The Plagues

As I was studying the plagues in the book of Exodus today several thoughts came to my mind: What if God were to do something of that sort today? What would the plagues of today look like and what would they strike down? The purpose of the plagues in the book of Exodus were to strike down the false gods of the Egyptians and show that the God of the Israelites is the true God (see Ex 12:12 and Num 33:4). So the question is what are our false gods today? We might see the crash of our economy because of our worship of money. We might see massive loss of jobs because of our worship of success. We might see a strike against the sexual act because of our obsession with the pleasure of such acts. What if God sent a series of plague to you specifically, what false gods would he have to strike to show you that He is the true God?

After nine plagues all resulting in the hardening of Pharaoh's heart the most painful of all plagues hits: the death of the first born. God tells his people that in order to save their children they must sacrifice a lamb and spread the blood of the lamb on their doorpost. When the angel of death comes he will see the blood, recognize those families as faithful and pass over that house. What God is asking is not as simple as we might think. The lamb was seen as an Egyptian God and one that was not to be killed. By sacrificing that lamb and spreading its blood on the door the people were advertising to the world that they were rejecting the false gods. Doing so was a risk on their lives. They had to decide between risking their lives and serving the true God. Would we be willing to do this today? If God asked us to publicly risk our lives to show that we serve God would we? And what would like look like today? Maybe it would mean risking rejection because we speak the truth. Maybe it would mean risking appearing "hip" because we refuse the fashions of today that fail to glorify God. Maybe it would mean risking our reputation because we refuse to be present at events were drunkenness and sin abound. Maybe it would mean risking the acceptance of our family in order to follow the vocation God has for us. Maybe it would mean risking the pleasures of the world to fully dedicate our lives to God. Only you know what God is asking you to risk in order to fully serve him.

Through this series of plagues we read over and over again that Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Why does the truth of God harden his heart while softening others? Here is one say to see it: the sun falling on clay will make the clay hard but the same sun falling on wax will melt and soften that wax. The light of God is shining on every heart, the question is do we have hearts of clay or wax? Will be refuse God's truth and grow hard because we don't want to accept it or will our hearts be softened and mold to be more like his as the light reveals the truth to our hearts?