Saturday, January 3, 2009

Thou shalt have no other gods before me

Exodus 7:1-7 And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so did they. And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.

Egypt had many gods. The Lord had made Moses as a god unto Pharaoh and Aaron as Moses' prophet. God had told Moses and Aaron what they should say to Pharaoh and they did as God had commanded them. But God had hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that Pharaoh would not listen and let the children of Israel leave Egypt. So even though God had made Moses a god in Pharaohs site-Pharaoh would not obey. Because Pharaohs heart was hardened and he did not obey even when God increased His signs and wonders throughout Egypt this provided God the opportunity to go in with His Armies and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. The Egyptians would would know that it was God who had delivered His children out of captivity.
We often will look to the world and see how they idolize and make gods out of celebrities. We see other faiths where they make gods of men or objects. But do we sometime find ourselves in the same trap of exalting men and women of god rather than God and God alone.
Paul said in Corinthians 1:12 -!3 Now this I say, that every on of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
Let us remember not to taint the message and work of God's people by idolizing them instead of worshiping Our Lord and Savior. God's hand had to come down upon Egypt rather strong before they could see that Our God is God.
Exodus 20:3-6 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thous shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.


5 comments:

From the Heart said...

A great reminder to trust our Father in all things and no one else or idols. He has the answer for all of our needs.
Blessings,
AliceE.

Edie said...

Absolutely Debrah! We must always keep our focus on God and place Him before everything and everyone.

Happy New Year to you my friend.

Dorothy Champagne said...

I do wonder though, why was Pharoah's heart SO hardened? Was there anything that could've been done to save that man? Was it the power that held him back? Pride? It's not like Moses taunted him. It's true that sometimes we are so caught up in the glitz and glamour that we can't see what God would do if He just lifted His finger. I wish everyone could see this post! P.S. We did some remodeling this past week on my husbands church - my daughter should have some pictures up on facebook sometime tomorrow if you want to take a look...

Nicole said...

Hi Debrah! Hope you are having a great new year! Thanks for this post. I especially like the last scripture from Exodus. It reminds me of the blessings or the curse. Which one do I want to be passed onto my family? Obviously, the blessing. So, I need to obey out of love for my Father. If I don't obey that doesn't mean that He will not love me anymore, His love does not change BUT that does mean there are consequences to every action. I want for myself and my family to reap good consequences. Better get to obeying.:) Great post.

Love,
Nicole

Sharon said...

My sweet sister,
Hello, you know everyone is getting more and more blogs and those aren't saved, sooooo I have been missing out, look you now have 3 blogs....and I've been missing out..
I will have to catch up!!
Please help me pray for my mom, she is at home crying her eyes out, today is the day we watched my brother gasp his last breath. It's a very hard day for us, and I will never forget it, I can still see it in my mind.