You may even take your little ones! Look how obedient I am being! See? I am willing to give in"well a little at least. God is not interested in partial obedience beloved. He is interested in full compliance. There are no concessions to make. We either obey or we are in disobedience. If we are in disobedience -- God will try and get our attention. We need to tune our ears to the voice of the Lord and not despise His chastening for it is for our own good and our own growth that we listen to what God says. The tenth plague finally was enough to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. The first born of every Egyptian, including Pharaoh was struck dead by the death angel of the Lord. So the stubborn and defiant leader of
And the people of
Our continued disobedience often costs us dearly. Sin will always cost us more than we had bargained for. Like Pharaoh, we too can have a hardened heart when it comes to obeying what God has decreed. Look, no one is ever going to be perfect and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I fear sometimes that we use Scriptures like that to excuse our behavior. Because of the lack of preaching on sin within the modern church growth theories, we become woefully ignorant of it and how we are to respond to God when we find ourselves on the wrong side of Him. This is not about preaching a hard Word beloved. It is not about the harshness of God. It is about His goodness. His desire for our obedience is for our well being. I pray our hearts are never so steeped in disobedience that we lose sight of that. In Jesus name; amen!
Reverend Anthony Wade -- February 4, 2013
