Plagues

I was reading in Exodus about the interactions between Moses and Pharaoh, as Moses comes into his presence repeatedly to ask for the freedom of the Jewish people. I have studied this before, but it has been a long time. I want to develop a more in-depth study on this, but at a quick read-through this morning, I noticed in most cases the plagues fell on parts of Egypt, but not where the Israelite camps were.

But not all.

There were certain of the plagues - most notably the last two: locust and death angel - which touched the entire land. ANYBODY who did not apply the blood of a sacrificial lamb to their doorposts as directed would lose their firstborn child - and animals as well.

We live in a world which is sickened by sin. It's like jumping into the middle of a huge lake - we WILL get wet. So it should come as no surprise when we are affected by the sin around us. Even though Jesus has paid the price for our sins, and even though we have eternity at God's side to look forward to, here, now, we feel the pain of death, loss, uncertainty, and sorrow.

The plagues were carefully orchestrated by God to move Pharaoh to not only let the people go to worship, but to move both Pharaoh AND the people of Egypt to proclaim that God was the one true God, and that their gods, were powerless before Him.

And that, in my opinion, was worth the wait, and worth the pain.