Bible Prophecy and Inspiration

We’ve been in the story of the Exodus and the focus is on how quickly man can forget the awesome Hand and works of God.

The Israelites were at the Red Sea and complaining to Moses.  As we know God parts the Red Sea in another awesome miracle.  The Israelites cross over and do a dance and sing songs for the Lord.

Immediately they have no water in the desert and they come up to Marah.  The water was bitter.  It doesn’t indicate that people asked Moses to ask God to make it drinkable.  It says they grumbled against Moses.  Once again, Moses went to God and God had him throw in a piece of wood and they could drink of it.

Not even few small paragraphs later we have them complaining of …… Food.

Then God rains down Manna.  Do they obey God concerning  Manna?  Of course not.  Don’t get me wrong, many of them did.  The others, well they were going to try and store some the next day and it was rotting, just like God said.  Others went out to find some on the Sabbath and there was none, just like God said.

We look at the Israelites and we think,” Are you blind?  Do you not hear and see the Hand of the Lord?”

Trust me on this one.  Nothing has changed.  The time period changes, but humans don’t change.  When they are trusting God and following Him and his Word, they are blessed.  When they are not, destruction comes.

God does get tired of man not obeying Him.  Plagues were set off on the Israelites who continued to grumble.  Plagues were set off on those who chose the idol over the Ten Commandments.  The whole assembly that came out of Egypt, besides Joshua and Caleb, died in the desert.  They were not allowed to enter the Promised Land.  Why, because they wouldn’t listen to God.

The next generation listened to God and they began their conquest of the Promised Land.  Who were they conquering?  Nations that were evil in God’s eyes and that weren’t obeying Him.

How quickly can humans forget?                                     

We were once a great nation.  Why?  This nation served God and overall was an ally of Israel.  Not always strong and shame on us when we weren’t, but guilty enough that their neighbors aren’t fans of ours.

Now this nation worships money.  It’s over $12 Trillion down and that’s the conservative estimate.  It has been fighting since 1962 to throw God out of everything. 

Make sense?  Actually, when one gets to know the Word of God and the sinful fall of man, it does. 

Study God’s Word nonstop.  The only sanity, in an insane and out of control world, is God and His Word.

Yesterday we spoke of the ten awesome plagues that God put on the Egyptians.  The Israelites witnessed it all.  After the Plague of the Firstborn, the Egyptians begged the Israelites to go and even gave them their goods, silver, and gold, when they were asked by the Jews.   

In another mighty act the Lord led them in the form of a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

In Exodus 13:17 the Israelites are on their way out of Egypt.  God has just delivered them singlehandedly from a strong dominant well to do nation.  How many versus does it take for them to lose heart?  About 15 versus it seems.  Pharaoh has a change of plans and decides he wants his slave labor plan back along with everything that was just plundered from them.

Exodus 14:5-9 – ⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” ⁶ So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. ⁷ He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. ⁸ The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. ⁹ The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

I don’t think Pharaoh’s heart needed to change much nor needed a lot of persuasion from God to harden.  So with one miracle after another, day upon day from the Lord, how did the Israelites respond?

Exodus 14:10 – ¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.    

Crying out to the Lord is the good part.  We need to cry out to the Lord for deliverence, but were they crying out to the Lord in confidence?

Exodus 14:11-12 – ¹¹ They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Now I don’t know about you, but when they were upset during captivity when the Egyptians took away the straw and still wanted the same number of bricks, I can understand whining to Moses that more hardship was being brought on by Moses’ boldness.  At that time they were trying to go with the flow and they were being beaten for something they weren’t prepared for.

That was before the Hand of God led them out of Egypt.  Now after witnessing God’s mighty strength, are they praying to Him stating, “please God, help us again!?”

No.  They’re complaining to Moses asking him if it was because there were no graves in Egypt that he brought them out into the desert to die.

They were asking Moses if “he” brought them out of Egypt to die?  I’m pretty sure we read that Moses was very careful to explain to the Israelites that it was God that delivered them out of Egypt. 

My, how quickly man forgets!  I emphasize the human race, as the Israelites are just the example in this story.

We could stop right there and wrap it up, but there is so much more.  We could use another day and let’s make that tomorrow.

Moses was chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

No generation of people has seen the direct mighty Hand of God at work more than this one.

They witnessed 10 plagues that were sent upon the Egyptians to help set them free.  Those plagues weren’t only to help set them free, but to display the awesome power of God also.

One by one they witnessed them.

The Plague of turning the Nile to blood.
The Plague of Frogs.
The Plague of Gnats.
The Plague of Flies.
The Plague of Livestock dying.  Yet not the Israelites livestock.
The Plague of Boils.
The Plague of Hail.
The Plague of Locust.
The Plague of Darkness.
The Plague of the Firstborn.

The Plagues were a strong judgment on a nation that had enslaved and suppressed God’s chosen people.  Not only were the judgments awesome in their severity, but just to make sure there was no mistake, the Israelites were warned and spared of the judgments.  This way, no one could pass it off by unfortunate circumstances.

Were the plagues bad timing for the Egyptians?  No, they came right after God told Moses to tell them they were coming if they didn’t let the His people go.

Did this generation of people (Israelites) as a whole, straighten up and live unwavering from this day forward?

Let’s discuss more on this tomorrow.

John 8:12 – ¹²When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

What is darkness?

Well by reading the scriptures, most of the time it refers to a lost place you don’t want to be or it describes evil.

Darkness happens when one gets away from God.

When one walks blindly in the dark they stumble, fall, can walk off the edge and get seriously hurt, or die.  Their acts many times are considered evil by God, even when they aren’t trying to be that way.  Because when you’re in the dark, you can’t see the problem unless someone else sheds some light on it.  Ah, great saying and I think you know where we are going with this.

Who is the light of the world?

Jesus is the light of the world.  This is what Jesus has to say to all those who have accepted him as Lord.

Matthew 5:14-16 – ¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

So the Light of the World just got done telling us what he expects from those who have accepted Him and love Him.  Jesus is stating you now need to be a light on the hill because you are a part of Him.

Are you hiding your light under a bowl?  You need to really answer that question.  If you are, Why?

Would you like it if a so called friend ignored you every time someone else came along.  Let’s imagine you are walking along with a guy named John and you bump into Bob.

John: “Hey Bob how’s is it going?”

Bob:    “Hey John, I’m doing great.  Hey who’s you friend here?”

John:  “Who?”

Bob:     “The guy you appear to be walking with, Him.”

John:    “Oh yeah, him.  You know he’s a personal friend.  We talk sometimes when no one else is around.  But now you’re here and frankly I just don’t feel comfortable in introducing him to you.”

Bob:    “Oh, are you upset with him or ashamed of him.”

John:   “No!  Are you kidding me?  He’s everything to me.  It’s just that it takes me out of my comfort zone to introduce him.  You know?”

Is this a friend?  This is the way many treat their so called important friend Jesus.

There is nothing in the Bible that I recall that states if you’re shy don’t worry about sharing Jesus with the world.  Nothing that says if sharing God and Jesus takes you out of your comfort zone, don’t worry about it.

Anyone can be a light on a hill.  Anyone can share what the Lord is doing in their lives.  This world is full of hurting people that are constantly put in our paths and you can be a light to those people.

Jesus has another verse that comes to mind.

Matthew 10:32-33 – ³²“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

I’m not saying that this verse is aimed at a timid Christian who doesn’t share the Lord with others.  But this verse does point out how important it is to Jesus that you acknowledge Him before other people.

Be a light on a hill for everyone to see.  The world is full of darkness and it needs Jesus.