So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt — worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will leave.” Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. (Exodus 11:4-8 NIV84)
Moses had had enough, and so had God. Moses left Pharaoh’s presence burning with anger because of Pharaoh’s rejection of the truth. Pharaoh had played the false repentance thing and changed his mind one too many times. In short, although God was making it obvious He was the one true God, Pharaoh wasn’t bending. Even though his own leadership was trying to convince him that God was behind what they were experiencing, he refused to accept the truth. Did you catch that? Pharaoh was rejecting the truth. Truth remains truth even in the face of disbelief and rejection. Pharaoh’s rejection didn’t invalidate the truth, it just made the truth more painful to experience. Pharaoh, through his rejection of truth, put himself and his people in jeopardy. They were now going to experience a loss that could not be measured. They were going to lose the firstborn of every living thing in Egypt. God caused Pharaoh and his people to face an earthly consequence for spiritually rejecting Him.
God, as God, has a right to expect recognition for who He is and what He does. Even through natural knowledge one should come to the realization that there is a power greater than us that is running things. As soon as Pharaoh refused to recognize that basic point, his rejection became his downfall. The same is true for us. God can move heaven and earth to get us to see the truth, but if we refuse to recognize it, our rejection will become the basis of the consequences we face. Remember, just because we don’t believe the truth, doesn’t make it untrue. It remains true because it is true! This is not just true in the natural realm with natural knowledge, but is also true in the spiritual realms with revealed knowledge. If we refuse the believe God’s grace and love for us, and we reject the atoning sacrifice made by Jesus on our behalf, we open ourselves up to facing the consequences of that rejection. At some point in time we, not God, have made the decision final.
May we, with repentant hearts, always be willing to surrender our truth to God’s. May we never let things get to the point where enough is enough.
Peace!
Pastor Tom
www.firmlyrooted.church