Most of us live our lives as though it’s nobody’s business what choices, what life decisions we make. After all, it’s a free country, right? The heart wants what it wants and why shouldn’t our own happiness be our goal? It’s nobody’s business what we do. Everybody has the “right” to do as they please—or is that true? Even our nation’s constitution guarantees our rights only to the point they infringe on others’ lives.
When I was young, I thought the Old Testament was basically a history of the Hebrew nation. Like the comic books I read, there were monsters and superheroes that put the welfare of others first and saved the day. It was thrilling to imagine there could be heroes like that alive today, to save us from monsters like Hitler. How could these stories pertain to our world today? Maybe the Old Testament is more than a history of the Hebrew nation.
As my understanding of this world and the next grew, I learned that the heroes in the Bible were not a separate breed of men with super powers, but ordinary men who sinned, doubted themselves, then trusted in God’s guidance and made themselves available to Him, resulting in miraculous changes in their lives and the lives of those around then. Doesn’t that mean it’s as current as the daily news program on radio or TV?
Today Dr. Charles Stanley talked about two such men—one a king over a wealthy country, who believed he had divine right to take what he wanted and a man raised in Egyptian royalty, exiled for murder, a fugitive who had lived 40 years as a shepherd far away. God arranged for his return to rescue some two million Hebrew slaves. Why didn’t God pick someone who could command the respect of his adversary, someone well known, someone so powerful that pharaoh would listen to him?
No contest surely. Through Moses, God gave pharaoh many warnings of great trouble which would affect the lives of those ruled by pharaoh, which he felt free to ignore despite the danger to his citizens. His comfort, his wealth, his international fame were his goal. And despite fulfillment of a series of increasingly painful plagues suffered by his people, his heart was hardened against this Moses upstart, this nothing little shepherd who dared to defy him, and this God he spoke of. Until the death of his own son—then he was suddenly eager to have this pesky group of slaves gone. God made it clear, by choosing Moses, that the results of this battle would bear witness to His all-powerful hand raised against this evil king, not that of any man.
Pharaoh’s pride and greed were
his choice, but his people paid the price in pain. most of us have at least one sin we cling to, believing
it is no one else’s business—just between us and God. He knows his children
will stumble as they go and is ready to forgive, but any sin we refuse to give
up stands between us and God, at our peril.
