Contest with Pharaoh

Kathee and I are in Exodus and read Exodus 9 & 10 tonight. This section of the Scriptures contains some of the most exciting narrative of all the Bible! Some interesting things:

1. "Let My people go, that they may serve Me" (9:1). Comment: God rescues us to allow and enable us to serve Him! Cf Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
   
2. "He who feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses" (9:20). Interesting: There were some of the Egyptians who "feared the word of the Lord".
   
3. "Pharaoh ... said ... “I have sinned this time. The LORD is righteous, and my people and I are wicked“" (9:27). Comment: A false repentance!
   
4. "But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt" (9:4). Application: God makes a difference in one's life!
   
5. "Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt.”" (10:21). Comment: Each plague was a victory over an Egyptian god ... in this case Ra.
   
   

Of course any "contest with God" is "no-contest" to the one who is foolish enough to so strive! Good John Piper message on this topic: The Supremacy of God in the Life of the Mind

Extract:

What I want to say this morning is that God does not like to be taken for granted. God does not want to be a silent assumption


When God is taken for granted, and functions as a silent assumption, while we talk about other good things, his majesty is abased and his glory is obscured and his supremacy in the life of the mind vanishes

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1. Back to work today
   
2. I messed up my Pointsec password on my Vista workstation and I will need to reimage it
   
3. Work not too stressful today, but frankly I was not too highly motivated to work!