FBC Daily Devotional – Feb. 26, 2021

Well, here we are, Friday already, end of another work week and looking forward to the weekend.

Sunday, the Lord's Day, going to be a good day as we gather as God's people, worship together, if you can make that.

If you can't make it, well, we do live stream and you can catch us online at the website, on YouTube, Facebook Live, and, you know, watch there if you can.

But we will be meeting in person, have Sunday school at 9 .30 and then the morning service at 10 .30.

And if you can make it, we'd be glad to have you do so. Well, what does it take to really get your attention?

I mean really grab you by the collar, shake you, look you in the face, and then he's got your attention.

What does it take? What does it take? Well, it seems like maybe a house full of frogs or frogs everywhere, everywhere would do the trick.

Don't you think? Here we are, we're reading in the book of Exodus and we've come to the second plague and as you read in chapters 7, 8, and 9, you're gonna read about the plagues of frogs and gnats and the flies and boils and livestock dying and terrible hailstorms and so forth.

You're gonna read about this stuff. What's it take? What's gonna take to really get Pharaoh's attention? What would it take to really get your attention?

It seems like a house full of frogs would work and in our reading it seems like it actually did because we read in verse 8 after, you know, the frogs are everywhere.

I mean, this really sounds nasty, doesn't it? I mean, can you imagine, you know, you open your oven and there's frogs and you pull back the sheets and there's frogs and you get out of bed in the morning and they're stepping on frogs.

I mean, it's just nasty, just nasty. So it seems like this frogs everywhere has gotten

Pharaoh's attention. We read in verse 8 that then, then, with the frogs everywhere,

Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people and I will let the people go.

I will let the people go. Please, you know, I'll let them go and serve the

Lord. Just get rid of these frogs. You know, if you're

Moses, you're thinking, hmm, it worked, it worked. You know, the turn in the water, the blood didn't do anything, but man, the frogs worked.

Well, that's the way it would seem, but alas, no, as soon as the, as soon as the frogs died off and, you know, there weren't any more frogs jumping around anymore,

Pharaoh hardens his heart. Well, the Lord said he was gonna harden his heart, but Pharaoh hardens his heart.

So the frogs just momentarily got his attention. By the way, I'm gonna come back to that in a minute, but by the way, do you notice in some of these plagues how the pagan magicians are able to replicate the plague?

You know, Moses and Aaron, they turned water to blood. Well, the magicians did the same thing, too. And here in the second plague, frogs came up on the land, and the magicians were able to make frogs come up on the land, too.

You wonder how they were able to do that. You know, was there a demonic power?

Would they? Well, I don't think so. I think it, I think it's very simple that the

Lord said, okay, that's what you want. I'll let you do it, too. And so he uses even these pagan magicians to further the crisis, to further the plague.

Well, how helpful is that? If you can do something about it, why don't you get rid of them? That, that they cannot do.

They can add to the problem, but they can do absolutely nothing to solve it.

Pharaoh knows he needs to call Moses and Aaron to get the plagues to stop. There's another interesting question.

When he did call Moses and Aaron, he said, hey, please plead with the Lord to get rid of these frogs.

Moses said, okay, I'll do that. When do you want me to do it? Pharaoh said, tomorrow.

Tomorrow? Why tomorrow? Why not, like, right now? Could you imagine his wife?

When he went, he went home, and his frogs are jumping around, and he goes home to dinner, and a frog jumps on the table, and jumps in the food, and, and he, he recounts what happened that day.

She says, how'd your day go? And he says, oh, it went, it went miserably, all these stupid frogs everywhere, but at least

I got Moses and Aaron to come in, and they're promised to get rid of these frogs. Well, when's that gonna happen?

I told him to do it tomorrow. She's like, you procrastinate everything, don't you?

What are you doing tomorrow? Why didn't you, why didn't you tell him now? Get rid of him now! I don't know.

I never did get a good answer to that, to that question, why? Anyhow, how often, how often is the outcome of chapter 8, verse 15?

When he saw that the frogs were gone, verse 15 tells us he hardened his heart, and wouldn't listen.

So, respite comes, and he hardens his heart. You know, that happens often, that's gonna happen again in these plagues, where, you know, in the state of misery, they're so miserable, and this happens in, this happens in lives today, too.

Maybe, maybe it's happened to you, where the

Lord has made you so miserable, so miserable, that you actually bow the knee, you acknowledge your sin, you seem to be repentant and humbled.

This is what Pharaoh did in chapter 9, we read of that in verse 27, Exodus 9, verse 27.

Pharaoh says to Moses and Aaron, and he says to them, this time I've sinned, this time

I've sinned. That hail comes and destroys crops and people and everything. He says, this time

I've sinned. The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.

Truly repentant, truly humbled, truly brought to his knees, truly becomes a believer, right?

Nope, nope. When the crisis is over, the true heart is once again revealed.

Verse 34, when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet again, and hardened his heart.

That happens too often. We get in a crisis, and in the crisis we seem to get really spiritual.

We go before the Lord, we pray, we beg of him to intervene, we promise, well,

I'm not going to do thus and so anymore, I'm not going to be like this, I'm not going to say these things, I'm going to go to church more faithfully, and we make all these things, and then the crisis passes, and then we're right back to where we were.

Right back where we were. Just like Pharaoh. Let's not be like that.

Let's not be like that. If the Lord uses some crisis to bring us to our knees, let us be able to say with David, it was good for me that I've been afflicted.

I learned to fear you. I learned to trust you. May we come to that point. So Father, I pray, help us to learn, help us to learn from the failure of Pharaoh, and instead of being superficial in our quote -unquote repentance, may it be real.

May you really work in the circumstances of life to change us, and to mold us, and to shape us to be more like Christ.

This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your

Friday, and a wonderful weekend, and I trust the Lord's Day will be a great blessing to you. Good day.