Hand of God
Exodus 7-9
Hand of God. In Exodus 7-9, we read of the first seven plagues that God sent to the land of Egypt. Some people have doubted that these plagues of Egypt ever really took place, but if you will look into Egyptian history, there is a time recorded when the land of Egypt was completely destroyed. That Pharaoh died, and a new dynasty began to rule.
1 And the Lord said to Moses,
“See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall
be your prophet. 2 You shall speak all that I command you, and your
brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of
his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my
signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 4 Pharaoh will not listen to
you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the
children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. 5
The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand
against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”
17
Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold,
with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in
the Nile, and it shall turn into blood.
Exodus 7:1-5 & 17, ESV
5
And the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with
your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make
frogs come up on the land of Egypt!’”
17
. . . Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust
of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the
earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.
24
And the Lord did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of
Pharaoh and into his servants' houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt
the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.
Exodus 8: 5, 17, & 24, ESV
6
And the next day the Lord did this thing. All the livestock of the
Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel
died.
10
So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses
threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man
and beast.
23
Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent
thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained
hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and fire flashing
continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never
been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail
struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt,
both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field
and broke every tree of the field.
Exodus 9:6, 10, & 23-25, ESV
Hand of God
Exodus 7-9
In Exodus 7-9, we read of the first seven plagues that God sent to the land of Egypt. Some people have doubted that these plagues of Egypt ever really took place, but if you will look into Egyptian history, there is a time recorded when the land of Egypt was completely destroyed. That Pharaoh died, and a new dynasty began to rule. There is much argument about this, but according to some archeological researchers, the time of Moses was during the 12th dynasty of Egypt and not the 18th, as some believe.
Everything
written in the Bible concurs with a time at the end of the 12th dynasty
of Egypt. For more information I have found a wonderful article at the
following address:
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1827/
Egypt was the ruling nation in the world at that time; she paid a high price for her unbelief!
What
lesson are we to learn from this portion of Scripture? God is actively
living and ruling our world. As we look at natural catastrophes
occurring all over the world (floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc) we must
not overlook the hand of God in these events. It is true that Christians
do suffer from these events as well as the unbelievers, but nothing
happens apart from the hand of God. Every lightening bolt strikes
exactly where God has intended it to strike.
We are
not used to thinking of God in this way, but think of how precious that
is. Christians do not need to fear natural disasters, because they know
they are a work of God. What comfort to know that we do not have to
think in terms of chance, but rather we are we know that the hand of God
never leaves us.
These lessons from the book of Exodus are especially pertinent in this, the 21st Century. We love to honor and glorify man and his great accomplishments, but nothing is done apart from the hand of God. So, in the midst of times of great plenty as well as in times of great natural disasters, let us remember the goodness of our great and wondrous God who orders all events for His great honor and glory.
The
world goes a long way to disprove the Bible, but it will never happen.
The Bible is God's Book from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 21:27; though
some things may seem unclear to us, we remember that while here on earth
we see through a glass darkly. In heaven everything will be made clear!
What a blessing to live in the protection of the hand of God!
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