Exodus 7-9<\/a><\/p>\nDaily Thought<\/h2>\n
Then the Lord said to Moses, \u201cGo in to Pharaoh and say to him, \u2018Thus says the Lord, \u201cLet my people go, that they may serve me. ~Exodus 8:1<\/i><\/p>\n
Twice, God says to Moses, \u201cI will harden Pharaoh\u2019s heart\u201d (Exodus 4:21; 7:3), and a hard-hearted Pharaoh refuses to let God\u2019s people go, but what choice does a he have? Is he to blame? If God \u201chardens whomever he wills,\u201d the apostle Paul asked and (sort of) answered this question, \u201cwhy does God still find fault? For who can resist God\u2019s will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, \u2018Why have you made me like this?\u2019 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?\u201d (Romans 9:18-21). In other words, God is God and you are not, and he does what he wants for his purposes. Not a terribly satisfying answer, but then, God does not have to satisfy me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGod is sovereign, but that does not mean we are puppets. God does not pull our strings, but God\u2019s sovereignty and our freewill walk together, side by side. Of the ten plagues, the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh\u2019s heart in four of them; in six, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God is in charge and Pharaoh cooperates. He is no innocent; he cannot point to God and claim, \u201cYou made me do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But why ten times? Why so many plagues? The answer is in the stubbornness of Pharaoh, but also in the First Commandment, \u201cYou shall have no other gods before me.\u201d Israel worshipped God; every other nation worshipped gods. So, the one and only true God used the plagues to demonstrate that he is God like no other. The first couple plagues, the Egyptian magicians were able to mimic the work of God, as if God wasn\u2019t unique. But they couldn\u2019t keep up. By the third plague, they admitted, \u201cThis is the finger of God,\u201d and God continued seven more plagues to hammer it home. The Egyptians would never forget the Hebrew God, the God of gods, the only true God, and the Israelites would always remember their God who delivered them from bondage.<\/p>\n
God is God. That seems obvious, but it\u2019s good to remember. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDaily Prayer<\/h2>\n
My God, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the One and Only Creator of the heavens and the earth, You alone I worship and adore.\u00a0Your ways are good and there is none like You.\u00a0Why would I ever seek good from another source?<\/p>\n
May Your Name be known always in my house.\u00a0May You always be God of my family\u2013we seek no other.\u00a0May my children and my children\u2019s children follow You and worship You.\u00a0You are my Lord and Savior.\u00a0I will always remember.<\/p>\n
Amen<\/p>\n
Daily Question<\/h2>\n
What can you do to keep God in your thoughts and decisions throughout the day?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Daily Reading Exodus 7-9 Daily Thought Then the Lord said to Moses, \u201cGo in to Pharaoh and say to him, \u2018Thus says the Lord, \u201cLet my people go, that they may serve me. ~Exodus 8:1 Twice, God says to Moses, \u201cI will harden Pharaoh\u2019s heart\u201d (Exodus 4:21; 7:3), and a hard-hearted Pharaoh refuses to let … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Hammer It Home”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[414,29],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-thought","tag-free-will","tag-sovereignty"],"yoast_head":"\nHammer It Home - 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