February 29, 2024 | Be God's Light
Let My People Go
Scripture: Exodus 7:1-24(NIV)
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. 2 You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, 4 he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. 5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”
6 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.
8 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 9 “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”
10 So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. 11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: 12 Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the Lord says: By this you will know that I am the Lord: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’”
19 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.”
20 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. 21 The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.
22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. 23 Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. 24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.
Devotional
Moses was forty years old when he fled Egypt to live in Midian (Acts 7:23). Forty years later, he was eighty when he appeared before the most powerful man in the world to demand the release of all his Hebrew slaves. After Moses’ people were freed, he led them another forty years in the wilderness, until he died at the ripe old age of 120. Have you ever thought you were too old (or too young) to do what God is calling you to do?
Moses’ life could be broken down into three phases: Forty years as an Egyptian prince, forty years as a Midianite shepherd, and forty years as the Hebrew national leader. How might each of these phases have prepared him for the next? How have the previous phases of your life prepared you for what is ahead?
When Moses got ready to go present his case before Pharaoh, God said, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart… he will not listen to you.” How discouraging! But at least he knew going in that Pharaoh would turn him down flat. Verse six says that he and his brother “did just as the Lord commanded them.”
After the showdown with snakes, this chapter spells out the first of the ten plagues that God brought upon Egypt. The following plagues include an infestation of frogs, a dust storm of gnats, a pervasive cloud of flies, a pestilence of death on livestock, an epidemic of boils, a fierce storm of hail, a destructive swarm of locusts, and a thick darkness for three straight days.
Psalm 105 tells the story of all we have studied so far in poetic fashion. Open your Bible and read it aloud, giving God praise for all His wonderful deeds!
Poem
Boxing Ring
The boxers stood face to face
The one sneered:
"I beat all who challenge me;
I pound on them until they whimper
And then I silence them
With my hook.
So, bring it on.
You think you can move me?
No way!
I am the Champion;
I hold the lives of many In my hands.
They are my slaves!
I'm the king of the world!"
The other looked the challenger in the eye.
He had seen him before but in a different form.
"I will strike you down;
no longer will you reign terror
on my people.
From their silenced lips
Shall come shouts of victory!
You cannot even stand before me
Without me agreeing to fight you.
You are not the Champion;
I am the Lamb
And with ten mighty blows,
You will kneel
And name me
The King of Kings and the Prince of Peace."
The boxers moved to their corners.
The bell rings.
Round One.
Blood.
