Showdown with Pharaoh

Acts 17:30

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

The show-down between God and Pharaoh in Egypt could be coined ‘The Contest of the Gods for the Souls of Man’.

The Great Almighty creator of the universe, He who only allows the nations to exist as long as they benefit His will gave a direct command to Pharaoh. He said, “Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness”, to which Pharaoh answered, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice …” (Exodus 5:1-2). Boy was Pharaoh about to get an answer to his question. Egypt lost world dominance and never recovered.

Through the plagues, the Lord of Hosts challenged each and every god of Egypt. The God of Heaven showed His children and to the vain Egyptians that the gods of Egypt were nothing; that they didn’t owe their substance to the flow of the Nile nor to their abundant stocks, but ultimately to the God of the Hebrews whom they had enslaved. They had forgotten that it was through God’s blessing upon Joseph, a Hebrew slave, that the country had been saved from destruction through famine over two hundred years before.

For decades the Empire continued to partake of the blessing bestowed upon God’s children. But like Laban, Egypt wanted to keep the blessing prisoner. This reminds me of the story of a king who when he heard the beautiful song of a bird, he captured it and put it in a cage. Expecting to hear the beautiful heavenly music at will, this king was very disappointed when he realized that the bird couldn’t bless the king with his music while in captivity.

Now that Egypt had served its purpose of providing a place for God’s people to grow and multiply, God needed His children to go and establish the place that would eventually become the cradle of Messiah, the birthplace of He who wouldl bring the whole world to repentance.

The message is the same today. He that is in the similitude of the Passover Lamb calls us. He calls us to repent and let go of our sinful leaven, of the gods of pride and rebellion. He invites us to follow Him to a place of solitude far away from the vanity of this world; He desires to teach us His ways of love and humility.. When we hear the call and follow Him, in the same way that angels received and ministered to Jacob upon his return to the Promised Land, as a groom lifts his bride over the threshold of his house, so the Bridegroom Messiah lifts us up to carry us to His Kingdom where we will live with Him forever.