READING:
One-year plan: Exodus 4–7, Matthew 16:13-17:13
Two-year plan: Genesis 29:1-30, Matthew 10:1-15
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Pharoah met Moses’ request to let God’s people go with these words: “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by letting Israel go? I don’t know the Lord . . .” (Exo 5:2). It’s likely these words were not an expression of ignorance, but more a denial that the Lord of the Hebrews was any god worth following. I can almost see the smirk on Pharoah’s face and hear the ridicule in his voice. The king who ruled Egypt had no intention of taking this “god” seriously—and he surely would not let these people go. As one writer put it, “He [Pharoah] is, with disastrous consequences, positioning himself to do battle with this so-called ‘God of Israel.’”*
Amazing to me is the depth of rebellion in the human heart. All around the world are people clinging to false gods and denying any recognition of the God of the Bible. For Pharoah, even the beginning of the plagues with water turned into blood was not enough to affect him; rather, he simply turned around, went back to his palace, and put the whole thing out of his mind (Exo 7:23).
You and I, though, could be just like him, asking, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him?” You and I would be just as separated from the one true God—the Lord—were it not for the amazing grace He has extended to us.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: How much thought have you given lately to God’s grace trumping your rebellion?
PRAYER: “I know, God, that You are Lord. Amen.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Exodus 8-9, Matthew 17:14-18:20
Two-year plan: Genesis 29:31-30:43, Matthew 10:16-31
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* Enns, P. (2000). Exodus (pp. 153–154). Zondervan.