Thurs.’s Devo - The Last Three Plagues

Read: Ex. 10:1-12:13, Matt. 20:1-28, Ps. 25:1-15, Pr. 6:6-11 We are down to the last three plagues and Pharaoh started negotiating. When he was threatened with locusts, he wanted to know who Moses wanted to take with him. Learning Moses wanted to take everything and everybody, he put his foot down and told him only the men could go. He got the locusts. He repented and when the locusts were gone he refused to release them. So, God sent the darkness for three days. Pharaoh tried to bargain again with Moses again and said they had to leave their cattle. He wanted some guarantee they would come back. Moses had no intention on coming back. God promised one last plague and then, he said, they would drive them out, men, cattle, and all their possessions. The last plague was the death angel that would pass over and kill the first born of every house that didn’t have the blood on the lintels of the door. Every preparation for this night was specific and foreshadowed the cross. The Lord told Moses and Aaron that this month was to be to them the first month of the year. He was instituting a new calendar. It was actually the 7th month, Nisan, but God was calling it the first month. The Jews, to this day have two calendars. One is the civil calendar where the first month is Tishri and the 7th month - Nisan. Their spiritual calendar has the first month as Nisan and the 7th month as Tishri. So what does all this mean to us? I have a natural birthday - Sept. 23 and I have a spiritual birthday, May 28, when I was born again. God was showing them that when they appropriate Jesus as their lamb and apply His blood on the doorposts of their hearts they will get a new birthday also. Doing this is the only way to get delivered from the bondage of your past. For the Israelites, their past was Egypt. In Matthew, Jesus explained that you can enter into the kingdom of God at anytime during your life and get the full benefit of the kingdom. Lord, thank you that no one who puts their hope in you will be put to shame.