January 23

Read Exodus 5-8 Will you let God be God?

Here we have a classic struggle between man and God. There is something in the human heart that just doesn’t want to yield to God. Our hearts no more want to find God than a robber wants to find a cop. Pharaoh is a picture of every one of our hearts. The last thing we want to do is to give up control of them to God. Because of pride we are convinced we know how to run our lives better than God. A great insight is found in the introductory notes, “Pharaoh will try to avoid God through procrastination, compromise, and insincere repentance. With each attempt at resisting God, Pharaoh’s heart gets harder, until he is unmoved by even the threat of death to his people.”

Religion in ancient Egypt was characterized by a complex polytheism system. They had thousands of gods and many of these gods were associated with agriculture. The 10 plagues were direct challenge to the worship of the Egyptian deities who were thought to protect life and property. In many ways this was the “Show Down” at OK Corral. Who is going to win? God or these Egyptian gods?

The Power of Satan is really behind this show-down 7:11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts.

God is not trying to be a bully and force people to follow him. God is trying to win our hearts. He knows that there is an eternal destiny apart from him for all that rejects his free offer of salvation. There is also a life of misery and despair for all who do not obey the manual he has given to us on life (The Bible.)

There is only one way to find peace and satisfaction in life. It is found in an old hymn we sing, “Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

Fight God from being God in your life and you will lose in this life and the life to come.