Good morning and welcome to the last day of September 2019. (Although you wouldn’t know it by the weather around here in North Texas as it’s still hovering in the mid 90’s.) Speaking of the last day of September, today is the anniversary of the day that Marge and I wed, a very distant 24 years ago. We sat last night and reflected on the journey, praising God for His care, love, provision and guidance. It’s pretty amazing to think that the next anniversary will be silver. There’s no way I’m this old.
I have to tell you about an amazing time of fellowship last night. I attended a missions fair earlier in the year and met a young Chinese student. She was from China studying in the US and of course as a believer, had a heart for her homeland. I offered for her to come on the China service trip with me this past July and she agreed. There’s an entirely different lesson just right there, never pass up the opportunity to invite people into to what God has you doing, you never know who else He has called into it as well!
Well, she’s back in the US and studying in of all places? Yep, Fort Worth. After a few weeks of lining up times and days, last night was the night. She asked if she could bring some of her friends and we emphatically said yes. So last night Margie I made some hot tea, Chinese style, and sat down with three wonderful young Chinese ladies. God has placed us in many amazing situations in the last several years and this was yet another. We sat around the table and shared testimonies and praised God for His goodness in our lives. Five lives, all so different, yet all equally touched by the grace of God. Lives from the North America, lives from Asia. Different races and different languages, all brought together by the love of the Father. We talked global outreach and about each of our calls to bring the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. We talked life, we talked highs and we talked lows. We had blessed fellowship. We ended the night with a prayer that God would use these lives to make an impact for His kingdom no matter where He might send us. That these lives that He brought together would forever be entwined as the brother and sisters we are in His family. I’ve talked before about the importance of scheduling times for blessed fellowship within your week, I pray today that you make it a top priority. Don’t tell yourself your too busy because you’re not. Don’t tell yourself you don’t need it because you do. Don’t let scheduling hassles divert you, it’s important and so worth it. Make it happen. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)
Well, today in the 5MC, we look at the shortest chapter in Exodus, chapter 11. We have seen up to this point, God send 9 plagues upon the land of Egypt in an effort to convince Pharaoh to set the Israelite people free from their brutal bondage. But to no avail, Pharaoh will not relent. I often hear, “Why did God send 10 plagues and all that destruction, why not less?” My question is why not more? Considering what Pharaoh has allowed to happen to his land and his people, I think God could have sent 50 plagues and he would not have given up. I think it’s actually God’s grace that He only sent 10! But today, God will get serious, deathly serious, and announce a plague that not even the granite like heart of Pharaoh can continue to resist.
The scenario of the 10th plague reminds me of the close of WWII. As the battle raged on in Europe, two of the three Axis powers, the Germans and Italians, were defeated and their lands lied in ruins, millions of their people dead. Sometimes the pride of man can only be crushed in absolute, death, destruction and defeat. This left only Japan standing and the Allied forces turned their wrath towards Southeast Asia. The Allied forces started heavily bombing Japanese cities, including Tokyo, great casualties resulting. Japan would not give up. By this time the US had perfected the atomic bomb through the Manhattan Project, and they now threatened to use it. On July 29, 1945 President Truman issued the Potsdam Declaration to Japan stating that the Allied powers had deadly lethal force and would use it resulting in "prompt and utter destruction of Japan." But the Japanese would not listen and would not relent. Sound vaguely familiar to Pharaoh? As a result, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. 80,000 people died in a flash of blinding white. Surrender was demanded, Japan scoffed. A second atomic bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945, 70,000 died before they could ask, "why?" The Japanese were forced to give their surrender on August 15, 1945, only after death and destruction had changed a nation.
Pharaoh has refused to surrender. He has allowed death, destruction, pain and suffering to befall his kingdom, but he still refuses to surrender. But God will drop a bomb upon the land that will force Pharaoh to surrender.
“So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’ Exodus 11:4-7
An impossibly hard heart requires a hard, harsh act to move it. Just as with Japan, God will bring about an act that will leave no choice. Tomorrow we will see God strike great death upon Egypt, yet spare His people from this plague as He instructs them on the Passover.
Have a blessed day serving the Lord through serving others.
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