Yes, I was surprised to open my worship study to find this next chapter entitled. "Worship and Deliverance: The story of Moses." I feel very inept and almost speechless in trying to eloquently and creatively summarize the magnitude of God's glory in this next chapter. At best, I'll recap the author's main points and attempt at examining just a few of the countless applications.
We'll start with Joseph. After Joseph leads in saving his people from famine, the Hebrew people "grew strong in the land." They had many children and grandchildren. (Exodus 1:7.) 400 years passed and along comes Exodus 1:9: "A new king arose who didn't know Joseph." I'll add, he didn't know Joseph or his God. So intimidated by their power and numbers, he turns the Hebrews into slaves.
Allow me to push fast forward, in full reverence, that is. My guess is that if your reading this, you can tell this story with me. So, Pharaoh's plan A, slavery, didn't diminish the Hebrews, their number's increased. Plan B: kill the newborn boys! These instructions were given to the Egyptian midwives. But these women feared the Lord and lied (which really interest me. Justified lying? Rahab lied. hmmm. well, another time.) "Those Hebrew women are stout! Their babies are born before we even get there!" And the Hebrews multiplied.
Plan C-genocide. Pharaoh decrees that all Hebrew newborn males be thrown into the Nile River. This is unthinkable but it happened. And don't forget, we'll never know how many Hebrew boys did drown. Could you imagine the horror? Well, one boy survived. (I'm forcing myself to stick to this blogs point, but oh my, the Sovereignty of God throughout this, AMAZING!) His Mother water-proofed a basket and he's found by the daughter of Pharaoh, and etc.
Moses grows up, not exactly looking like others in his house, he realizes he's not Egyptian. He murders an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a fellow Hebrew, flees to the desert, meets Jethro, the Midian priest, works for him, and God blesses Moses with a home, a wife, a family and a calling.
I must fast forward, yet again. God calls Moses through a burning bush. Burning, but not consumed. Moses responds with three words that are pivotal to worship: "Here I am." You see Abram and Jacob had uttered these same words centuries before (Gen: 22:1 & 46:2.) Prophet Samuel and Isaiah would repeat these words centuries later. Why are three words so important? Obedience. Moses wasn't just in attendance, he was there and responded with an obedient heart.
Moses struggled with believing that God could use an ordinary man in an extraordinary way to achieve an impossible task. BTW-Unbelief is a terrible thing. It smothers the fire of vision, kills dreams, and halts the wheels of progress. Unbelief is a tool of Satan.
So Moses, age 80 & Aaron, age 83, stand before a king who truly thinks of himself to be a god. Thus, another worship war began.
We must remember that the Egyptian people were extremely religious. You name it ,and they had a god or goddess for it. Pharaoh was thought to be a manifestation of "Horus", the god of light. Pharaoh was also the central protector of "Maat", the universal ethical principle that stood for justice, order and truth. So by adhering to Pharaoh, the people were aligned with nature and with the god, Maat.
No wonder Pharaoh was so ghastly offended at Aaron's & Moses' demand from the one true God. So God declares war. He sends 10 plagues. I've often marveled at the different things God sent and how and why He chose those plagues. Don't miss this! When God assailed Egypt with the 10 plagues, He was casting the universal order of creation, the god, Maat, into chaos. Just watch:
Plague 1:
Water to blood. The Egyptians worshipped the Nile River and its god, "Napy." For a full week, every drop of water in Egypt was blood. Fish were dead, the river begin to stink, and blood was everywhere.
Pharaoh's response: a hard heart.
Plague 2:
Frogs. I've always thought this was random and yes, horrible, but frogs? God, you should've done roaches!
But God was making a mockery of "Het", the frog-headed goddess of fertility. She couldn't call off the frogs. So frogs were in the bed, in the ovens, etc. (Anyone else picturing Charlton Heston about now?)
Pharaoh's response: ok, you can go...liar. Moses prayed, the frogs die, and Pharaoh goes back on his word.
Plague 3:
Gnats. God instructs Moses to strike the dust and the dust turns to gnats, That's allot of gnats! This was an embarrassment to all who worshipped "Geb", the "god of the earth." The Egyptians gave homage to this god for the fertile soil, yet from this soil came a pestilence the Geb could not stop.
Plague 4:
Insects. Many translations say flies but this word wasn't in the original. Moses only wrote great swarms covered the land. Many scholars believe it could've been "scarabs", which were used to represent the god "Ra." Whichever they were, these insects were a humiliation to both Ra and Khepfi, god of insects.
Plague 5:
Disease in the animals. Remember, Egyptians worshiped their animals. God was scourging "Apis", the bull-deity, and several other gods that bore the head of other farm animals.
Plague 6:
Boils-painful, inflamed pustules all over their bodies. This outbreak flew in the face of both "Imhotep",the god of medicine and healing, and "Thoth" the god from whom physicians received their healing power.
Plague 7:
Hail accompanied by lightning. Killing animals and humans, destroyed homes, farms, trees, etc. And where was "Nut" the sky goddess, all this time? God proved her impotent in the face of His judgement.
Plague 8:
Locusts. If there was anything left after the insects, blood, disease, frogs, hail, it was certainly destroyed by the creatures that covered the land so much so that the ground couldn't be seen. And the god of grain, the god of vegetation, and the goddess of the harvest were silent and powerless.
Plague 9:
Darkness. God confronts "Re", the god of the sun. Ra had associations with creation, fertility, victory in war, and justice so when darkness covered the land for 3 full days, so thick you could feel it, this was an insult to the Egyptian belief system.
Plague 10:
The death of every first born son, even the animals. 4So Moses said, "Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. 6 There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. 7But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8An all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, 'Get out, you and all the people who follow you.' And after that I will go out." And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
God gives Moses instructions for the Israelites that night & at midnight, with blood over their doors, Israel would worship God together. Though every family would be in their own homes, worshipping privately, all families would be worshipping collectively at the same time.
Wow. Right? Just wow, is all I can say. You know the rest of the story.
All the gods mentioned above aren't around any longer. No one worships them. So what does this story have to teach us about worship?
- God will fight for His worship. Has God ever attacked and humiliated your gods? ouch. I know, but it must be observed. Anything we love more than Him is a god and Yahweh will not share His glory. Is God at work in your life tearing down any gods? It's painful but necessary.
- God will defend His worshippers. Our enemy, the devil, seeks to destroy our worship. Satan will afflict us and try to rob us of our joy and reason to praise God. But God wants to be our song.
- Moses covered his face at the burning bush. Why? because of an awestruck fear and reverential awe. Are you in awe of who He is? Shouldn't we be?
Psalm 46:10- Be still and know that He is God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
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