Negotiating With God -- A Plague Upon Us

The third plague was the plague of gnats. The Bible says that all of the dust in Egypt turned into gnats. Remember -- Egypt was a pretty dusty place to begin with! Can you just imagine gnats so thick that they were everywhere in front of you? That you couldn't take a breath without breathing them into your throat? It apparently did not matter to Pharaoh:

"This is the finger of God!" the magicians exclaimed to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh's heart remained hard. He wouldn't listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted. -- Exodus 8: 19 (NLT)

Even the magicians knew at this point that God was behind the plagues. But Pharaoh would simply not listen. How often do we also turn our noses up to God and simply disobey Him blindly and willingly? We do not put it out of our mind as we did with the plague of blood -- we are aware of it. We simply disobey. We go to the club on Saturday night even though we know we do not belong there anymore. We continue to flirt with the new female employee at work even though we know it is wrong because we are both married. The more we blatantly disobey the harder our heart becomes about it. The fourth plague visited upon Pharaoh was the plague of flies:

And the Lord did just as he had said. A thick swarm of flies filled Pharaoh's palace and the houses of his officials. The whole land of Egypt was thrown into chaos by the flies. Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron. "All right! Go ahead and offer sacrifices to your God," he said. "But do it here in this land." -- Exodus 8: 24-25 (NLT)

At this point Pharaoh fancies himself to be Monty Hall and he is trying to play Let's Make a Deal with God! All of Egypt has been thrown into chaos from thick swarms of flies -- after the gnats, after the frogs, and after the blood. At least finally Pharaoh is acknowledging God but he tries to do so on his terms -- not God's. Sound familiar? How often do we too try to negotiate with God? How often when faced with something we know God is instructing us to correct, we try and bargain the situation down to a level where we still get what we want carnally? Well, I go to the club but I don't drink! Well, I look but I don't touch! Well, you can make your sacrifices but not in the wilderness! There is no negotiating with God beloved. We either obey Him or we are disobedient to Him. We can have all the rationalizations worked out in our mind but they do not impress God. When King Saul kept the choicest plunder from the Amalekites he tried to explain it away by saying he did it to make sacrifices to God. How often do we dress up our disobedience with religiosity as well? Yet here was the response from the Prophet Samuel:

But Samuel replied, "What is more pleasing to the Lord : your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord , he has rejected you as king." -- 1Samuel 15: 22-23 (NLT)

Rebellion against the Lord is as sinful of witchcraft! Because it is not taught or preached enough, we simply do not realize how our disobedience is viewed by God. The fifth plague was the plague of livestock:

And the Lord did just as he had said. The next morning all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but the Israelites didn't lose a single animal. Pharaoh sent his officials to investigate and they discovered that the Israelites had not lost a single animal! But even so, Pharaoh's heart remained stubborn, and he still refused to let the people go. -- Exodus 9: 6-7 (NLT)

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