When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, He doesn't ask us to make it right. We can never add to what Jesus Christ has already done on the cross to deal with the totality of our sin. The Holy Spirit asks us to accept the truth, turn from sin and turn to the Lord. Then He will make it right. Remember Who our faith depends on from start to finish, that salvation is of the Lord alone. Laying aside every hindering weight and the sin that so easily trips us up (different for everyone), we are to run the race He has given us to run with perseverance, fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is the One upon Whom our faith depends on from start to finish. He will never run out of eyesight any more that a good shepherd would go ahead of the sheep he was leading where they couldn't see to follow. Hebrews 12:1-2 "Surrounded then as we are by a great cloud of witness to the life of faith, let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet, and let us r...
Post a Comment
Read more