Mon.’s Devo - The Last Plague

Read: Exodus 10:1-12:13; Matthew 20:1-28; Psalm 25:1-15; Proverbs 6:6-11 God explained why he hardened Pharaoh’s heart all these times. One: so He could display his miraculous signs. Two: so they could tell their children and grand-children about how God made a mockery of the Egyptians with His signs, and Three: so they would know that He was the Lord. God sent the 8th plague of locusts and Pharaoh wanted to know who Moses wanted to take with him. Pharaoh refused to let the children go with them. Moses said, No. So, God sent the 9th plague of darkness and Pharaoh wanted them to leave without their livestock. Moses said, No. Moses told Pharaoh that the Lord would kill all of the first-born which was the plan all along. God told Moses after this, Pharaoh would kick him out of his land. The Egyptians had come to highly respect Moses and the people of Israel. In the end, they would give them all of their wealth before they left. God told Moses that this month would now be the first month of the year for them. He was giving them a new birth day. This month, Nisan or Abib was the seventh month and it was to become the first month, Tishri, which was their first month, would become the seventh. They would have a civil new year starting in Tishri and a religious new year starting in Nisan. It represented their second birth or what we call being “born again”. It represented their salvation and deliverance from bondage which is what happens when we get saved. They were to go through a ritual which would depict Jesus on the cross. They were to kill a lamb and the father was to put the blood on the sides and top of the door post. The bowl would sit in the bottom to catch the dripping blood. Then they were to go through the door into their house where they would be safe from the Angel of Death which would pass over them that night. The lamb they were to slaughter represented Jesus who was crucified for us. It was to be roasted by fire which represented the beating and cruel death he would suffer. The door represented the cross and the blood was on every place Jesus bled: his head, hands and feet. Going through the door represented surrendering to the death of Jesus and the death of yourself. They were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread which represented the fact that Jesus was sinless and the bitter herbs they were to eat represented the bitterness of the slavery they had lived under for so long. In Matthew, Jesus was giving stories to explain what the Kingdom of Heaven was like. The story was about a foreman who paid all his workers a day’s wage even though some of them worked the whole day and some of them only worked an hour. When the ones who worked a whole day complained, he told them that it was his money and he could be generous to whoever he wanted to be generous, but he had paid them exactly what he had promised. This story is for us who have served the Lord for a long time. We will get eternal life just like the person who dies on their deathbed. It also speaks into timing. The ones who worked the longest and hardest got their reward last. The ones who worked the shortest were paid first. Jesus explained that that was a law in his kingdom. We should not think it is unfair when God answers the prayers or blesses a new Christian when we who have been walking with him for years wait and wait for our prayers to be answered. Jesus was saying that it is an honor to wait and get your reward last. Jesus explained he was going to Jerusalem where he would die but rise from the dead on the third day. This flew over their heads because then the mother of James and John came to Jesus and asked him if her sons could sit in places of honor on either side of him in his Kingdom. The other disciples were so upset because they wanted those places. Jesus explained that in his Kingdom, to be a leader you had to learn to serve. The Kingdom of God is an upside down kingdom from the world’s kingdom. The world is about self-honor and self, self, self. God’s kingdom is about God and others. Lord, help us to remember this when going about our day today. Remind us that to live for You is to die to ourselves.