The Plagues in Exodus = God’s Power and Mercy

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For the past few weeks, I have been brought back several times to the Old Testament book of Exodus. Our Sunday Morning Junior High class is doing a series on the Old Testament and is currently in Exodus. Our High School class is a little over half way through a series on Exodus. Somewhere in the midst of that my Bible reading plan took me into Exodus.

If you are familiar with the book of Exodus, you know about the ten plagues that God sent to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelite people go free. At the time the Hebrews (God’s chosen people) were in slavery to the Egyptians. Pharaoh was stubborn and needed some convincing before he would part with his slave work force.

My reading plan took me to Exodus chapter 9 where God threatens to send the plague of hail if Pharaoh doesn’t agree to let them go free.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.”  [Exodus 9:13-15]

The plagues definitely show God’s power.  He sends hail that will destroy both livestock and the crops.  At the raising of Moses’ hands, God unleashes a plague that brings a lot of destruction.  God clearly shows His power.

As I read this chapter again, I see how the plagues also show God’s mercy.  While God was definitely going to bring destruction, He didn’t do it without warning.  He gave Pharaoh and the Egyptian people opportunities to avoid what He was going to do.

Notice was it says in Exodus 9:18-19:  “Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every person and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.’ ” [Exodus 9:18-19]

Anyone who would listen to God’s warning would avoid the damage done by the hail.  God was flexing His muscle, but He also revealed His heart – He gave the Egyptians a chance to protect their animals and possessions from the hail.  Those who feared God listened and brought in their slaves and livestock.

God demonstrated His power and His mercy.

Later in the chapter God shows His mercy again:

“The flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley had headed and the flax was in bloom. The wheat and spelt, however, were not destroyed, because they ripen later.”  [Exodus 9:31-32]

Not all the crops were destroyed.  God spared some of the Egyptians future food supply.

As I was brought back to the book of Exodus, I was brought back to both the power of God and the mercy of God.  Yes, God brought judgement.  Yes, God brought His power down on the people of Egypt.  But He didn’t do it without warning.  He didn’t do it without giving Pharaoh and the Egyptians a chance to respond.

The good news is that God does the same thing for us.  He continues to offer His mercy and gives us a chance to respond.  That’s good news for those of us who can be stubborn like Pharaoh.

Still Learning Patience

Over the Labor Day weekend I tried to tackle a small project at home…at least I thought it was going to be small. You think I would have learned by now that any project at home is never small. It all goes so smoothly and easily in my mind, but then when it comes to the actual doing of said project, it is neither smooth nor easy.

This particular project involved disconnecting the water softener so we could move it and get behind it to check on what we thought was a leak. I looked at the configuration of the water heater and how it was connected to the copper pipes. I looked at the owner’s manual to see how everything was to be connected so I would be able to get everything back together.

The disconnection happened smoothly enough and I thought this was going to be a pretty easy fix. We identified the problem of the leak (and perhaps have that issue addressed). Then came the reconnecting of the water softener.

That is when I realized I still need to learn patience.

What I thought would take under an hour took much longer. Each time I thought that I had things reconnected, I would turn the water back on and it would leak. I tried something else and it didn’t work. My stress level kept going us as I thought that without this connection in place, we wouldn’t have water in the house. Finally I placed a call to a friend who is good at home repair and got some insight. After a run to Lowe’s (which thankfully was still open), I got what I needed. While that finally took care of the leak, it was not without its own frustrations as well.

I realized that I still need to learn patience.

While I have learned that I am not the best at home improvement, I have been able to tackle some small repair issues. This particular project got under my skin very quickly and I found myself frustrated in a fairly short period of time.

If I would have exhibited more patience at the beginning, I think the project would have gone much smoother. Just when I think that I’m learning patience, I discovered I have some work to do. While things turned ok in the end, I failed miserably at exhibiting a patient attitude.

This weekend taught me I am still learning patience. I’m grateful God gives me opportunities to learn and is patient with me when I am not.

God the Great Story Weaver

Over the past couple of months God has been unfolding a story that has been quite unexpected. Through a series of connections – starting at the church where my wife grew up, to someone she knew briefly in college, to a re-connection with that friend over Facebook, along with a series of other seemingly random connections – God has been putting together a somewhat unlikely scenario. We are still waiting for details to play out, so I don’t want to project how the last chapters are going to unfold. But it is amazing to look back at how God is putting various pieces together and the timing in relation to those pieces and events.

As my wife and I were talking this past weekend, she commented on how God is truly the Great Story Weaver. Whether it be the timing of certain events or simply responding to a request that at the time didn’t seem to be that big of a deal, we are surprised how God orchestrates and weaves together a series of events and conversations into something unforeseen.

We don’t know how the story will continue to go, but we are excited to share it with others in the months to come. We have to realize that we are a part of the chapters being written and can’t see the end of the story. Even when we think we are at the end of a story, God is still writing. He is the Great Story Weaver.