“And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”
~ Exodus 7:5
Hi James and Ellen,
What are you feelings about snakes? Have you ever held a snake? When your Aunt Lynn has been in Thailand leading Adventures in Missions short term ministry teams of guys and gals, your Aunt Lynn will take these teams to a large outdoor market. There is a place in the market where a guy has a couple of large anacondas. Your Aunt Lynn has had photos taken of her with one of these large anacondas draped over her shoulders. There were garter snakes on the farm – which is one mile west and two miles north of Volga, South Dakota, where your grandpaa grew up. Your grandpaa would catch the garter snakes by grabbing them by their tail and then he would put the garter snakes in the basement window well that is located under the living room window in the house where your grandpaa grew up. That basement window well was deep enough to keep the garter snakes that your grandpaa caught from easily crawling out. Your grandpaa never worried about getting bit by a garter snake because a garter snake bite is not venomous. Why do you think that a lot of guys, gals and kids – like your grandmaa, really do not like snakes? Do you think that maybe it is because God let a stunning, cunning snake bring sin to the egg-shaped orb called Earth that God has blessed you to have life on for what is no more than a fleeting moment in God’s infinite existence in His ever expanding universe playground?
God had a fallen angel – whose name was Lucifer, disguise himself as a beautiful, charming snake in order to bring the spirit of disobedience to planet Earth. God still uses snakes in the divinely choreographed plan that He designed as only a God Who has always existed as an Eternal Being could. After He designated Moses to be the leader of His specially chosen guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, who were living in Goshen, Egypt, God used a snake to demonstrate His power to an Egyptian Pharaoh. The first visit that Aaron and Moses made to the Egyptian Pharaoh’s palace is recorded in Exodus 7. God told Aaron and Moses before they made their first visit to the Egyptian Pharaoh what He was going to do to the Egyptian Pharaoh’s heart. God told Aaron and Mosses that He was going to harden the Egyptian Pharaoh’s heart so that the guy would not do what Aaron and Moses would ask him to do – which was to let His specially chosen guys, gals and kids leave Egypt for a country called Canaan where God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their extended families would always have to live in as their very own land. God’s perfectly choreographed stratagem for Aaron – when he and Moses made their initial visit to the Egyptian Pharaoh, was for Aaron to throw down his staff to the ground in front of the Egyptian Pharaoh. When Aaron threw down his staff to the ground in front of the Egyptian Pharaoh, God turned Aaron’s staff into a snake. The Egyptian Pharaoh was not impressed. The Egyptian Pharaoh called in his wise guys, sorcerers and magicians for these guys to do the same thing – which was to have them throw down their staffs to the ground in front of him and to have their staffs turn into snakes. Do you think that God let the staffs of wise guys, sorcerers and magicians turn into snakes? God did. God did something else though; God had the snake that once had been Aaron’s staff devour the snakes that once had been the staffs of wise guys, sorcerers and magicians. In spite of what the Egyptian Pharaoh saw, the guy refused to let God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids leave Egypt for the land where God had promised three Israelite people group’s patriarchs that their extended families would always have to live in as their very own land. Once the ‘staffs becoming snakes and after one snake ate the other snakes’ preamble was over with, God’s divine plan – which He is orchestrating nanosecond after nanosecond, was to begin to haunt the Egyptian Pharaoh with ten heavy hitting plagues. The first plague that God sent had the water that was flowing down the Nile River change into real blood – causing the fish in the Nile River to die, the Nile River to stink and the water from the Nile River unfit for Egyptian guys, gals and kids to drink. As the Nile River at the time of the year when this happened would have had red sediment coming down the river from Ethiopia, the Egyptian Pharaoh was not unsettled by the first plague that God inflicted on him and on the Egyptian guys, gals and kids.
God at times will do something disquieting or catastrophic to get a guy, gal or kid to want to look to Him to save him or her from whatever it is. God still uses snakes today to get the attention of a guy, gal or kid. One evening after Jim and Hattie Daverson left for Peru to be the field missionary team leaders there and during the year or so when your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in the house that Jim and Hattie built in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, your grandpaa went to the kitchen to fix your grandmaa something to drink. As your grandpaa was pouring soda from a bottle into a glass, your grandpaa sensed that there was something moving between his bare feet and the counter on which he was fixing something for your grandmaa to drink. When your grandpaa looked down on the floor, your grandpaa saw a snake that is called what sounds like in Spanish in Bolivia yopi ‘sss’ing away. Your grandpaa took the almost full case of twelve large soda bottles and dropped the case of sodas on top of the yopi – pinning the yopi to the floor with only its tail showing. A yopi is very dangerous as its bite is venomous and can be lethal. Why do you think that God let a yopi get into the house where your grandmaa and grandpaa were living? Verse 5 says “And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”’ God uses life occurrences for your grandpaa – and for you, to see and to know that He alone is our Lord and our Savior.
Exodus 7 (409)