“Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the Lord your God to take this deadly plague away from me.’”
- Exodus 10:17
Egypt experienced God’s saving power during famine, but chose to rely on the tangible things within their grasp and ability to manage instead of trusting Him. In so doing, they set up a kingdom for themselves in which they become like God: ruling and categorizing people based on appearance and executing judgment and death accordingly. God calls Moses to free His people from the misery of trusting in the changeable and fading visible world by unfolding plagues that make a spectacle of what Egypt worships. Moses’ dual heritage as a son of Israel who was raised in Egypt shows us that the difference between those who murder and those who show mercy is less a matter of race and is more a matter of mindset.
Deliverance from Egypt is about being freed from the grip of fear, reasoning, and suffering in how we see life apart from God, and being brought into an awareness of the goodness of an immortal and invisible God who is expressed in all things. Through God’s judgment on the powers and principalities of Egypt, He also reveals Himself as the Lord of redemption, who answers prayer with mercy and life.
Enjoy this video that explains more about the call of Moses and how the plagues preach not with wise and persuasive words that appeal to our limited human reasoning, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.
I recently shared about shifting perspective away from judging things as either good or bad, and moving toward seeing all things in the light of God's goodness instead. This is especially relevant to the life of Moses who, if we judged him at age forty, would have been condemned to death as a murderer. Forty years later, once time passed and a new layer of softness set in his life from becoming an exile and a father, God called Moses to deliver His people. Moses wasn’t useful in spite of his past, but because he was aware of where he began. The part he ran from became the part that displayed the grace of God. Please enjoy this reflection posted on my birthday earlier this month: As I turn 45…
