November 16, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Ecclesiastes 7-8, Zechariah 1-7

Weekly Memory Verse: Galatians 2:20

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Sorry I missed the study yesterday, Shelley came home from the hospital so things were very busy. She is doing very well, the only problem is with balance, the part of the brain that the tumor was in controls balance.  The surgeon assures us that the body will compensate for it. 

I considered jumping to a New Testament book this morning, and reconsidered due to the mess my schedule is in right now.  Besides that, Exodus is a lot of fun to study.  I hope that as we continue in this book that you are blessed and motivated to follow God.

Exodus 7:1-7 (NASB95)
¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. ² “You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. ³ “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. ⁴ “When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. ⁵ “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” ⁶ So Moses and Aaron did it; as the Lord commanded them, thus they did. ⁷ Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

Malachi 2:7 (NASB95)
⁷ “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

Philemon 4-9 (NASB95)
⁴ I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, ⁵ because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints; ⁶ and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake. ⁷ For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. ⁸ Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, ⁹ yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—

Ephesians 6:18-20 (NASB95)
¹⁸ With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, ¹⁹ and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

2 Corinthians 3:2-3 (NASB95)
² You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; ³ being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (NASB95)
²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.^[1]

God made it clear to Moses that He is in control.  As Moses and Aaron lean upon him, they become direct representatives of God to Pharaoh. Imagine starting a ministry like this one at the age of eighty years, Aaron was older.  When we read through this passage it is a reminder to us that we also are ambassadors to the world.  When the world see's us, it makes a decision about who our God is and how powerful that He is.  If we live our lives in submission to Him, then our lives will reflect the power of God in our lives.  If on the other hand we live our lives in compromise and deceit, then our lives will reflect a humanistic religious relationship with God that has no power or lasting effect.  Paul wrote this to Philemon, encouraging him to continue to be real in his life and prayed for him to live out the life as a representative of Christ.  He considered himself to be a prisoner of Christ Jesus.  Also consider the idea that Paul had about being an ambassador to the world.  This is the exact position that Moses and Aaron had taken before God.  They were literally ambassadors of God appealing to the king of a foreign land.

Exodus 7:8-13 (NASB95)
⁸ Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ⁹ “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Work a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ” ¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the Lord had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. ¹¹ Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. ¹² For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. ¹³ Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

^[2]

One of the interesting things that is left out in our translations is that the snake the staff turns into was a "monstrous snake" according to the Word Biblical Commentary.  The sorcerers did the same thing; except their snakes were consumed by the snake of God.  One other note of interest here is that the snake came from Aarons staff, not the staff of God that Moses carried.  it was also a different type of snake than the one previously spoken of, notice that there doesn't seem to be a fear of the serpent.  The point of this demonstration is to demonstrate that the Hebrew God is all powerful.  This is reiterated when the monstrous snake ate all the other snakes.

The little demonstration did little for Pharaoh, although he wished for a sign, it did nothing to convince him of the true power of God.  Jesus fought with the same thing when He was here on earth.  People sought signs and wonders, He constantly told them that signs would not change anyone's mind.  The great signs that Jesus did do were mostly for the purpose of fulfilling prophecy, and establishing the fact that He is the Messiah that was prophesied from old.  I am not discounting the awesome power that Jesus demonstrated in healing the sick, or raising the dead in the New Testament.  We all look forward to talking with those Jesus first touched when we get to heaven.  The sign in this passage was not to change or convince Pharaoh, it was to establish that God was in control, not two old men.  

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 (NASB95)
⁹ that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, ¹⁰ and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

Revelation 13:11-15 (NASB95)
¹¹ Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. ¹² He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. ¹³ He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. ¹⁴ And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. ¹⁵ And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ^[3]

Think about today, if someone were to perform signs today, the media would go wild.  They would call in the great magicians from Las Vegas and soon find a way to duplicate the act.  It would soon be discounted as a slight of hand or a great illusion. As a closing observation on this passage, the Hebrew does not call the turning of the staff into a snake a sign, it calls it a "wondrous deed", which is why the snake consuming the others is so funny.  Man can not hope to match wits with God.

I have to close now, will finish the chapter tomorrow.  If you wish to add your comments please feel free to write in.

Father, each of us are Your ambassadors, enable each one of us to understand an to live like we are.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

November 17, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: 1 Peter 4-5

Weekly Memory Verse: 1 John 5:11-12

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Exodus 7:14-25 (NASB95)
¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go. ¹⁵ “Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he is going out to the water, and station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile; and you shall take in your hand the staff that was turned into a serpent. ¹⁶ “You shall say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness. But behold, you have not listened until now.” ¹⁷ ‘Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood. ¹⁸ “The fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become foul, and the Egyptians will find difficulty in drinking water from the Nile.” ’ ” ¹⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’ ” ²⁰ So Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood. ²¹ The fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt. ²² But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said. ²³ Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house with no concern even for this. ²⁴ So all the Egyptians dug around the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the Nile. ²⁵ Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the Nile.^[1]

Can you imagine the way that Pharaoh felt when he showed up to take his morning bath and Moses was waiting for him?  It is really not known why Pharaoh visited the Nile, it could have been to worship it.  This is the first of the ten plagues that are rained upon Egypt.  It is significant that it starts with water turning to blood.  The Nile was worshipped as a god, and considered to be the source of life for the Egyptians.  Consider that it provided the irrigation water for all of their crops. 

One thing to think about on this is that God caused the people to get on their hands and knees to drink water from hand-dug holes around the Nile.  If water was put in a vessel of wood or stone it turned to blood.  The only way for them to drink was on their hands and knees from holes dug around the Nile.  Consider also that since it was turned to blood, it had to have a horrible odor, along with the presence of flies drawn to the smell.  I don't think that we can imagine the horror of the situation.  When the people went to drink from the Nile it was not comfortable, and did not smell good. 

Looking forward to the New Testament, it was necessary for Jesus, the water of life to become a blood sacrifice so that we could be saved.  Now as we draw from the water that flows from His life, we can be saved by the blood that He shed.  Continuing to consider Jesus, he turned water into wine at the very beginning of his public ministry.  This could have been a simple act to show that He was the same God as the one from the Old Testament and able to create something from nothing.

The Nile being turned to blood was a fantastic event.  I don't believe that it was muddied by red mud, or any other way of explaining away the event.  God turned the Nile into literal blood, the results of this killed the fish and all the critters that lived in the Nile.  Our God is all powerful and able to create something out of nothing.  Don't forget that He created the universe by speaking it into existence.  Therefore the simple act of turning water into blood was proof of His power.  It was an instant act, not a gentle filtering of muddied water from upstream. 

It amazes me that the magicians were so quick to duplicate the act.  God rained judgment upon the land and the fools in the land had enough stupidity to use valuable water to duplicate the act.  I wonder if they considered that the Hebrew God may have been in Heaven having a belly laugh over their attempt to duplicate His act.  Remember, as soon as they put the water into a vessel of wood or stone, it turned to blood, so in reality they may have been unknowingly complying with the conditions of the judgment. 

Check out this note:

“The River Nile as blood is mentioned in a catalog of catastrophe describing the disastrous conditions in Egypt in the period of transition from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2300–2250 b.c.). The copy of the text in which we know this catalog dates, interestingly enough, from the period between 1350 and 1100 b.c., the period in which the exodus almost certainly took place. The pertinent lines read as follows:

Why really, the River is blood.

If one drinks of it,

one rejects (it) as human

and thirsts for water

(ANET³, 441, ii 10).

No more can be made of this than that such a condition describes a time of chaos and distress. One cannot even say whether the usage is in some sense metaphorical. What is important is that the description of a time of serious reverse includes such language, and that such a text was current in the general period of the exodus. The changing of the River Nile to blood may even have been a rhetorical formula for a terrible judgment upon Egypt. Whether that is the case or not, the language in the composite at hand appears both to have been taken quite literally and also to have represented a blow that resulted in a temporary condition of the Nile.

The Egyptians are depicted as searching everywhere, and feverishly, for potable water. No hint of whether they were successful is given, and there is no suggestion as to whether the Israelites also suffered or were somehow excluded from the blow. With the passage of seven days, the effects of Yahweh’s blow apparently passed, for the pollution of the Nile is not mentioned again in the narrative of the mighty acts (cf. also Pss 78:44 and 105:29).”^[2]

There are many who will explain away the event, it really happened, historical documents have verified it.  The point of the plague is simple, it proved that the God of the Hebrews is all powerful.  God was sending a message to the Egyptians that He is all powerful and that He reigns over everything.  We can learn a lot from these verses because people have not changed at all over the years.  Men still try to find a way to explain away God and His power rather than submitting to His authority.

Father, as we consider Your word, make us carriers of Your message to an unbelieving people.  I pray that each of us will be willing ambassadors, willing to share what You have placed upon our hearts.

In Him,

Joe Turner.