In the Wilderness: Exodus 8

The plagues continue as we read Exodus 8.
[Click on the link to read today's Scripture.]

Frogs everywhere. Outside. Inside. In the ovens and kneading bowls... in beds and squishing under feet... Frogs dying until the entire land smelled of death. The smell alone might have turned others to His truth, but not Pharaoh. The Egyptian leader with a hard heart.

And then there were gnats. Can you imagine? Tiny flying things in all places. Crawling on every living thing. No one was immune, not the Egyptians, not the Israelite slaves, not even Moses and Aaron.

Not until the fourth plague did God give a respite to His own people. They too endured water turned to blood, frogs, and gnats, but the next plague was different.

 But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. --Exodus 8:22

I recently read a fiction novel based on the life of Aaron, and I was reminded how difficult this time was for all involved. We often wrap the story up in a sterile Sunday school lesson and forget people were involved. Even though they were Egyptians, they were people not much different than us. They worked, nursed babies, took care of their elderly.  They suffered the consequences of a hard-hearted leader with little control.

Still this is not the end... there's more to come... much more. They must have felt fear rising over what would come next. What their leader's choices would mean for them.

I feel the same way, at times. When I consider our own country's leaders and the nation's moving away from God. I too wonder, What's next? This story gives me hope because all we endure, all we will face in the future, is for one single purpose.

 ...that you may know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.

God is working to bring the hard-hearted to a complete and full knowledge of who He is, and who we are in Him. This is the hope for all the world.

Father God, prepare me to endure whatever You bring

to make Yourself known throughout all the earth.

Bless me with the faith to know You now.