God started to move on behalf of
His people to free them from Egypt with mighty deeds. God attacked
every 'god' that the Egyptians had in their lives, for example the
'god' of the sun - Amon-Re, the crafty cow-goddess - Hathor
etcetera. The first 'god' to be attacked was the river Nile. They
viewed the river as a sacred river. Most of the population lived on
the banks of the Nile. It made life possible in a country that was
mostly desert by providing water for drinking, farming, bathing and
fishing. Without the Nile's water, Egypt could not have existed.
They were utterly dependant on it. Can you imagine their dismay
when God turned the whole river Nile of 3 000 mile into a mass of
blood! It must have been horrific! And not for one day, but for a
whole week! Can you imagine the stench drifting through the land
with all the fish that died as well? It must have been a sight that
they quickly wanted to forget! Their sacred river, was not so
sacred after all, but obeyed the Voice of the God of the
Hebrews.
It made me wonder, what God would
have done if we had a similar 'ten plagues' today? Which of our
'gods' would He have attacked? It seems to me that our main 'gods'
today are status, money, recognition, power etcetera. Actually
anything that takes a higher priority than God in our lives. It can
even be things like spending too much time on social media and not
having time to spend with God, or placing a higher value on our
families than on God or putting advancement of our careers ahead of
doing our work according to God's standards or even watching
distasteful movies even though we know it will not carry away God's
approval?
I'll ask again, what will God's
plagues be today? Will it be a total collapse of the monetary
system of the world placing all people on equal terms? Will the
angel of death be sent to kill all actors playing in blasphemous
films? Will it be the total collapse of all internet and internet
related software? We shudder to think about it! What devastation
will reign on the earth today if God said enough is enough and sent
ten 'modern' plagues?
Maybe a good start will be to look
at our own lives and confess the 'gods' that we have in our own
personal lives and ask God's forgiveness. Confess God as number one
in your lives again. Place Him on the seat in your life where He
belongs. He deserves the number one spot in your life! But I know
people are afraid to surrender and put Him first. For example I
know of a lot of people who don't want to surrender their families
to God, because they are afraid that God might take them away from
them. Or surrender their jobs, because they are afraid that soon
they might find themselves without employment as God decides to
test them.
But remember, God is your Father, a
tender loving Father and He wants only what is best for you. He
will do nothing that will hurt you unnecessarily. He is not like us
(thank goodness!), He doesn't want to get even like we do, He truly
forgives and forgets. He is just so glad when we choose Him! Don't
you think it is time to surrender your 'gods' to Him? It truly is
worth it.
We love You Lord, more than we can
say! We love You to the depths of our being. Please forgive us if
we don't put You first in our lives. We want to; as we know You
have our best interests in mind. Thank you Lord. In Jesus Name.
Amen