Pharaoh's Bargin (Ex. 8:25-32)

4/3/2008 8:33 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time           Focus:  Pharaoh’s Bargain

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Exodus 8:25-32

            Message of the verses:  “25  Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land."  26  But Moses said, "It is not right to do so, for we will sacrifice to the LORD our God what is an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is an abomination to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not then stone us?  27  "We must go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He commands us."  28  Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Make supplication for me."  29  Then Moses said, "Behold, I am going out from you, and I shall make supplication to the LORD that the swarms of insects may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow; only do not let Pharaoh deal deceitfully again in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD."  30  So Moses went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the LORD.  31  The LORD did as Moses asked, and removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people; not one remained.  32  But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.”

            Pharaoh tries to bargain with, (really the Lord), four times while these plagues were going on.  He actually made two bargains with Moses to get rid of this plague, but Moses knew that Pharaoh was only lying and so when Pharaoh asked Moses to “pray for him,” for he wanted Moses to ask God to remove the flies, Moses did so and the plague was over, but Pharaoh did not keep his word.  Pharaoh wanted Moses and Israel to sacrifice their animals in the land of Egypt, but Moses and Aaron knew that this would cause a lot of problems with the people of Egypt for they worshiped gods with forms like some of the animals that Israel would use for sacrifices.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Dr. Wiersbe brings up a number of items that are helpful for this section of my SD.  “True service to God means giving Him authority over all our possessions and the people in our family for whom we’re responsible.  Once we start to negotiate with the will of God and see how close we can get to the world, we have already disobeyed Him in our hearts.”

            Bargaining with God may not be the wisest thing for me to do, although their has been times from Scripture that this has been done, and at times it seemed to work out ok.  Bargaining with the Lord to allow me to get closer to the world system is not something that I should ever do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I have been asked to go to Lorain to meet Tim Formaz in order to look at a boiler with him and because of my IBS it will be hard on me so I must trust the Lord to see me through this without any problems of embarrassment. 

Memory verse for the week:                       Philippians 3:8

8.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.