stumbled – Praying Pint

42.a. “Let My People Go” – 10. Promise of Death of all Firstborn of Egypt

Exodus 11:1  The LORD said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. So Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again.   But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, you and all the people who follow you.’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

Deuteronomy 4:34   Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

Job 27:16-17   Though he heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay,  he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.

Psalms 24:1  The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

Psalms 105:37   Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.

Proverbs 13:22   A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.

Job 34:20    In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

Isaiah 42:13    The LORD goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.

Psalms 105:36    He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their strength.

Psalms 135:8   He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast;

Proverbs 21:13    Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.

Revelation 6:16-17   calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Despite the great calamity to come, God would grant the Egyptians the ability to see the situation as it really was: the fault of their own Pharaoh, not the fault of Moses or the children of Israel. Here for the fourth time we are told that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 9:12, 10:20, 10:27, and 11:10). Yet God never hardened Pharaoh’s heart until he first hardened it against the LORD and His people (Exodus 7:13, 7:22, 8:15, 8:19, 8:32, and 9:7). (Guzik)

“The Lord hath put a difference between those who are his people and those who are not. There are many distinctions among men which will one day be blotted out; but permit me to remind you at the outset that this is an eternal distinction.” (Spurgeon)

Much could be said about the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart and passages that show it to be of himself and passages that show it to be of God. A person can be tempted to say that it is not fair, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. But, clearly, Pharaoh hardened his own heart first. He did have free will to choose and he chose to defy God and the signs and wonders performed in His name. Let this be a warning and witness to all – a hardened heart does not start out like stone. No, it is soft and pliable but with continual and repeated intentional choosing to defy God, deny God, things of God, God’s creation, and God’s Word (written and proclaimed) the heart becomes harder and harder and harder. At some point, there is no possible softening. This is known to God.

God knows the beginning from the end. He knows who is His and who is not. He knows this before any person is born. There is nothing that happens on earth that would be a surprise to God, where He would say; “I did not see that happening”. God knows the beginning from the end. Every last bit of it. He knows the thoughts and intents of every single person born before they are born. He knows the hairs on the heads of every last person. He knows the beginning from the end. He knows who will honor and glorify Him. He knows who will repent. He knows who will believe. He knows who will abide in faith. He knows who will obey. He knows who will not. He knows who will be ushered into heaven and who will find eternity in Hell. He knows the sin(s) every man will commit before it is even a thought in their mind. Nothing is hidden from Him. He knows the beginning from the end.

Who is the man that they dare say to the Creator of all there is, “I am not at fault, You made me like this.” Each person is given knowledge of God in their innermost being and this knowledge is added to by the wonders of creation. No man is with an excuse when they stand before their Creator. It is by free will they choose to deny the One and only True God. They make images of wood and stone and bow down and worship the craft of their hands, or they deny any God at all. They harden their hearts day after day until the hardness is complete. They will never repent or believe in God and His redemption. They reject God’s Word, His grace, love, and mercy. They reject Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, salvation, and forgiveness. They reject eternal life and freely choose eternity in Hell, though they are warned 1,000 times.

While I write this I am humbled beyond words for I was once like these, without a care, without a need of God, without giving thought or concern to eternity, sin, death, heaven, hell, judgment, forgiveness, etc…. And yet, God, in His great mercy and love, softened my heart, opened my eyes and ears, and showed me my sin and the need for redemption, salvation, repentance, and forgiveness. I lived a life of no concern for God or things of God, and yet He pursued me, He kept knocking at the door of my heart, and at the right moment, He got my attention. At the right moment, a neighbor across the street (Rich) asked my wife and me to attend an evangelical meeting at the church they attended. It was at this meeting Thursday, March 22nd, 1979 my sin, God’s holiness, and my need for repentance and a savior were revealed deep within my heart and mind. I know there was nothing deserving within me of this grace and mercy – trust me I know. However, God’s great love brought me to the point of believing or rejecting. As I say this it is not as though I could have rejected it. I don’t really know how to explain it. The message preached and my need so revealed that there was no way I could say no to the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

I don’t know how many times I reject God and things of God throughout my life up to the point of being saved. God does and I am sure it was a lot. God’s grace, mercy, and love are deep and wide. And yet, they have boundaries. These boundaries include “Faith and Repentance” (trust, obedience, reliance, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ). Good intentions, wishing, hoping, denying, rejecting, self-reliance, etc… all fall short of these boundaries of God’s grace, mercy, and love.

Oh, that all of you would see the sinfulness of sin, the Holiness of God, and the need for repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ.

20.g. “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

Romans 9:30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

1 Corinthians 1:23   but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

John 6:27-29     Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Acts 16:30-34     Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

1 John 5:12   Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

By all appearances, the Gentiles found righteousness even though it did not seem that they really looked for it. By all appearances, Israel seemed to work for the righteousness of God with everything it had, but did not find it. What was the difference? Why did the unlikely Gentiles find righteousness, when the likely Jews did not? Because the Gentiles pursued the righteousness of faith, and the Jews pursued the law of righteousness. The Gentiles who were saved came to God through faith, receiving His righteousness. The Jews who seem to be cast off from God tried to justify themselves before God by performing works according to the law of righteousness. (Guzik)

There appears to be this huge stone that trips many multitudes of people up. Rather than trust in, rely on, and cling to Jesus Christ alone they choose to either flat out deny one true God exists and this is His plan and purpose for mankind, neglect, and complacency toward things of God and thereby can not recognize the difference between the worldly and things of God, or they, like many try to be right before God by performance (doing things that seem right in their own eyes as a means to be acceptable before God). All of these will lead people straight to hell for eternity. Don’t get me wrong about good works. We are to do good works, but not so that we are right before God, but rather to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ.

Surrender of self-reliance, self-worth, and self-independence to belief, faith, trust, reliance, and obedience in, too, and on Jesus Christ alone is God’s plan and purpose for all of mankind. His Word says we should know Him by the mere fact of creation, but what has man done? They say creation was from a big bang that happened before time and from the existence of nothing. His Word says we should believe and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, but many have deemed this to be nothing more than a fairy tale. His Word says the only way to be right in God’s eyes is to believe in, cling to, trust in, and rely on Jesus Christ alone, but many have turned this into works of themselves so that by doing them God is, by some means, required or obligated to give us eternal life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Salvation through Jesus Christ is a gift from God. Other than believing faith, trust, and reliance in Jesus Christ will anyone receive this gift from God.

Let him return to the LORD

Hosea 6:1     “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

James 5:11-16     Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.  But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.  Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.  Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Hosea 14:1     Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Isaiah 55:7    let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Isaiah 2:3     and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Lamentations 3:40-41     Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!  Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

Job 5:18     For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.

Psalms 30:7    By your favor, O LORD, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.

Lamentations 3:32-33    but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

There is always two sides to scripture. One side is where we think we are and the other where we actually are. Where we think we are is influenced by what feeds our understanding and knowledge of what it means to walk with God. We may spend little time with God’s word, little time thinking about it, little time trying to understand it and applying it to our life, so little comes into our heart that it is as though we are blind to it and it has no impact in our life, so little is read that the whispers of God fall on deaf ears, so little comes in that the worldly things we read and hear over shadow the wisdom found in His word.

It is sad isn’t it? We have been given His word and it gets neglected and pushed to the back of our list of things to do rather than being food and water for our heart, mind, and soul. We find we are too busy to find time. Aren’t we the managers of our time? Aren’t we the ones who allow what gets to occupy our time?

Of course we are. We choose to be intentional about growing in what it means to humbly, serve, honor, worship, glorify, follow, and obey God. We choose to make sure He has our heart, mind, and soul. We choose to seek Him and His plans and purposes for our life. We choose to hear Him speak into our life. We choose to desire His searching of our heart, mind and soul. We choose to place all of our trust in Him and His promises. How can we trust in God when we spend so little time with Him? How can we grown in service to Him if we neglect time with Him? How can we run to Him when we push Him away day after day?

Run to Him

Return to Him

Lift up your hearts to Him

Confess your sins to Him

Be taught by Him

Pray to Him

Examine your ways in light of His word

Sing praise to Him

Examine your thoughts in light of His word

Remain steadfast to Him

Almost Stumbled

“but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Psalms 73:1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.

Jeremiah 12:1 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?

Psalms 37:1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers

Proverbs 3:31 Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways,

Proverbs 24:1 Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them,

Hosea 7:2 But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.

Zephaniah 1:12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.

I copied this from a commentary on this chapter of 73 Psalms. “We have in these verses a good man’s temptation. In every age God’s people have asked whether God can possibly know all that is taking place on the earth, and if He does know, why He allows evil to prosper. The dark spirit who is ever at our elbow whispers that we should have done as well, and better” It surely rings true if not for the questions of “does He know” and “why does He allow” surely for listening to the whispers of Satan into our ears and becoming envious. We must recognize these whispers and fight them with the word of truth. Paul in his letters once wrote “I have learned to be content in having little and having much.” We do well to be content knowing and humbly serving God. We have so many distractions pulling at our heart and soul it is only those who desire and commit to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey who will find true peace and rest this side of eternity.