Love Through The Pain of Plagues

I never knew that most of the plagues that God sent to the Egyptians attacked a specific “god” that they were trusting in. Check this interesting insight out...

“The plagues were actually a “declaration of war” against the gods of Egypt (see 12:12). The Nile River was worshiped as a god since it was their source of life (Deut. 11:10–12), and when Moses turned it into blood, God showed His power over the river. The goddess Heqt was pictured as a frog, the Egyptian symbol of resurrection. The plague of frogs certainly turned the people against Heqt! The lice and flies brought defilement to the people—a terrible blow, for Egyptians could not worship their gods unless they were spotlessly clean. The murrain attacked the cattle which were sacred to the Egyptians; Hathor was the “cow-goddess” and Apis was the sacred bull. The gods and goddesses that controlled health and safety were attacked in the plagues of boils, hail, and locusts. The plague of darkness was the most serious, since Egypt worshiped the sun god, Ra, the chief of the gods. When the sun was blotted out for three days, it meant that Jehovah had conquered Ra. The final plague (the death of the firstborn) conquered Meskhemit the goddess of birth, and Hathor, her companion, both of whom were supposed to watch over the firstborn. All of these plagues made it clear that Jehovah was the true God!” - Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament

I love how God has not ceased to send various plagues into our lives to tear us away from the “gods” that we cling onto for hope.

I love that God causes someone who is worshiping their work to lose their job to show them that they can't trust in that job to bring them the fulfillment they are looking for.

I love that God causes a student to get dumped by their girlfriend or boyfriend who they are worshiping to show them that they can't trust in that person to bring them ultimate satisfaction.

I love that God causes unexpected emergencies in our lives to pry us from worshiping money and to show us that we can't rely on our finances to bring us the ultimate comfort and peace we long for.

Have we been overlooking the plagues that God is putting in our lives? Have we been resisting His plagues not knowing that they are for our good?

God is always after our good.

But, to get us to that place of rest and fulfillment, He has to pry us away from the things that we are going to other than Him. And that process of separation (a.k.a sanctification) is a very painful one.

Salvation is Past, Present, and Future

My Old Testament professor said something profound that I still remember two and half years later.

He said that we were saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. Theses three stages of salvation are past, present, and future.

A person who has received saving faith is one who:

• Has trusted in Jesus death on the cross and resurrection as the means of our eternal salvation (justification)
• Is trusting in Jesus to save us from the bondages of sin that we still find ourselves in right now (sanctification)
• And continues to trust that Jesus will come back someday to fully save us from our decaying bodies and broken world by restoring and renewing everything (glorification)
  

Why is this important?

Many Christians are trusting in the past and future saving acts but not the present one. That is why you will find many Christians still addicted to pornography, stuck in broken marriages, or living anxiously from day to day.

They go in and out of church every Sunday, thinking about how their neighbors need to be saved (justified) and that their world needs to be saved (glorified), without taking a second to think about the ways in which Jesus wants to save (sanctify) them of the broken areas of their lives right now.

I am guilty myself of thinking a lot about how God wants to change other people and change the world without giving much thought to how God wants to change my life.

Justification is the starting line, not the finish line, for sanctification.