Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 78:40-49
Ps 78:40-49
How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wasteland! Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power — the day he redeemed them from the oppressor, the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan. He turned their rivers to blood; they could not drink from their streams. He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them. He gave their crops to the grasshopper, their produce to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore-figs with sleet. He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning. He unleashed against them his hot anger, his wrath, indignation and hostility — a band of destroying angels.
Aside from creation and the flood, the story of the plagues on Egypt is probably the most powerful and remarkable story in the Old Testament. We have heard it and read it so often that it is difficult for us to get the full impact of what really happened. The Israelites were the national workforce for Pharaoh and for Egypt. It is difficult to know how many of them there were, but most scholars number them between a million and possibly as many as three million people.
God is in control of the water supply and the weather. He controls insect and animal infestations. He is in control of diseases that kill people and livestock. He is in control of the kings and rulers over nations, and Egypt was the greatest nation on earth at this time. He sends his angels to carry out his will on earth. God was in control then and he is still in control of all that happens on the earth today.
With the short story of these ten plagues, God destroyed Egypt. In addition to the pests such as flies, lice, and frogs, he destroyed their agriculture, both animals and plants that produced income. In doing this he destroyed their economy. In a culture where the firstborn son received special inheritance rights and then took over the family as the leader, the death of this person was devastating. And then to finish them off, God destroyed their entire army in the Red Sea. There was no question to Pharaoh or anyone else, that God was God. He was and he is today.
O Lord God, thank you for Jesus Christ and the abundant life you give in him. As I read your Word and see and hear the stories that I have been told from my youth, help me read, see and hear with a new ear so I will be impressed with who you are and your unlimited power and wisdom. Help me unpack the powerful truth that is contained in each and every story that is given. Give me wisdom to apply the things I learn so that I can be more like Jesus every day in my thoughts and in my commitment to obeying your will. In his wonderful name I pray.
Robert
