FBT Daily Devotional: Exodus 8

FBT Daily Devotional

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Okay, so this is another installment, as I said, on As the Bible Turns. And I'm if I had to give this a title, I'm gonna call it you. Because you're gonna probably hear me say that a bunch of times while I'm teaching this. Um, so it starts in Exodus chapter 8 with the second plague, the plague of the frogs. And then the first verse says, And the Lord spoke to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say to him, Thus says the Lord, if we could mute that well, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. Um, and it says, Let my people go that they may serve me. Now, a lot of times when we uh hear this quoted, we hear the first part. People say, Let my people go, but they don't put on the rest of it that they may serve me, right? So remember the whole scripture needs to be read when we're talking about this, so we know the context and the reason behind why it was said, Let my people go, why? So that they may serve me. This is God's instruction that he gave Moses to give to Pharaoh, and it says, But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs. Ew. So the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into your houses, oh, your servants, on your people, into your ovens, into your needy moles, and the frogs shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants. Ew. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, say to Aaron, stretch out your hand with the rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the pines. And the frogs came up unto the land of Egypt. Now imagine this. We're not just talking about a frog here, a frog there. These frogs were everywhere. The land was thick with them. Everywhere you look, frogs in your kitchen frogs, in your food, frogs, everywhere you turned, you would just cut just frogs in the bed, in the everywhere. Ew. So then the magicians uh they did so with their enchantments and brought up frogs of the land of Egypt. So pause. If the problem is that we have frogs, then why for are y'all bringing forth more frogs? Is it because Satan can only add to the problem, but he cannot bring forth a solution? Hmm. So then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Entreat the Lord for me and take away the frogs of mine from the people, and I'll let your people go that they may sacrifice to the Lord. Well, praise God, he got the whole purpose. I'll let them go so that they can sacrifice to the Lord. And then then Moses said to Pharaoh, Accept the honor, saying, When this when we shall intercede for you, for your servants, and for your people to destroy the frogs for you and for your houses that they may remain in the river only. And this is what Pharaoh said, Tomorrow. Like Pastor Carrie said when he taught this, sin makes you stupid. So if I am inundated with nasty, slimy, smelly frogs, and you tell me that I have the ability to say when these frogs are gonna be gone, yesterday. Get them out of here now. Not tomorrow, but Pharaoh says tomorrow. So then um Rosa says, Let it be according to your word. Okay, so then he goes out and he entreats on God for Pharaoh, and all the frogs die. Notice that the frogs die, but it's not like he told them, Okay, hop back into the river where you came from. No, now they're on dead frogs everywhere, and they have to get rid of the dead frogs piling them all over the place, place that was funky and stinky because of all these nasty frogs. Ew. But guess what? After relief came, Pharaoh hardened his heart again. But think about it, how many times have we done that? You're in a situation, you're in a crisis, you're in a problem, and you cry out to the Lord, Lord, help me, Lord, save me. And then he does that, and maybe at and for a little while, you're doing all right, you're not going back into that temptation, you're not going back to that test of that trial. But then after everything seems to be all right, the coast is clear. Maybe you just forget in your mind what you've been through. Then you go back to do that thing that you weren't supposed to be doing in the first place. Every now and again, we get a temptation, we slip. So, yes, Pharaoh hardened his heart here, but let's just remember that sometimes we kind of fall too. Then let's go to the third plague. We're talking about the plague of the lice. So then the Lord says to Moses, Go uh, say to Aaron, stretch out your rod, strike the dust of the land, and uh that's maybe they become as lice throughout all the land of Egypt. Oh, and that's what they did, and he stretched out his head with a rod, struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. Man was made from the dust of the earth. The same dust that made man is the same dust that God used to make these lice. So, something that he used to create something as wonderful and intricate as man. He also used to create these lice that could be a plague and a nuisance unto Pharaoh and his people because they would not listen and adhere to what he wanted them to do. So here comes these magicians that try to work their enchantments and stuff, but they could not bring forth those lice, and then they tell Pharaoh, this is the finger of God. Well, it was with the finger of God all the other times, too. But at the same time, I'm glad y'all recognize that this is something out ofneath y'all's black magic, your magicians, your sorceries, all the things that you were doing. This is of a higher power. I'm glad you are starting to get the picture, even though you don't have the whole picture yet. So then, um, after that plague right there, you know, Pharaoh says the same thing. Um, we're entreat the Lord for us, whatever, get rid of that. And then once they get rid of the life, then he hardens his heart once again. Then we got these flies. I'm a southern girl, I grew up in South Georgia, so I know a whole lot about flies. So it tells you um Moses, Lord tells Moses, rise early in the morning, stand before Pharaoh, and when he comes out of the water, then say to him, Thus says the Lord, let my people go that they may serve me, or else I wouldn't. If you don't let them go, swarms of flies will be everywhere on your servants in your houses, all over the place, right? But look what he does here in verse 22. And in that day I will set apart, set apart, we are set apart uh the land of Goshen in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, in order that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the land, I will make a difference between my people and your people tomorrow. This sign shall be, and that's exactly what the Lord did. It says, Thick swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh. Now imagine if one little fly gets in your house, you are looking for the swap flash water, a newspaper, or something to get that fly out of your house because you don't want one fly in your house. Imagine thick swarms of flies, so many flies all over the place that you probably can't even see your own self. They're clinging to you, they're clinging to your stuff, they're everywhere. But over there in Goshen, where God's people are, not one fly, they over there chilling. They looking like, oh, that looks bad over there. They have they having a hard time over there in Egypt. I don't know. I wonder when Pharaoh is gonna wise up and decide to let us leave here so that uh God won't keep doing these plagues on them. So then follow Moses called to excuse me, Pharaoh called to Moses and Aaron, and he says, Go sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses was like, Nope, we can't do that because if we do that, then we will sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians. And if we do that, then won't they be angry and try to stone us? And he said, We'll go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice as the Lord has commanded us. We can't do what you're telling us to do, we have to adhere to God and what he says completely. And then he says, Okay, I'll let you go that you may sacrifice the Lord in the wilderness. Um, but don't go that far, just intercede for me. So Moses said, Okay, I'm gonna um go out and I'm gonna entreat for you, and then we're gonna get rid of these swarms of the flies to depart from here. And um, he says, From your servants and from your people, but let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully anymore and not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. So, of course, he entreats for him once again to get rid of those flies. And once those flies go, guess what Pharaoh did? He hardened his heart again. Now, oftentimes, like I said, right, psych. Oftentimes, you know, we get into these situations and problems, and we have to be very careful with that. When we um um get into these situations and we get into these problems, and we ask the Lord to help us get out of them, and of course, the Lord is good, the Lord is merciful, the Lord is awesome. So every single time that you ask, just like the children of Israel did, like you will see when the later chapters, when they especially in the book of Judges, when they go into these cycles and then they ask for a deliverance and they humble themselves and they come to the Lord, then God rescues them every single time. As He rescues us every single time, it's not in His nature not to do that. He's going to come and rescue us, He's going to come and take care of us, but we have to be careful that we don't tip the scale so much that judgment comes against us because we kept playing that game of save me, Lord. Okay, I'm gonna go on back, save me, Lord, okay. I'm gonna go on back, save me, Lord. Oh, I'm gonna go on back again. Because at some point while you are saying what you're saying in the moment, trying to get out of a crisis, you may have made a vow, and God takes vows very seriously. It says in the word that it's better not to vow at all if you're not going to keep your vow, just let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything other than that is of the evil one, is what the Bible teaches us. So if we're going to make a vow, if we're going to say something to the Lord, then we have to um be ready to keep up what we said because uh you know God, He's not a man that He shall lie, neither the Son of Man that He should repent. If He says He's gonna do it, He's gonna do it. And guess what? We are made in the image and likeness of God. So if we are made like God is, God wants us to behave and act as He does, He wants us to follow His example, and of course we know Jesus. Jesus is God personified in the earth. He walks around as a man anointed by God, but he was very um forthright with that only say what I hear my father say, only do what I see my father do. Other than that, I'm not participating in it because I am following his example, his lead, and I am letting him lead and guide me. I'm letting the Holy Spirit go through me. I'm doing all these things that I need to do to help people because this is what he sent me to do. I'm here to accomplish the work that he has given me to do, and I'm going to do it, and I'm gonna do it in perfection because that is the whole point, the whole purpose. I'm here to show you all the way, the truth, and the life. That is me, and you get to see it through me, and you get to feel it through me. So, as we see in here that in this uh episode, ew, the different plagues that came upon Pharaoh and the people of Egypt and the sorrow that came upon them, just because Pharaoh chose to harden his heart. Recognize that he chose to harden his heart at any point he could have turned, at any point it could have eased up, at any point he could have listened and heeded the word of Aaron and Moses, but he chose to harden his heart and he kept his whole people inside of that bondage with him. Now, of course, this is God, so you know eventually deliverance is going to come to the Israelites because that's what God does, He sets free the captives, and that's what He's going to continue to do for all time and eternity. But for those who will dare to come against God, woe unto you. And with that, I will yield.