Exodus 10: 1-11
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart
and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among
them that you may tell your children and
grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my
signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.” So Moses and Aaron
went to Pharaoh and said to him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the
Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my
people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will
bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the
ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left
after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will
fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the
Egyptians—something neither your parents nor your ancestors have ever seen from
the day they settled in this land till now.’ ” Then Moses turned and left
Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s officials said to him, “How long will this man be a snare to
us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not
yet realize that Egypt is ruined?” Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to
Pharaoh. “Go, worship the LORD your God,” he said. “But tell me who will be
going.” Moses answered, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons
and our daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a
festival to the LORD.” Pharaoh said, “The LORD be with you—if I let you go,
along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil. No! Have only
the men go and worship the LORD, since that’s what you have been asking for.”
Message:
Here, I’ve learned two important points. First is, I find God
incomprehensible for all that He did to Pharaoh. However, as I read the first
two verses I was made to understand that Pharaoh’s resistance and God’s
responses to it was His means of making Pharaoh, the officials and the future
generations realize the immensity of his supremacy. The second point is, youth
plays a very important role in furthering the ministry. Thus, Pharaoh desired
to deprive the children from pursuing their parents’ spiritual practices. He
prevented the women and the children to join the men in their journey to the
wilderness. This declaration did not just indicate Pharaoh’s fear of losing the
slaves who have been working for Egyptians for a long time but his terror as
well of letting the children see their parents’ religious activities and learn
from them, an opportunity which would certainly deepen their knowledge and
faith in God. Matthew Henry explained, Pharaoh was “a sworn enemy to early
piety” and the preacher warned that “whatever would put us from engaging our
children in God's service, we have reason to suspect Satan in it. Nor should
the young forget that the Lord's counsel is, Remember thy Creator in the days
of thy youth; but Satan's counsel is, to keep children in a state of slavery to
sin and to the world.”
Application:
I will always support my children’s spiritual activities and I myself
will do what I require them to do so that they will be encouraged to pursue God’s
will for them.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, thank you for making me realize that the difficulties that I
experience in life are Your means of making me understand Your nature. Thank
you also Lord for letting me see the value of teaching the youth God’s word and
their importance to furthering the ministry. Lord, had there been times that I caused
deprivation to the development of my children’s knowledge of You, had I been
the reason behind their not attending a spiritual activity, forgive me Lord. Father,
I decide to follow You and I want my family members especially my children to do
the same. Thus, I pray for Your guidance God and provisions for the spiritual activities
that will further our understanding of You Lord and eventually draw us closer
to You. Make each of us reflect You in our daily existence and enable spiritual
strength in us for us to survive any form of temptation. This I pray in Jesus’
name, amen.
