“But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.’” — Exodus 8:7&8 (NIV84)

Although the Egyptian magicians were able to make it appear that they could imitate a few of the early plagues, as we discussed in an earlier devotion, they were just poor copycats. They found a sleight-of-hand way of making frogs appear, but really in the end, they could not naturally cause them to appear as God did. How do I know that? Because if they could truly cause the frogs to appear, they could have caused them to stop appearing. Notice that Pharaoh went to Moses, and not his magicians, to get the plague of frogs to end. I believe that Pharaoh went to his magicians first, but they were powerless to get rid of the frogs. Pharaoh was forced to humbly turn toward the God of Israel to get relief.

Look around at the people God has placed in your life. Maybe even look into your own life. How often do we turn to the people and powers of this world to get answers and relief that only God can provide? Even we Christians have a tendency to turn to God as our last resort rather than our first and only option. I am amazed at our society’s approach to turn toward the fields of science for the answers that we need. Really? Have you noticed lately that every year we are labeling as deadly some drug or pesticide or fertilizer that just 10 years prior was considered the answer to a problem? How does science address depression, anxiety and grief? Chemically! Science cannot deal with most matters of the mind and the heart. Science doesn’t have a clue as to how to deal with guilt and regret. But the God of our hearts and minds knows exactly what we need. He alone has answers to doubt, grief, regret, guilt and shame. God’s Word provides answers to so many things that science can’t touch. And I promise you that nothing this world offers can come close to giving you what God has given you through the death and resurrection of Jesus, His Son.

Let’s turn to God first!

Peace!

Pastor Tom