DEFEATING THE PLAGUES OF LIFE
Moses had before him a daunting task. He was God’s messenger to confront Pharaoh and implore him to release the Children of Israel from slavery. Not an easy task. The Pharaoh was not known for being or benevolent with people who told him how to run Egypt or what to do with those under his rule. Without God’s protection, such an activity most certainly meant execution or imprisonment.
But God was with Moses.
And He promised Moses that before it was over, Pharaoh would know that it was God’s authority that ruled Moses.
One way He would accomplish this was through the plagues.
You remember the story, don’t you?
Moses would go to Pharaoh and, speaking for God, say "Let my people go!"
And Pharaoh, with his heart hardened, would refuse.
And God would send a plague upon Pharaoh and the Egyptian people.
The water became blood. Frogs overran the nation, then lice, then flies. Livestock were killed. Boils broke out on the people. Hail wiped out their crops and what was left was eaten by locusts. And then finally, darkness covered the nation.
We could look at these plagues and see that God knows how to get our attention.
But here is the sad part. It almost didn’t work for Pharaoh. It took ten times before Pharaoh began to understand that God meant business.
But it’s also important to realize that Moses did not relish these plagues. He was given a job to do by God and he did it. He only asked God to use the plagues to help him accomplish his divinely appointed goal. We see no pride or arrogance in him and he certainly didn’t use the plagues to draw the attention to himself. He simply called down God’s judgment until Pharaoh broke and released the Hebrew people.
How many times does God give us something to do that seems almost impossible to accomplish? It’s probably nothing compared to what Moses was given but to us, it’s scary.
Yet we have to understand that God is not sadistic. He does not give us tasks that we cannot accomplish. He plans for us to succeed. He walks with us. He never plans for us to walk alone. That’s why the Bible says that with Him, all things are possible. It is His desire to take our lives and use them to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks for His glory.
But God will not work without us.
See, here is the thing.
He does not have to use us.
He is God. With a word, He spoke the world into existence and created man.
He does not need us.
So it is awesome that He uses us to carry out His plan.
But understand, when things fail, it is not God’s fault.
It’s our fault.
We go into something thinking of ourselves and allowing the weaknesses of the world to influence us and we end up doing anything but what God had set out for us to do.
I want to take a few moments to look at Moses and see some parts of his attitude that helped make him a success in what God told him to do and allowed him to be an instrument of obedience.
First of all, Moses was patient.
He knew what God had planned. He knew ever since the encounter with the burning bush that the Children of Israel would be free. But I’m quiet sure that he had no idea he would have to approach the Egyptian ruler 10 different times.
How easy it would have been to give up? How easy it would have been to walk away.. to say that life is short...it’s time to go.
We do, don’t we?
We pray for someone and when we don’t see immediate results, we give up saying that it’s not worth it.
We witness to someone and keep getting rejected (they’re not really rejecting us... they are rejecting Jesus). And we finally give up, saying it’s not going to happen.
A church member is backslidden and we pray for him and confront him in love and he doesn’t respond, and then we give up.
God tells us that He is going to provide us a new job or calling us into vocational ministry but it doesn’t happen quick enough for us. So we turn away from that calling and we give up.
We’re an impatient people.
But here is the thing:God is always patient with us.
And we are commanded to be like Him.
So we must be patient as well.
Secondly, Moses was consistent.
Don’t you imagine that Pharaoh got to the point that he could set his watch (or sundial or whatever) by Moses? He had to figure out real quick that Moses was not going to quit.
And when it comes to our relationship with God, neither should we.
Jesus told the story of the woman and the unjust judge. Each day, the woman would go before the judge and each day, the judge would say "no". Finally, one day, he relented.
We are not to give up on God. He may not answer our prayers when we want Him to, but He will answer and when He does, it will be His best. How do I know that? Because God is God and can’t give us anything less.
Moses was discerning.
Pharaoh told Moses that he would release the Children of Israel "tomorrow" (Hebrews 8:10)
But Moses knew different.
God had given him a spirit of discernment.
There are people being used by Satan everyday to try and trip other believers. Satan works through the television, peer pressure, various types of temptation.
And we have to be ever vigilant.
Peter said to watch and pray for the enemy (Satan) prowls about like a lion seeking whom he may devour.
But many times, we’re not vigilant. Many times, we allow the things of the world to distract us and to suck us in and before we know it, we find ourselves plunged into a lifestyle that is indicative of anything but the power of Christ.
How do we keep this from happening?
By asking God for a spirit of discernment.
By asking Him to whisper in our ear and to help keep us on our guard.
Moses was prayerful. Not only in the story of the plagues but in fact, in the entire incredible journey from the burning bush to the Promised Land, we find Moses always communicating, crying out to, calling on God. That was His strength. That was how he made it.
We live in a world that is full of strife and woe. We run into it on a regular basis. The writer of Hebrews said "we are hard pressed on every side". Just listen to any country song and you’ll find that the world is full of heartache.
How do we get through it?
Through prayer.
Through praying for others and others praying for us.
It’s a simple concept but it’s one we don’t use enough.
In this 30 second ATM generation, prayer seems boring, ineffective. Not worth it.
But if we really stopped and thought about it, we’ve seen the power of prayer.
We’ve seen it in our own lives.
We’ve seen it in the lives of others.
How sad that we can’t use it when it’s so easily at our disposal.
You see, there are all sorts of different ideas and such on how to be successful. Tune in late at night to the infomercials and you’ll see them (I’m not talking about the ones with people going wild).
But true success? I think Moses gives us the answer.
Be patient.
Be consistent.
Be discerning.
Be prayerful.
And walk with God.
