The Path To Addiction

Exodus 8 & 9

V. 8:15  The Second Plague. When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his [own] heart...

8:19  The Third Plague. Pharaoh's heart was hardened...

8:32  The Fourth Plague. Pharaoh hardened his  heart...

9:7  The Fifth Plague. The heart of Pharaoh was hardened...

9:12  The Sixth Plague. And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart...

9:34-35  When Pharaoh saw relief, he sinned again and hardened his [own] heart [repeatedly] ... And Pharaoh's heart was hardened ... just as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

So we see Pharaoh's clear path to addiction right here. He is deciding to harden his own heart to the plight of the Hebrews, over and over again, until he's in the habit of hanging on to them; he's not able to release them, he's too dependent on them. 

Since they don't seem to be getting any work done during these Plagues, this dependence Pharaoh has on them is now only in his mind; but nonetheless real. This is addiction, as anyone who has ever been addicted can testify.

Addiction is a self-imposed prison from which one cannot release himself. It takes an outside force to break out of those chains. 

This Pharaoh never did decide to recognize the Israelites' God, so he was destroyed in the end. All the power he had among the Nations evaporated at that time, and Egypt has never again been a super-power in the World. 

God wants to be the "outside power" that can release every addict, break every chain. That's why He sent His Son into the World, to be the Lamb of God, the blood sacrifice that will wash away all our sins. 

When God came to me that day, and showed me Jesus on the Cross, I knew that He took my place there, that I deserved death, and He died for me. That's when His precious Blood washed away all my sins, all my foolish choices that left me in "chains." He was that "outside force" that overcame my addiction, and set me free.

And He wants to set you free, too, dear reader. His Blood is God's own Blood, with enough power to cleanse every sin, every stain, every fault, from every person who decides to seek Truth, the Way to God. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Addiction And Freedom

Exodus 5:2

But Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord? ... I do not know the Lord ..." 

And their labors increased.

7:13  Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened."

And the Nile and all fresh water became blood--polluted.

Pharaoh is hardening his own heart against letting his labor force go. God said that He would harden his heart (4:23), but He's letting Pharaoh harden his own heart first. 

By his own choice against Israel, repeated several times, he is going into what we today call addiction, when its no longer a choice; that's when God will be further hardening his heart.

Whatever we give ourselves to, our own choice, becomes a master over us as its slave; addiction, compulsion. Slaves have no means of freeing themselves--it must be some "third party" entering the picture to break that hold.

Both the addict today and the Israelites in slavery back then need that outside force to break the chains. 

God is that outside influence Who reaches in and frees the slave. He freed me from my relationship addiction when He let me know that Jesus took my place in death, and gave me His own Holy Spirit to live in my spirit, making it alive with that New Life. That's why Jesus called it being "born again." 

And He freed His people from slavery to the Egyptians.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

"Eyes On The Prize"

Exodus 4: 20

Moses also took the staff of God in his hand.

It's not Moses' staff any more, it's the "staff of God" with which he is to perform God's mighty works. He won't need it for shepherding sheep any more!

Exodus 5: 22-23

Why did You ever send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name, he has done harm to this people; You've not delivered Your people at all!

Things have gone from bad to worse. Moses is still in the middle of this drama, and he isn't focused on what God told him would be the end--that He would kill Pharaoh's son. 

God didn't explain the whole process; Moses had to deal with all that as it came.

God doesn't tell me about all the bumps in my road, either. So as I am in the midst of things going from bad to worse in my life, instead of looking at the mess, I want to focus on the end, what God has promised me.

I know that God always keeps His promises. I also know that adversity can strengthen my dependence on Him (what doesn't kill me makes me stronger!). I just hope that I am responding (in the Spirit), not reacting (in my flesh), to all the pitfalls and problems I encounter on the road I'm traversing. 

I've read "the last chapter" of how everything will end up for me, and I know that I will win, "by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of [my] testimony."

O my Father, help me to keep my "eyes on the prize," the reward You have promised to all who "love His appearing" and have been washed in the Blood.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Choosing Which Life To Live

Exodus 1

V. 8  Now a new king (Pharaoh) arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

This "new king" was not in the lineage of the "old king" whose family were all well acquainted with the stories of how Joseph had saved them all from starvation, their hero. 

Now this "new king" came from somewhere else, and he just saw how this one family of foreigners seemed to be spreading out over the whole land. So through fear of their possibly aligning with an enemy, he decided to try to reduce their numbers by killing all the boys. We could call it: selective after-birth abortion.

Exodus 2

During this time when the Egyptians were wanting to kill all the male infants, Moses was born. So his mother hid him to keep him alive. Then when he was three months old, she put him in the papyrus basket among the reeds in the River Nile, with his sister Miriam watching to see what would happen to him.

And Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river and saw the basket floating there. When she opened it, the baby was crying, and she had pity on him. 

When Miriam saw her response, she boldly stepped up and offered to find a nursing mother to feed him for her.

vs. 8b-9  So the girl went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I shall give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.

This is incredible. Not only does Jocabed get her son back, but is even being paid to care for him! So she was also able to teach him of his people, who he was, and of God. So by the time he was about 5 years old, he went back to Pharaoh's house to be taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, to be groomed to be the next Pharaoh.

So Moses had a serious choice to make: would he go with the flow and the high living and be Pharaoh over the most powerful nation of the day; or would he remember what his mother taught him when he was a toddler?

This is a choice that would determine his whole life. 

So how did he choose? It looks to me that he wanted the best of both worlds (see vs. 11-12).

Jesus told us that if we want to hold on to our lives, we will lose them (Matthew 10:39, Mark 8:35, Luke 17:33, and John 12:25). So when Moses took action according to his own thinking, he ended up losing both his Egyptian privileges and any place he would have had among his Hebrew people (vs. 13-15).

Now we find Moses out in the desert, living in a foreign land, marrying the daughter of the local priest; a man of no nation.

How often do I choose to do what would hang on to my life and my isolation, when I could just as well choose to do something new, to expand my horizons. When I just think of myself, I end up more isolated than ever. But when I reach out to others, loving others the way I'm commanded to do, putting their needs ahead of my own; that's when I realize more joy and satisfaction, rejoicing in the good in others' lives. 

Moses had a lot to learn, and God took His time teaching him. He had been taught all the latest technologies and theories and theologies of the most advanced culture of the day, and he was also taught how the real God chose his biological family. Now he needs to learn that he is not some celebrity or powerful politician, but just an ordinary man, a shepherd, doing ordinary things. And it took about forty years for him to get it down.

O my Father, I do hope You don't need that long to teach me who I really am in You, to where I am ready to go out into this big, wide world, as Your servant, and do the task You will assign to me to accomplish for the furtherance of Your great Kingdom. Here I am, Lord, send me!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

From Life To Death

Genesis 50

Now that Jacob (Israel) has died, Joseph takes charge over the family and has his father embalmed, as a good Egyptian would do. And he leads all Pharaoh's officials, and all the dignitaries of Egypt, besides all the members of his household, and even chariots and horsemen accompanied them to the funeral in Canaan (vs. 7-9).

That's when Joseph's brothers thought that he would be like them, and with his power and position, would have them executed, or at least imprisoned, as he had been. But Joseph had never doubted God's goodness, and his heart was broken so that he wept for his brothers (vs. 15-17).

His answer to them was, Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then don't be afraid. I will provide for you and for your children (vs. 19-21). Joseph reassured them that he would take care of them and treat them with kindness, as God shows us to do. 

Joseph lived the rest of his life as an Egyptian, and lived long enough to know his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren, to one hundred and ten years.

My husband looked forward to grandchildren, but he went Home to Glory while our children were still teenagers. I hope he's able to look down now to see how we are doing, and can enjoy our grandchildren who will not know him in this life. Or maybe he's too busy doing Heavenly things with our Lord to have "time" to be concerned for us.

When Joseph died, as an Egyptian official, he was embalmed, too, but he'd left instructions not to bury him, but to carry his bones with them out of Egypt back to Canaan when they all left, because he knew that God would bring them all back to the good, fertile land He promised would be theirs.

And this Book of Beginnings (Genesis) that started with so much life, ends with the words, in a coffin in Egypt (50:26); with death, outside the Promised Land, in the World of woe.

How much of our lives have such good beginnings, that we mess up so royally that we end up in the throes of sorrow and trouble! 

But God does not want to leave us there, any more than He left Israel there. They say that the darkest hour comes before the dawn, and as this little Nation will grow great and strong through the adversity that is coming, so I can also grow wiser and stronger in my faith and dependence on my Father through what He allows into my life.

And He will be praised forever for it, because it goes exactly as He planned it all to be accomplished; in His way, in His time, using His people.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Joseph Had It All

Genesis 48 & 49

Jacob (Israel) is blessing his children before he dies.

In 48:5 he claims Joseph's two sons as his own, thus ensuring that Joseph would receive double the land inheritance of his brothers. And he also places the younger Ephraim over the elder Manasseh, deliberately crossing his arms to do so (vs. 13-20).

Then in Chapter 49 he gives the Patriarchal Blessing to his 12 sons. This is very interesting, as these are prophesies that will play out in the lives of these men and their families through many generations. 

Reuben was first-born, but forfeited his position when he fornicated with Bilhah (see 35:22). And Jacob saw that he was unstable (vs. 3-4).

Simeon and Levi are the next two sons, but their temper and cruelty to people and animals disqualified them for the birthright (vs. 5-7).

So it fell to Judah, to be the progenitor of our Savior and Redeemer (vs. 8-12). 

After he pronounced all the blessings, Jacob asked that they not bury him in Egypt, but carry his body to Canaan to the cemetery field and cave that Abraham bought from the children of Heth, and bury him there. He knew that God would bring them back to the land He promised them. Then he died (vs. 29-33).

Jacob, who became Israel, is the final Patriarch who would prophetically pronounce the future to his sons. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Joseph lived the rest of his life in Egypt, as an Egyptian, and also with his first family, the Hebrews (Habiru, in the archaeological records). So he really did have it all: Not only was he prosperous and respected, he also had his extended family with him; God gave him much more than he ever would have thought. 

And God is still the same today as He was then; He still loves His own, He cares for His own, and when we live our lives with the mind-set of God's attitude toward us--loving one another, forgiving one another, and seeking God in all our life paths--then He will bless us with all the Earthly and Heavenly blessings we can stand, out of His riches in glory.

O my Father, just as Joseph went through so much adversity, but never gave up on You, so teach me to have that same mind-set, to think Your thoughts, adopt Your attitudes, and walk in Your ways, every day of my life. Whether I am enjoying life at the moment or walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I know that You are with me, just as You were with Joseph, and if I persevere like he did, then I know that I will also prosper and be blessed by You in all the Earthly and Heavenly ways I can stand, beyond everything I can ask for, or hope, or dream, or imagine.

And You will receive all the glory, for that is Your plan that You are working out in me, in us.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

He Cares For His Own

Genesis 47

V. 19  Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh.

When times get hard enough the people willingly consent to slavery. 

Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Maybe he was thinking of these Egyptians becoming Pharaoh's slaves for a little food.

V. 21  And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of Egypt's border to the other.

This is what Agenda 21 (now renamed Agenda 2020) proposes to do in America: remove the people from rural areas into mega-cities. Much easier to control them that way.

Vs. 7 & 10  And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

(Hebrews 7:7 says, But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.)

So this common shepherd, Jacob, blesses the great Pharaoh, King over all Egypt. And Jacob is the greater, in God's eyes.

V. 27  Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen (the best of the land of Egypt [45:18].), and they acquired property in it and were fruitful and increased greatly in it.

Apparently, the priests of Egypt (see 47:22) and the family of Israel were the only ones who actually owned their property, since the rest of all the Egyptians sold their property to Pharaoh.

Who would have guessed that this little family of Abraham with one son Isaac, and Isaac with two sons, and Jacob finally having a sizable family, would grow into a great Nation? When God chooses who would be His own, He always takes care of them. He did not allow Jacob and his family to starve, but brought them into the best land in the greatest Nation of the time and allowed them to thrive so well that they grew into such a large Nation that it came to be feared by a Pharaoh (see Exodus 1:8-10). Only God can work such great a wonder.

And today our Lord God has chosen His own out of every Nation, every family, every language, every people group, all over the whole World. We are His children, His servants, His church, His bride; to be His kings and queens to rule with Him on His Throne in His Kingdom. 

So we know He will not neglect to take care of us today, regardless of in what circumstances we might find ourselves. God is still in control, and His greatness, His goodness and His love and care for us will never change.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!