“The Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “‘This time I have sinned.’” He said to them. “‘The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.”
~ Exodus 9:27
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know what a plague is? A plague is a devastating outbreak. A plague can be an epidemic. At the time of the editing of this ‘devotional’ – which is seventeen years after it was written, five million guys, gals and kids have died from a pandemic that has for the past eighteen or so months invaded every country on planet Earth. A plague can be a disease. The bubonic plague was a rodent carrying disease that killed over 25 million guys, gals and kids in the mid 1300’s from China to Europe. A plague can be a spike in nature. A region in Australia right now has thick swarms of locusts covering the land – consuming all the crops. A plague can be a supernatural phenomenon. A spate of tornados is sometimes called a plague. Pea size to grapefruit size hail each year crash down on planet Earth to ravage, maim and kill indiscriminately manmade things, crops and animals. God about 3450 years ago sent as a plague an anthrax type disease – which He used flies to carry, to kill all the livestock that Egyptian guys and gals owned. None of the horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep and goats that were owned by Egyptian guys and gals were resistant to the plague while none of the horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep and goats that were owned by Israelite people groups guys and gals were affected by the plague. This plague would be the fourth plague that God would afflict on the Egyptian guys and gals in order to get the Egyptian Pharaoh to let His specially chosen guys and gals leave Egypt – where they had become Egyptian guys’ slaves. When the Egyptian Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let God’s specially chosen guys and gals leave Egypt – even after he had said that God’s special chosen guys and gals could leave his country, God sent a fifth plague. Moses initiated this plague by throwing soot from a furnace up into the air. This soot caused black, burning, festering abscesses – pustule like boils, to break out all over the bodies of Egyptian guys and gals. Even though the Egyptian Pharaoh had promised God’s specially chosen guys and gals again that they would be able to leave his country, it would not happen as the Egyptian Pharaoh would change his mind again after God hardened his heart so he would change his mind. God would send a sixth plague to affect the land of Egypt. Hail this time fell everyplace in the land of Egypt – except in the land area of Goshen which was the land area where God’s specially chosen gals, guys and kids were living in the land of Egypt. The hail seemed to have been a wakeup call for the Egyptian Pharaoh to know that he needed to let God’s specially chosen guys and gals leave Egypt or . . . Moses would write about these three plagues in Exodus 9. Verse 27 says, “The Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “‘This time I have sinned.’” He said to them. “‘The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.”
What would you do if you had one crisis after another crisis taking place in your lives? What would you do if the crises that were taking place in your lives were affecting the lives of other kids? Would you start to do things God’s way instead of doing things your way? Would you change your mind after you had told God that you would do things His way? The Egyptian Pharaoh would change his mind again and again. The Egyptian Pharaoh did not have a choice about keeping his word to let God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids leave His land as God was causing the Egyptian Pharaoh to change his mind. The Egyptian Pharaoh had God messing with his heart. Do you think that God is messing with your hearts? Do you think that God is messing with your dad’s heart? Why do you think that God was always hardening the Egyptian Pharaoh’s heart after He had gotten the Egyptian Pharaoh to give his okay for God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids to leave Egypt for the land that He wanted His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land? Do you think that God was teaching the Egyptian Pharaoh some really hard life lessons or do you think that God was teaching His specially chosen guys and gals how His unmerited mercy really works? Your grandpaa thinks that God was teaching His specially chosen guys and gals life lessons about how His unconditional mercy really works. The different plagues that God sent only affected the crops that the Egyptian guys and gals were growing, the animals that the Egyptian guys and gals owned and the guys and gals who were Egyptians by birth. These plagues did not affect at all God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Goshen, Egypt, the crops that they were growing and their animals.
Ailments and natural disasters are ways that God uses to get the attention of His specially elected guys, gals and kids. Your grandpaa has experienced having a boil. A boil can cause a lot of pain A guy who went on a summer team that went to Bolivia one summer had a boil on his tailbone. The summer team that year was on a trip that went overland from San José to San Ignacio to Concepción to San Javier and on to Santa Cruz. The second leg of the trip from San Ignacio to Concepción was barely a trail for some of the trip. Your grandpaa was able to find a small truck in Concepción that was willing to take the summer team the rest of the way to Santa Cruz. The small truck had corn and a pig in it. When the small truck arrived at the Rio Grande right around midnight, none of the guys who pull the flat bottom boats that carry vehicles across the Rio Grande were willing to take the small truck across the river in a flat bottom boat because a wet cold front had just moved into the area. The guys and gals who were traveling on that year’s summer team’s trip ended up sleeping in and under the small truck. The small truck would finally make it to Santa Cruz the next day. Why do you think that God had Lee get a boil on his tailbone during this weeks’ long trip?
Exodus 9 (546)