The Tenth Plague

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

And that night at midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon.  Even the firstborn of their livestock were killed.  Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt.  There was not a single house where someone had not died.  Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night.  “Get out!” he ordered.  “Leave my people—and take the rest of the Israelites with you!  Go and worship the Lord as you have requested.  Take your flocks and herds, as you said, and be gone. Go, but bless me as you leave.”  All the Egyptians urged the people of Israel to get out of the land as quickly as possible, for they thought, “We will all die!”  Exodus 12:29-33

Over the course of time from Moses’ first meeting with Pharaoh to deliver God’s message to let my people go, the Egyptian monarch moved from dismissive stubbornness to defeated sadness.  He was Pharaoh over the most powerful dynasty in the world, and he conceded defeat to the slaves he owned.  Considering the events of the 10 plagues, who could remain fixed in his own glory?  Pharaoh was pushed into the most uncomfortable tenuous corner.  There was no command he could issue with his own firstborn on the mortician’s table.

Most of the plagues are not uncommon, even in our day.  Pestilences and plagues are something every human faces in every era; we’ve just come through Covid-19, and what other age hasn’t dealt with similar challenges.  Famine caused by pests and weather are common also.  But the first and last of the plagues are the most pointed; the first should have been enough, and the last, too much.

Of the ten plagues (Blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Pestilence, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Killing of the firstborn), the first plague of blood in the Nile, struck at Egypt’s religious beliefs.  The Nile river was Egypt’s source of food.  Turning it into blood was a horrifying demonstration of how vulnerable they were to having life crumble before them.  Pharaoh thought he was a god, but God was demonstrating how little divinity flowed through Pharaoh’s human veins. 

The next eight plagues were nuisances to Pharaoh, because they only affected Egypt’s people and resources.  But with each step closer to the tenth plague, Pharaoh’s stubbornness brought his people closer to the kind of unspeakable judgment which no Egyptian citizen could even imagine.  And then it happened!

The tenth plague, the death of firstborns in each Egyptian household, was connected to the first plague in the sense that there was blood.  Life is in the blood[1] according to Scripture, and blood in the Nile was a threat to the lives of Egyptian food sources, and the emptiness of their religious superstitions.  But it was a foretaste of the tenth plague, the lifeblood of their heritage.  As attested by the pyramids, the afterlife, and continued heritage of Pharaohic divine rule was as important to those people as their next breath.  In the instant Pharaoh refused God’s 10^th invitation to let His people go, the Egyptian king became the murderer of Egypt’s firstborn population – including his own household!

For You Today 

God’s recorded Word is there to help us understand how to live in His Kingdom, and how to understand His ways:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  2 Timothy 3:16

So, do what Pharaoh refused; when God speaks…listen…and obey!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Images:  Wikimedia.org   Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

---

[1] The life of every creature is in its blood.  Leviticus 17:14

By Faith

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.  It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger.  He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.  It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.  Hebrews 11:24-28

Moses, as Scripture points out here, was a great man of faith.  What God did with, and through this man, who by faith would not be distracted from the mission God placed in his hands, was astounding.  Born under a death sentence, Moses’ mother released her baby boy to the hands of God, floating down the river in a basket.  Taken into Pharaoh’s house, and raised as royalty, Moses eventually found out his true heritage and was convinced, by faith, to share in the suffering of his people, rather than the security of earthly power. 

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote:  More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.   Faith is also given that kind of credit for doing the impossible.  However, neither prayer, nor faith, are stand-alone heroes.  It’s easy to get the wrong idea about things when you try to make out of them something different than that for which they were created.  Faith is no exception to that rule.

Imagine a group that decides to worship turnips.  They develop a deep faith that turnips can cure everything, solve every problem, and make them tall, handsome, strong, and wise.  They write about the turnip in their news articles, carry turnip seeds and greens in their knapsacks, and develop an unshakable trust in turnips to produce a life of success, health, and happiness.  And when they die, they want to be buried, or cremated with…turnips!  Their faith is impeccably honest, unwavering, and sincere.  And they’re as crazy as bedbugs.

Faith is only as strong as the object of that faith.  Prayer is only powerful if you’re praying to the true source of power.  In the case of Moses, he tried to latch on to his heritage with faith in himself to make things right.  He broke up an argument between two of his people and it led to him forcing the issue and killing a soldier.  He became an exiled ex-royal because of his misplaced faith.  But, living on the back-side of nowhere’s wasteland, God spoke to him out of a burning bush.  And Moses placed his faith unreservedly in God’s hand.  It was then the mighty power of God began to work through the man who God would use.

For You Today

Faith, in self, or in turnips, may while away the days and give you something to do, but it will never lead to accomplishing the purpose for why God put you on this planet.  Make certain that your faith, and the purpose of your prayers, are sourced and secure in Jesus Christ.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:  God's Mountain - Moses' Faith and An Unusual Child      

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Naomi's Joy

[1]

Friday, November 9, 2018

Then the elders and all the people standing in the gate replied, “We are witnesses!   May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended!  May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.  And may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.”   So Boaz took Ruth into his home, and she became his wife.  When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son.  Then the women of the town said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord, who has now provided a redeemer for your family!  May this child be famous in Israel.  May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age.  For he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons!”  Naomi took the baby and cuddled him to her breast.  And she cared for him as if he were her own.  The neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!”  And they named him Obed.  He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David.  Ruth 4:11-17(NLT)

Naomi knew joy and sorrow.  She had the joy of marriage and the birth of two sons.  She knew the hardship of having to leave home and live in a foreign place because of hard times.  She also knew the joy of having her sons get married, welcoming two daughters-in-law into the family.  Then Naomi came face-to-face with one of life’s harsher turns; both her husband and two sons died.  This sorrow was compounded by the laws of the day; Naomi and the wives of her dead sons were reduced to begging.  Life was harsh, and it was hard to fight against the bitterness of it all.

And then there was the redeemer, Boaz!

The fact is, when your life is pushed up against the wall of hard circumstances, you will turn in a lot of different directions until something works out.  To Naomi’s credit, she turned to the covenant God made with Israel.  She went back home with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, to the land of her dead husband’s relatives.  There, under Moses’ law[2] she would find protection for the two of them. 

But Naomi got so much more than protection.  As it turned out, Boaz, a relative of her deceased husband, became the kinsman-redeemer for this family, receiving Ruth, Naomi’s daughter-in-law as his wife.  This safeguard was JHWH’s protection in two ways.  First, it ensured Naomi and Ruth would not have to wander and beg; they had a safe home.  Second, it protected the family heritage. 

And, in this case, what a heritage!  A child is born, Obed … who would have a son, Jesse.  Jesse’s son, David, would tend sheep, and then be a shepherd to Israel as King.  Generations later, in a stable, on a cold winter’s night, David’s lineage would receive gifts from other kings and nobles while the angels sang to welcome Messiah, kinsman redeemer of humanity.  And this is the One who would make it possible for us to not wander and beg in our sin!

Of course, Naomi’s joy was simply wrapped up in holding her little grandson, ten toes and fingers, diapers that needed changing, feeding, burping, and the comfort of a living hope for the future.  Naomi’s joy was heralded by the simple cry of newborn Obed, whose name means servant of God.

I’m not sure Naomi could have envisioned all that would come out of Obed’s life, or that her name would be more than something to look up on Ancestry.com.  She was probably just happy to have a safe home and a new chance for her life and Ruth’s.  Things had turned for the worse in that foreign land; now God had provided a blessing beyond her dreams.

There seems to have been a lot of that kind of thing in Naomi’s family.  Mary, Ruth’s great-granddaughter, many times removed, also was confused with the struggle that came from an angel one night.  But, she also got to hold a newborn life; a child Who was destined to become eternal life for a world confused in the darkness of sin.

For You Today

When life turns harsh it’s hard to look down through the generations and leave it all to God.  But that’s exactly what may be on your plate today.  So, remember the old proverb that is an epitaph of Ruth’s love expressed to Naomi, as she invested her life with her mother-in-law:  It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Deuteronomy 25:5

Children of Promise

[1]

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!  Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children.  For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.  This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God.  Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.  Romans 9:6-8^(NLT)

Paul the Apostle wrote this letter to the church at Rome to help them separate fact from fiction about what it means to be in the family of God; in doing so Paul made hamburger of a really sacred cow among his Jewish friends.  He literally trashed the idea of being favored in Heaven just because you are part of Abraham’s family tree. 

That really poked the hornet’s nest in Paul’s day.  In fact, it is that same concept which caused the religious leaders in Jerusalem to plot the murder of Jesus.  And it would prove to be the same reason for Paul’s later execution.  And if truth is to be maintained, it is this same central point that fuels most human conflicts:  who is in, and who is out!

I grew up in a smallish town where you couldn’t hide.  In the 1950’s a young boy in Smithtown who couldn’t behave in school, or was disrespectful to an adult in the General Store, or perpetrated some other heinous crime on society, well that boy would have to face judgment that evening at home; everyone knew your family, and the news reached your Mom and Dad before you got there.  There was no place to hide; you were your parent’s child!

Now, that’s lineage.  If you are of the same blood line your DNA may mean you look just like your Dad or Mom – red hair, blue eyes, short or tall.  You have things in common, like your address, family name, and even voice characteristics.  When our girls were young, if I called home from an evening meeting at the church, it didn’t make a difference which one answered the phone; they both sounded like their mother.

But, says Apostle Paul, that kind of DNA stuff is only lineage, and it bears no weight in Heaven.  Paul pointed us in the direction of promise, meaning those who would fulfill God’s purposes; these are the authentic children of promise.

And so, the natural question is:  What are the promise and purposes of God?  And the simple answer is found in what is arguably the best known verse in Scripture:

“For this is how God loved the world:  He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16^(NLT)

The promise of God is a Savior to deal with our sin, and that fulfils the purpose God has for us – eternal life.  To be a child of God means entering that purpose and promise by faith.  It has nothing to do with being born into a family physically; it has everything to do with being adopted into God’s forever family as you place your faith in the fact that Christ loved you enough to die in your place. 

That’s what it means to be a child of promise.

And that’s why it doesn’t matter what family you were born into physically – rich, poor, churchy or criminal…it matters that you accept the promise and are adopted into the family that will never die.

For You Today

People make – and break promises all the time.  You won’t find God doing that!  His purpose in the promise is to bless you by drawing you close to Him with all His love and goodness.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Heritage

 [1]

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

 Timothy, I thank God for you—the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did.  Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.  I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted.  And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.  I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice.  And I know that same faith continues strong in you.    2 Timothy 1:3-5 (NLT)

Have you ever looked through that box of old black and white photos – the creased, dog-eared and worn memories of those “yesterday” members of your tribe?  Paul did that in his letter to his young protégé, Timothy.  He showed the young pastor something to which he could “hold-on” in the lean times.

As we stood munching on hot dogs last Sunday afternoon, a member of one of the churches I serve remarked about the early days at that church, and how the memories of the long cement tables in the side yard of the church used to be spread with food from all over the community.  The boys would run (seldom after the girls…mostly after a ball or some made-up game).  The men and women would talk, smile and laugh. 

And it was all a matter of passing along the faith that filled us.  That’s why we gather at church in the first place.

Sunday was a record-breaker – 71^o in mid-February!  And we were standing near the fireplace in the church fellowship hall….a roaring-hot fireplace!  We had planned a February youth hot dog and marshmallow roast; and roasting we were!  I suggested (only halfway joking) that we turn on the air conditioner to enjoy that fire!

But, as I stood there being warmed by more than the fellowship, I recalled other times of being over-warmed in the little house where I grew up.  We had a kerosene heater in the basement that projected its welcome warmth on cold winter days to a single vent in the middle of the four room home.  There was no middle ground…you were roasting if you were near it, or shivering if you weren’t. 

It usually requires a moment of nostalgia to remind me of that kerosene heater.  But there was another kind of warmth there I can never forget; it was the kind Lois passed on to Eunice, who, in turn passed it on to Timothy.  It was the warmth of the Gospel and the love of Jesus. 

My Mom and Dad were like Timothy’s family.  I recall so-often the teaching and living of their faith as the example of keeping focused on Christ.  That kind of leadership in the home makes for a strong heritage of faith.  My first introduction to the love of God that brought salvation to a dark, hostile and cold world came from the heritage of hearth and home.

And it still warms me! 

And it has little to do with nostalgia – it’s all because the heritage of faith is living, active and sharper than any two-edged sword; the faith delivered once to the saints is a fire that lives within.

For You Today

Whether your upbringing was of the “Norman Rockwell” kind of memory that makes one yearn for the past – or if it was the kind that makes you want to forget the past, remember that Jesus was there, drawing you to His love.

That’s your real heritage!

---

[1] By Superior National Forest, via Wikimedia Commons