SCRIPTURE: Exodus 8
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
(Read my reflection from 2008)
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. [Exodus 8:1]
To worship is to respond to the amazing greatness or goodness of something.
There are many great and good things that are valuable, worthy of adoration or appreciation.
But nothing is greater or gooder (sp.) than God, above all else He is most worthy of worship.
God wants people to worship Him, to acknowledge and appreciate His greatness and goodness.
Everything He does in this chapter is designed to make people worship Him, including Pharoah.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. [John 4:23]
God desires worshippers, not because He is ego-centric or self-centered, but because He wants everyone and everything to be appreciated for what they are.
The problem is that we mess up the order, we elevate creatures or aspects of the creation while reducing the Creator of them all.
Egypt and Pharoah and all the empires and emperors of the world have made this mistake, forgetting God and worshipping themselves and their own power.
Satan picks up on this when Jesus arrives on the scene, and shows Him all the empires of the world and says He can have them if He worships Satan.
But Jesus is clear: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ [Matthew 4:10]
God wants to rescue all of us from the slavery and folly of idolatry and false worship.
He will do things to show us that He is greater than anything else (including plagues and miracles).
God is not showing off, but showing us how things are, and why we should worship Him.
But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go. [Exodus 8:32]
God reveals His greatness and His goodness (Romans 1:18-20] but He does not force us to worship Him.
And in the end, if we refuse, He will give us over to our sinful, selfish hearts.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. [Romans 1:21-25]
Will we respond God and worship Him, or will we ‘worship’ lesser things?
PRAYER:
Lord, impress on me again today how great and good You are, that I may worship You above all else!