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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 6 January 2025:
Exodus 8:1 — Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”
The famous movie, Ten Commandments, quotes, “Let my people go,” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahkwQhQZWG8) but fails to include the most important part, the reason – “that they may serve me.” Like Hollywood, we tend to see the Bible from a man-centered perspective rather than a God-centered perspective. It’s not about us; it is all about God. We are not just freed by God, we are freed for faithfulness; we are not just saved by God, we are saved to serve God. God is not here to serve us or to make our lives what we want them to be. We exist to serve Him, to glorify Him, and to enjoy Him always.
Exodus 8:2 — But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs.
“God threatened a plague of frogs for a specific reason. The Egyptian goddess Heqet (or, Heket) was always pictured with the head of a frog. Among the ancient Egyptians, frogs were considered sacred and could not be killed. Egyptians worshipped the frog as a female goddess because frogs were common around the Nile, because they reproduced rapidly, and because being amphibians they are part of two worlds, creatures of both land and water. Since the Egyptians worshipped the frog, God gave them a plague of frogs.” (David Guzik)
“Though he is the Lord of hosts he has no need of powerful armies, the ministry of angels, or the thunderbolts of justice to punish a sinner or a sinful nation; the frog or the fly in his hands is a sufficient instrument of vengeance.” (Adam Clarke)
Exodus 8:5 — And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’”
Again, we see this pattern: God does miraculous things through His power, but He chooses to do it through His servants. God’s power is manifested through obedience to His word. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) The branch has not power to produce fruit apart from the vine, but the vine doesn’t produce the fruit, the abiding branch does. No abiding, no fruit. Too often Christians will use dependency upon God as an excuse not to do something which requires the power of God. So, the pray for God’s power while doing nothing, as if God hasn’t already empowered them. What does the Bible say? “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness….” (2 Peter 1:3)
Here is what the late Dallas Willard had to say about the relationship between God’s power and our responsibility to act upon His power: “We are told repeatedly by Paul to put off the old person and to put on the new. How does one do that? The answer is actually rather simple. One must intend to do it, and then one must sensibly implement the means. Putting on the new person, growing in grace, is something we must do. Appropriate action is the key. True, as Jesus said, ‘Without me you can do nothing.’ (John 15:5) But it is also true that if we do nothing it will be without him. The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude. You have never seen people more active than those who have been set on fire by the grace of God. Paul, who perhaps understood grace better than any other mere human being, looked back at what had happened to him and said: ‘By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.’ (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Exodus 8:8-9 — Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile…. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.”
An interesting example of the relationship between church and state: Moses act as the Sovereign’s ambassador and Pharoah acknowledges His power and authority given him by God. Nonetheless, Moses respects the authority also given to Pharoah by God (see Romans 13). When Pharoah continues to defy God’s ultimate authority, Moses becomes the an instrument of God’s accountability.
“This becomes a familiar pattern: when he did not keep it the first time, no doubt it became easier and easier to do the same again.” (Cole)
“Pharaoh increased his guilt. His vows heaped up his transgressions. He forgot his promises; but God did not. They were laid by in store against him.” (Spurgeon)
“As to Pharaoh, it is the story of a strong will, making itself stupid, while all the way, until the condition was utterly beyond hope of remedy, God gave him opportunity to use that strong will in surrender.” (Morgan)
Exodus 8:10 – Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.”
Again, God’s intent is to reveal Himself and to bring glory to Himself, not simply to bless His people. Here God reveals Himself as a merciful and forgiving God who nonetheless expects humility, repentance, and obedience.
Exodus 8:18-19 — The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
Believing in God and recognizing the power of God is not the same as having a faith that saves, faith that submits to God, obeys God, trusts God and loves God. James reminds us, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19) Pharaoh couldn’t deny God’s power, but his continual prideful disobedience to God had so hardened his heart, he wouldn’t even accept the counsel of closest advisors and experts. No evidence or testimony could move Pharoah to true repentance. Be very careful not to develop patterns of sin in your life which might deafen and blind you from the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the Sovereignty of the Almighty in your life.
Exodus 8:22 – But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.
When God blesses you uniquely, it is a testimony of His power to those around you. This is your testimony as His witness.
Exodus 8:23 “’Thus I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen.’”
“If only we will let the Spirit of God work unhindered, He will effect an inward division. Our tastes and desires, our hopes and aims, will become different, and we shall be aware of a growing dissimilarity between ourselves and the world.” (Meyer)
Exodus 8:25 — Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.”
Don’t compromise with the world. Here, “Pharaoh suggested a compromise, allowing Israel a holiday for their God, but demanding they stay within the land of Egypt to worship. Pharaoh wanted to negotiate with Moses (and the LORD) and find some compromise common ground.” (Guzik) “Evil is always suggesting some compromise. To listen to it, is to remain enslaved. The only way into liberty is to leave the land of evil; to go accompanied by the women and the children; and to take all property also. It is when that attitude is assumed, that men pass out from all bondage, and find the liberty which is in the purpose of God for them.” (Morgan)
Exodus 8:27 – We must go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us.
God’s authority is higher than government’s authority. Romans 13, among many other places in the Bible, teaches that we must obey Government. However, we must obey God over government.
Exodus 8:32 — But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.
God showed great patience and mercy, giving Pharoah chance after chance to repent, but Pharaoh continued to harden his heart, despite the pain and suffering he was causing himself and everyone around him. What sins are you hanging on to which are slowing becoming not just something you do but who you are? Repent, and pray that God will continue to reveal to you places in your life where you have let sin become such a part of your life you don’t even notice it, though others may be very aware.
- Psalm 139:23-24 — Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
- Psalm 26:2 — Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind.
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 — Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
- Lamentations 3:40 — Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!
- James 1:22-25 — But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
Galatians 6:3-5 — For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.
1 Corinthians 11:28-32 — Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 6 January 2025: Today, pray that God will reveal to you places in your life where you have compromised you Christlike character, where you have continued to tolerate sin, despite God’s patient warnings. Repent, and eliminate those sins from your life once and for all.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 