Learning Lately...

In Faith Bible class we were looking at the plagues that led up to the Exodus of the children of Israel. I *love* how I am always learning something new in a well read portion of scripture. God shows Pharaoh how powerless his gods are in a pretty ironic way...the account is in Ex 7:15-11:10; 12:29-30



The entire study is fascinating!

The first plague in which the water turned into blood was aimed at the gods of Egypt, yes as were all the other plagues, but this particular plague interested me (and for sake of time will just mention this one). I learned it was aimed at Osiris (another name for Tammuz), a fertility god of land and vegetation whose resurrection was pictured in the annual overflowing of the Nile. (*shaking head* Satan, always tricking people with imitation.) The Nile was considered the bloodstream of Osiris. How ironic.!!..it was like God was saying..you believe it is the bloodstream of a false god and put it before me...then you shall have your "god's" bloodstream- which in turn killed everything in it and smelled of putrid death. The other gods, Hapi, Isis, Khnum and other gods associated with the Nile were also shown to be powerless and non-existent. Notice also, how the magicians could do nothing to purify the water, but they could only use trickery to make the problem worse. I would love to go on, but this point in and of itself is remarkable all by itself for today...the whole study of Exodus in this course is amazing.
As I remembered and thought on this lesson, I thought of how it applies to us today. The Lord *continues* to allow us to see that our "god's" are powerless and an abomination before Him. No, I don't have any graven images, but when I trust in my own wisdom and strength and allow pride of life as a god set up before Him...He reveals to me the folly of my idolatry. He allows me to stumble when He sees me clinging or even resting on anything other than Him. His loving chastisement helps me to see that the very thing I was trusting in or trying to glean personal glory from will be the very thing that has no power and only serves to humiliate and repulse me. These "bloodied Nile" experiences send me to my knees before my One and Only Almighty God asking His forgiveness and asking for the grace to lean only on Him. Lord, please continue to show me the false gods that I allow to creep into my life with even one foolish thought-tear them down-allow *me* to be repulsed by my foolish idolatry as the Egyptians were repulsed by their blood filled Nile.
I continue to be in awe of our Almighty God and find all the time how He uses His Word to convict and guide me.

picture courtesy of allposters.com