Let them go

DEVOTION

EXODUS

LET THEM GO

Ex 5:1-2

5:1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.'" 2 Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."

NIV

This is just the beginning of a long time of interchanges with Pharaoh regarding letting the people go. So Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh that Yahweh Elohiym of Israel. They tell him the supreme eternal God of Israel says: “Let my people go”. Here is the rub. Pharaoh, thinking himself a god, responds, “Who is the Yahweh, that I should obey him?” Is this not the words of the world today? “Who is God that we should obey him?” People have made themselves into their own gods, just as Pharaoh did. But without realizing it they are in fact slaves to the prince of darkness who has set himself up as a god to them. The whole idea of darkness, the whole concept of self-serving is brought to them by Satan. Pharaoh did not recognize the God of Israel therefore considered himself not subject to him. People today who say, “There is no God” or “I don’t believe in God” or something along those thoughts, are not much different than Pharaoh. Because they do not believe they feel they are not subject to him or his statutes. Even we believers might get a little into that kind of thinking. Sure, we believe in God. Yes, we have had a born again experience. We have confessed our sin, asked for forgiveness and proclaimed Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Yet do we still say that we do not know who he is that we should be subject to him, that we will not obey him? Sure there are many areas of our lives we feel we are obeying him, but there may be areas in our lives we still rather think our thoughts, our ways are better than his. Sometimes we might even intentionally misrepresent his word in order to live in a manner we want to. How can we actually dislike someone? How can we truly feel jealously or envy, or for that matter pride? How can we feel good or prideful about doing good deeds? How can we continue to store up wealth for ourselves? How can we ignore those in need? How can we mistreat others with either unkind thoughts, words or deeds? How can we trust ourselves over trusting in God for all aspects of our lives? Are we like Pharaoh in some respect? Oh, we know him, but we may not be fully obeying him. We might say, “I know the word of God, but I am not going to obey all of it, I will pick and choose.” We may not say that out loud, but is that our thoughts? We are going to see the mighty hand of God rise up against Pharaoh until he relents and lets the people go. Surely we live in the age of grace, that we do not have to be concerned about the mighty hand of God rising up against us, but let us not forget who he is or refuse his hand of rebuking, correction and training in righteousness. As he wants to have Pharaoh let his people go, he desires for us to release those areas of our lives that are still in disobedience and let them go.