Pharaoh Archives – Sonshine's Journal

February 3, 2023February 3, 2023

God is Patient

Exodus 12-15 Short Memories

We remember in Exodus 5:2, Pharaoh had said, “Who is the Lord that I should obey him by releasing Israel? I do not know the Lord, and I will not release Israel!” After ten plagues, you would have thought he would now know the true God, but Pharaoh is stubborn and resistant. He has lost his firstborn but foolishly thinks he is greater than the God of Israel.

In the meantime, the Israelites have left with riches untold, and God graciously provided an escape route for His people. But as often is the case, like them, we look back, not forward. How often are we blind to the riches that God has given us? The sight of the Egyptian armies scares them; they think there is escaping and begin to murmur. They murmured before when Pharaoh increased their workload and, just like then, so now they say to Moses, didn’t we say leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? We have short memories. They and we would rather be like the Prodigal son and serve the pig master than the Mighty God. Yet, God is patient.

We wonder why God is so patient with us. The answer is because of His plan to show Himself strong, and He loves us more than we can understand. Also, the truth of Jer. 29:11 is still true: He has a plan not to harm us but to give us a future filled with hope.

January 30, 2023January 30, 2023

Encountering God in the Wilderness

Exodus 1-3 Moses shares his journey from unbelief to belief through the chronicles of those who knew him best. One particular trait stands out: The fear of man is a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted.” [Prov 29:25]

Now a new Pharaoh arose, and his racial bias surfaced. He was fearful of the increasing number of Israelites. Instead of thanking God for them, he shrewdly plans to destroy the next generation but keep this generation for his own purposes. Hitler, Stalin, and others like him tried the same tactic, but ultimately they all failed because of this truth: “For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it?” [Is 14:27] The truth of Joseph’s words comes again: you thought to do harm, but God intended it for good. [Gen 50:20]

In contrast are the two midwives. Did they help Jochabed birth Moses? Hmm, I wonder. One thing is clear; they didn’t lie, but because they feared God, they chose to shrewdly respond about how quickly the Hebrew women birthed their children. Then there is Moses’ murder of the Egyptian. Fearing reprisal led him to escape to the wilderness. God uses all of these experiences to teach Moses and us about Himself because it is in the wilderness that we encounter God.

We can be fearful of men, or we can be fearful of God. One leads to snares, and one leads to blessing. Which will we choose?

Which kind of fear do I have? Which kind of fear leads me to the wilderness where I can have an encounter with God?

February 17, 2022February 17, 2022

Seeking God and Finding Him

Deut 4-6 Seek God Early

Over and over, God reminded the Israelites to not forget the Lord God who brought them out of the cauldron of Egypt. He is saying, do not delay; seek Me early, and I will be found. Do not delay; seek Me early so I can guide you. Do not delay; seek Me early and not the false gods of Baal.

God is near to those who are seeking Him.

It took Nebuchadnezzar four long chapters for him to declare: “How great are his signs! How mighty are his wonders! His kingdom will last forever and his authority continues from one generation to the next.” [Dan. 4:3] Yet that same God that Nebuchadnezzar came to know is the same God that Pharaoh and Belshazzar rejected.

Do not delay; seek Him early, and you can find Him.

Have you sought Him? Do you know Him?

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021

“Christ is Our Passover”

Exodus 10 to 12 The plagues sent by God awaken the Egyptian court, and they plead with Pharaoh. “Release the people so they may serve the LORD their God.” The weak magicians had said to Pharaoh, “It is the finger of God” yet Pharaoh continued in his stubbornness. Pharaoh’s words will haunt him later: “Who is the LORD that I should obey him…” But now God will show Pharaoh that He is the LORD and that He alone is the God of the universe. Pharaoh had taken the male children, and now God will take his firstborn. Pharaoh’s gods cannot save him or his people because they are only idols. Pharaoh thinks he is God but this last plague will challenge his belief system.

In preparation, the Lord gives his children, the Israelites, the plan for the Passover. The shed blood of the unblemished lamb sprinkled upon the doorposts and top frame pictured the cross to come. It covered and separated the “believers” (Israelites) from the “nonbelievers” (Egyptians).

Christ as our Passover separates us and sanctifies us that we too may be holy to the Lord. The lamb was slain just as Christ was slain for us. When the Destroyer came, those covered were protected, and it is Christ’s shed blood that protects each believer. Like the Passover, the Lord’s Supper was established BEFORE the deliverance was accomplished, for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. Chapter 12 closes with these words: “So all the Israelites did exactly as the LORD commanded…”

Have we done exactly as the LORD commands?

February 1, 2021February 1, 2021

Is Your Heart Soft or Hard?

Exodus 7 to 9 Pride goeth before a fall, and Pharaoh will learn how true that is. God sent the brothers Aaron and Moses to speak to Pharaoh: “Let My people go.” In return, Pharaoh responded, “Do a miracle,” and so they did. Unimpressed, Pharaoh has his magicians work their magic to turn rods into serpents, but surprise, surprise; the rod of Aaron ate up the magician’s serpents. Pharaoh’s response? He hardened his heart just as God said he would. It was not until the third miracle that even the magicians realized that God’s finger was in it, but Pharaoh hardened his heart. God provides the evidence, but man must make the decision.

We are living the pandemic life, and the world is searching for answers, and like Pharaoh, the hearts of the world remain hardened. As Paul noted in Romans 1:20; they see the invisible attributes of God in the sunsets and sunrises, the path of the sun and moon, and still, they say: “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice? …I do not know the LORD.”[Ex 5:2] It is because of these prideful statements that we must carry the gospel message to them, EVEN IF they respond like Pharaoh. We must do this because “God is not willing any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” [2Pet 3:9] Moses and Aaron were God’s servants. Are we?

January 17, 2020

Grumbling or Trusting?

Exodus 5 to 7 timea

Exodus 5 to 7 When God calls us to His work do we immediately respond or are we like Moses with his many excuses: I can’t speak eloquently; send someone else or why me? God wants us to trust He will equip us for the task. For Moses, God gave him his brother Aaron to walk beside him. For us, He has given us the Holy Spirit.

Forty yrs. had passed and we find Moses sharing God’s plan to release the Israelites from slavery and the people bowed in reverence forgetting to ask: when will this happen. And so when the sticky-wicket Pharaoh exclaimed: “I don’t know the Lord!” they were dumbfounded to hear not deliverance but: slave masters increase the workload of the Israelites!

They said: What happened to our deliverance? “You have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants!” Like us, they had a mindset that it would happen right then and when it didn’t, they complained. Moses wasn’t much better at hearing this news either. “Lord, why have you caused trouble for these people? You have not rescued them!”

When things don’t go as we think they should, we find ourselves wallowing in the pit of grumbling. The Israelites and Moses fell into that trap and we do as well because we are an instant gratification people.

There is an important lesson here for us: God does not work on our timetable! He only asks us to trust in Him with all of our heart and not rely on our own understanding. How are we doing?

January 30, 2017

Three Extraordinary Women

Moving on from Genesis to Exodus 1 to 3, we meet three extraordinary women; Shiphrah and Puah and the mother of Moses. These heroines lived righteously in an evil and perverse nation ruled by a man “who did not know Joseph” and what he had done to save the nation of Egypt. Shiphrah and Puah were Hebrew midwives who were ordered by the new Pharaoh to kill all male babies. Courageously they found a way to circumvent that order and save the new infants. They feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them… “because the midwives feared God” He blessed them with households of their own. Jochebed, the mother of Moses, saw her beautiful son and made a plan to save him from the Pharaoh’s order. She demonstrated courage, determination, and cleverness to save her son from this evil law of infanticide. She trusted God to provide for this precious child and so it was that God moved Pharaoh’s daughter to bathe that very morning in the Nile. Hearing an infant’s cry she felt compassion for him; adopted him and named him Moses “because I drew him from the water.” Her compassion overruled her father’s infanticide law even though she could not foresee God’s plan already being set in motion to redeem the children of Israel from bondage through Moses. These three women were used by God to save an entire nation.

These heroines had no Bible but they had God and they feared God more than this Pharaoh. This teaches us a principle: no matter what century you live in or where you live, God speaks and reveals Himself to His people. [Rom 1:20] Secondly, like the disciples in Acts, these three women believed and live by this truth: we must obey God before man. [Acts 5:29]

You may be just one person but God has a plan and a purpose for you to be a real hero/heroine for God. Real people in real circumstances can live a godly life in the midst of an evil and perverse nation. God protects, provides and blesses those who fear Him: “The fear of man is a snare but he whoever trusts in the Lord will be safe.” [Prov 29:25]

Real people in real circumstances can live a godly life in the midst of an evil and perverse nation.

QUESTION FOR US TODAY: What is God preparing us to do for Him and His people?