Sun.’s Devo - The First Plague

Read: Exodus 5:22-7:25; Matthew 18:21-19:12; Psalm 23:1-6; Proverbs 5:22-23 Moses returned to the Lord and was very discouraged. Instead of delivering them, he had caused them more work and now the people he came to help, hated him. Moses asked God why he let this happen. The Lord didn’t respond to his complaining He told him that when God was through with the Pharaoh, he would force them to leave. God always gives us the ending first. He had already told him that he would kill Pharaoh’s first born and now he told him how it would end for them. *** God also revealed another name of himself - Yahweh or Jehovah, the Eternal God. He had already revealed himself to Abraham as El-Shaddai - the God who is Enough and the All-Powerful. God remembered his covenant with Abraham and he would bring them to the land He promised them. God would rescue them from their bondage and do it with great judgments. He would take them as his people and be their God. *** Moses told all of this to the children of Israel but they wound’t listen to him because of the hard bondage they were under. The Lord sent him to Pharaoh to tell him to let the children of Israel go out of his land. Moses complained that if his own people wouldn’t listen, why would Pharaoh. *** The lineage of Reuben, Simeon and Levi were given. Moses and Aaron came from the Levites. Moses would stand in God’s place before the Pharaoh and Aaron would stand before Pharaoh as Moses’ prophet. Aaron would confirm everything he said. Moses was to say everything the Lord told him to say and then God would harden Pharaoh’s heart and he wouldn’t do what he asked. God would then bring is hand of judgment down on the land of Egypt. *** Moses went to the Pharaoh and did his first miracle with the rod, but Pharaoh’s magicians copied it. Moses snake ate up theirs. This really made the Pharaoh mad. Now God could sent the first plague. Moses was sent to stand by the bank of the Nile and meet Pharaoh when he came. He was to take his rod and tell him that the Lord God of the Hebrews says to “Let my people go, that they may serve him in the wilderness. *** Moses did and then he stretched forth his rod over the waters of Egypt - its streams, rivers, ponds ad all their pools of water and they became blood. Even the water in their buckets and pitchers became blood. The fish died and the water stunk. The magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their enchantments but they couldn’t reverse it. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he turned and went home. The Egyptians had to dig around the river for water to drink. They did this for seven days. *** In Matthew, the disciples asked Jesus about forgiveness. First they asked how many chances should they give a person who sins against them. Jesus answered how they should forgive them… seventy times seven which mean completely and thoroughly. Then he gave them a story of a man who got forgiven for a great debt but didn’t extend that forgiveness to the next person. It cost him greatly. *** God gave us marriage to represent the covenant we have with God. Jesus tried to explain that unfaithfulness is the only thing that can separate us from him. Divorce is a cutting off of a promise or covenant. There was a legal way to do it and a wrong way. God never intended us to want to break our covenant with our spouse or with him. *** Lord, may we desire to be joined to you and be one.