Have you ever noticed that some people are suckers for punishment? It's almost as if they enjoy discomfort and suffering. Maybe it's pride. Maybe it's stupidity. Whatever it is, some people are just plain nuts!Take a look at Exodus 8:1-15 with me. Come on, it's only a few verses. It's actually a pretty funny story when you see the stupidity of Pharaoh. This is the story about Moses trying to convince Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go. Pharaoh continues to refuse their release, so various plagues are tormenting the Egyptians.
In the first plague, God turned the Nile River as well as the streams, canals, ponds and resevoirs into blood and all the fish died as well. The Bible says that even the wooden buckets and stone jars that had water would turn to blood (Exodus 7:19). You would think that after seven days of not having any good drinking water, the man would accept defeat and let the Israelites go.
This second plague, swarms of frogs, was pretty creepy. Thousands of frogs come up out of the Nile at the stretching out of Moses staff. These frogs came into every room of their houses and were even climbing all over the people! I think frogs are cool and all, but having them crawl all over me and to have them in my bed...that's just too much.
Even though Pharaoh's magicians were able to dublicate the miracle, they obviously couldn't get rid of them. Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and agreed to let the Israelites go if he would pray to God to remove the frogs. Here in lies the humor.
To assure that God received the acknowledgement of the miracle, Moses humbly gives Pharaoh the honor of choosing the time for the frogs to be removed. Now, I'm not sure if Pharaoh thought to long about his answer or not, but I'm surprized by his response. He answered Moses, "Tomorrow".
Tomorrow? What are you stupid? Do you really want to sleep with frogs another night? Do you really want them getting into your food and craawling all over you for another day? What was he thinking? Did he think that the same God that caused them to instantaniously come up out of the waters needed some time to make them return to the water or disappear?
How often do we choose to spend another night with the frogs? No, not real frogs. The frogs can represent things in our lives that we know are harmful to our body and our spirit. I don't have to name them for you. You know what they are. Jesus is standing there giving us the opportunity to get rid of the frogs and yet we say, "Tomorrow".
Our challenge is to not allow any frogs to plague our lives for another day. Just say "No!" to compromise and ask God to help you live in the victory and freedom that He has already provided. If we don't, we may end up like Pharaoh eight plagues later...dead at the bottom of the Red Sea.
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