Now here’s a nice light topic for you. I am reading through Exodus and the story of the plagues that God sent on the Egyptians is just gross! Really…just picture an infestation of frogs, or all your water turning to blood, or flies covering every surface in your home. Ugh. Why would God send such disgusting torments on anyone? Because they were stubborn and hard-hearted.
In order to move something that is hard - like a large stone - you require forceful means, and if the rock is very large and resistant to your best efforts, you bring in explosives. However, if you are trying to move something soft – like a nest of birds - you will use care and delicacy in order to keep it intact. Hard things are treated totally different than soft things, and so it is with hearts. In this age of tolerance, people can get very upset by a God who presents himself as judgemental or disciplinary. But let us not forget, God IS the ultimate judge since he knows what is in our hearts, and in order to develop character, you must have discipline (not punishment which is punitive, but discipline which seeks to teach a better way). It is in our best interests to have consequences for our behaviour, be they good or bad. The same leniency and grace that would cause a soft-hearted person to weep when confronted with their wrongs would also cause a hard-hearted person to assume that they can get away with even worse behaviour.
And that is why God sent plagues. Asking nicely just wasn’t working. So the question I ask myself is, what plagues me in my life? What is something that beleaguers me over and over again, making my life unpleasant, never seeming to leave me alone? This might in fact be an area that I have a hard heart in. Is there a certain type of person that just appears in my life and won’t leave me alone? Does the same annoying circumstance seem to happen over and over again? Every time I attempt a certain task or project, does it always backfire? What things irritate me to the point of frustration? These are my plagues and I want to be free from them.
Goodbye, hard heart.
In order to move something that is hard - like a large stone - you require forceful means, and if the rock is very large and resistant to your best efforts, you bring in explosives. However, if you are trying to move something soft – like a nest of birds - you will use care and delicacy in order to keep it intact. Hard things are treated totally different than soft things, and so it is with hearts. In this age of tolerance, people can get very upset by a God who presents himself as judgemental or disciplinary. But let us not forget, God IS the ultimate judge since he knows what is in our hearts, and in order to develop character, you must have discipline (not punishment which is punitive, but discipline which seeks to teach a better way). It is in our best interests to have consequences for our behaviour, be they good or bad. The same leniency and grace that would cause a soft-hearted person to weep when confronted with their wrongs would also cause a hard-hearted person to assume that they can get away with even worse behaviour.
And that is why God sent plagues. Asking nicely just wasn’t working. So the question I ask myself is, what plagues me in my life? What is something that beleaguers me over and over again, making my life unpleasant, never seeming to leave me alone? This might in fact be an area that I have a hard heart in. Is there a certain type of person that just appears in my life and won’t leave me alone? Does the same annoying circumstance seem to happen over and over again? Every time I attempt a certain task or project, does it always backfire? What things irritate me to the point of frustration? These are my plagues and I want to be free from them.
Goodbye, hard heart.
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