FBT Daily Devotional: Exodus 7

FBT Daily Devotional

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

All right. So let's go. Now, this is a bit of a power chapter. It's where confrontation begins. Not discussion. Time for that. Not negotiation. Time of that's over. It's demonstration. More demonstration. So quickly, Exodus 1 through 6. The family of Jacob, which is Israel, or simply Israel, multiplied in Egypt. What began as favor for them under Joseph and Pharaoh has turned into oppression under Pharaoh number two. So God preserves his life, saves and raises up Moses, and calls him from a burning bush to deliver his people. Now Moses wrestles with insecurity. How many of us have, right? But God establishes his authority and sends him anyway. Are you gonna do this? Now he is declaring, according to Exodus 6, God is reaffirming his covenant, saying, I will bring you out, I will redeem you. Now in chapter 7, he begins to act. Love it. So this chapter is not just about the plagues, this is about authority, identity, and confrontation with systems that refuse to let go. Okay, yeah, God will make you what you feel unqualified to be. Pause. What God tells Moses, I have made you a God to Pharaoh. Oh, God's not calling Moses divine. That's not what he's doing. He is assigning, delegating authority. Okay. All right. So in Egyptian culture, Pharaoh was seen as a God. So God says, if Pharaoh thinks he's a God, making me think about Job again. I will send you as one. So we have to know that God will confront our false power and real authority. Then to see this, Moses had felt inadequate back in chapter four. But here in chapter seven, God doesn't fix Moses. He doesn't fix his feelings, he redefines his function. Aha, aha, there is a difference. So when people feel unqualified to lead, to speak in groups, or step into their purpose, maybe, but God places them in a position where their authority disrupts the environment they once feared. Ooh, okay. So now in Luke 10, 19, it echoes this. Behold, I give unto you power over all the power of the enemy. That's a lot. This point is you don't have to feel powerful. You don't have to feel it, but you'd be sent to be with power. You'll be sent with power. Okay. So in verse 3, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart. Okay. So what God's going to harden a heart, this troubled me and many people actually previously, but watch carefully. God will harden what refuses to yield to him. Okay. If you don't get some act right, he's gonna take care of you. All right. So God does not create evil in Pharaoh. That's not what he does. He confirms what Pharaoh had already chosen. He picked his bed. Pharaoh hardened his own heart first, and that'll be reconfirmed in uh chapter 8, verse 15. Later, uh the man he sabotaged himself. Pharaoh sabotaged himself. Okay, so listen up: God will solidify the direction you persistently choose. Okay, if you resist long enough, resistance becomes your nature. Okay, but if you don't resist, then God's like, oh, that's what you want, my son, my daughter, that's what you won't be like. Okay, here you go. I got you. We all won't be there. So you know, like you just keep ignoring the conviction that's rising up in you until eventually you no longer feel it. You no longer feel that conviction coming. You just running wild, right? So in Hebrews 3:15, it warns us harden not your hearts, your repeated resistance can become a permanent posture. Okay, so Moses and Aaron, they get to the point where they're confronting Pharaoh, and Aaron throws down the rod and it becomes the serpent. Okay, in verse 11, the magicians of Egypt did in the like manner, they did the same thing with their enchantments. The thing is that miracles alone don't change every heart. Okay, Egypt had counterfeit power, okay, and this was an illusion, it was demonic imitation, though. It was demonic imitation, but then verse 12 Aaron's rod swallowed up theirs. What is that showing us? God doesn't just match power, he overwhelms it, he'll overtake it. So think of all the world is offering to substitute God, you know, false peace, false success, false spirituality, false wealth, or showing off of wealth, but none of it sustains us long term. It does not. You can start something all day long, but do you have the faith, the stamina, the endurance to hang in there and see it all the way through? You need God for that. So 1 John 4 and 4 says, Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Amen. So counterfeits may look similar, but they cannot consume or replace the real thing, dears. Okay, the first plague was an attack on the economy and religion of Egypt. Now, when the Nile turns to blood in verse 20 of chapter 7, all the waters that were in the river were to blood. So the Nile was Egypt's lifeline, and also they worshiped it as a God back then. So God doesn't just send a plague, He struck their economy, He struck their survival system, He struck their false deity. All three in that. Okay, so God will confront what people trust more than Him. Watch your placement of who you look up to and have faith in. So He'll allow disruption in areas people depend on more than Him. Your finances, your systems, your stability. Not necessarily to destroy, but to riggy redirect your trust. He's still giving us chances all the time, guys. And Haggai 2:18, 2 and 8. I'm sorry, the silver is mine, the gold is mine, he says. It reminds us that what you trust can be touched. So you need to learn who to trust. Amen. Well, even after the judgment, some hearts still won't turn. In verse 22, it says that Pharaoh's heart was hardened even more. Even after the river was blood, the fish died, the land stunk, dead animals everywhere. Pharaoh still walked away. Powder. So exposure to negative things does not necessarily equal your transformation. You can see God move and still not surrender to him. Okay, it's like you actually firsthand, you're seeing these miracles, hearing the truth, experiencing the warnings, but still refusing to change. In Luke 16, 31, it says, if they hear not Moses, neither will they be persuaded. Though one rose from the dead, they don't hear Moses, then they're not gonna be persuaded by the one who rose from the dead. That's a foretelling of Jesus. So again, signs don't change hearts, our surrender does. Amen. So here is Exodus 7, not random judgment. God is confronting what holds you captive. It is targeted confrontation. He is dismantling the false authority of Pharaoh, the false power of the magicians in Egypt, the false security they had in the Nile. So his people can be free. I'd say that God will use you beyond your comfort level. Persistent resistance of God leads to hardened hearts. Not all power is from God, but God's power does prevail. God will confront misplaced trust, and miracles don't replace obedience. So as we prepare to go to breakout rooms, I'd like to say, stop underestimating what God placed in you. You are not just surviving systems, you are sent to confront them. Don't fear hardened hearts of others, but stay obedient to his word and stay obedient to God. Don't be distracted by counterfeits. Stay anchored in him. Don't rely on what can be shaken up. Trust the God who cannot. Because when God sends you, he doesn't send you empty. Amen. And we can go to breakout rooms.