Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Fighting Against God? | Torah | Exodus 11

Episode Date: May 24, 2022

Do you feel like you're in a power struggle with God? Are you willing to trust his plans? Are you discontent with where you are in life? On today's episode, Tanya uses Exodus 11 to discuss how God's plans always come through (even when we try to fight them). Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 11 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth, and right now we're in the book of Exodus. I wonder if you're fighting against God. No, it may not look like what you think. See, when we think of fighting against God, probably a picture of Pharaoh comes to our mind, or maybe Pontius Pilate, or maybe another historical tyrant. Maybe it's a current leader or public figure that's just blatantly oppressing people, or maybe be a group of people living way outside the lines. But last week I was sitting in my kitchen island with a friend, and we both realized we'd recently been through seasons that were tiresome and

disappointing. And at least some of it was by our own design. So we realized we've been fighting against what the Lord had for us, and it looked like wanting something we didn't have and wishing and worrying for a season other than the one we were in. At the root, we were believing and placing our hope in something, other than God. And neither one of us had really been able to see this on our own. It came out in dissatisfaction and striving, but we were good at disguising it even to ourselves. So good, we

didn't realize we'd been doing it. Now, if we didn't know the end of the story, we could read the story of the plagues in Exodus with hope that Pharaoh would figure it out and stop resisting God. By the time we get to the final plague, the patience of the Lord is paramount. Nine times he used Moses to warn Pharaoh that if he didn't release the Israelites, a plague would come upon the people. And despite Pharaoh's fake promises, he still didn't let God's people go. Now, up to this point, God worked through natural disasters, or at least things of nature, to get Pharaoh's attention. But here we are in Exodus 11, and we're on the final, the 10th plague, and Pharaoh still hasn't relented. And this is exactly what God said would happen.

So let's back up. Remember when God told Moses in Exodus 421 before any of this started, God said, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my firstborn son. son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. Until now, Moses didn't know how long this would go on. He didn't know which plague would mark

the end of this tiresome, dramatic, and eventually brutal back and forth between he and Pharaoh. In the final plague, though, God revealed to Moses what he's going to do next, along with the timeline for how it will happen. And there's evidence of God doing exactly what he said he would do, dripping off the pages in these verses. Opening in chapter 11 now, verse 1, the Lord said to Moses, yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here. And when he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. On one hand, you have a king who is wrestling and fighting against the word of the Lord. And on the other hand, you watch the events unfold exactly as the Lord's

said they would. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and Pharaoh's people would suffer because of his own rebellion. And for this reason, when Moses finished telling Pharaoh about the final plague where the firstborn of all of Egypt's sons would die, he stomped out. He was burning with anger. In chapter 11 ends, Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not with the people of Israel go out of his land. This is a very important. This is a a story about the fall of tyranny at the hand of the tyrant himself. And it's also the story of God's people, taking the next steps toward a promised land because of the Lord's faithfulness. The final plague in Exodus foreshadows what will someday be the final destruction of all injustice

and evil in the pages of Revelation. See, if we fast forward to Revelation 17 and 18, there's a city called Babylon, a city where the kings of the earth rule and reign with complete disregard to God and His holiness, and this city is destroyed by fire. Now this takes place before a new city, a city of God, the new Jerusalem is ushered in. In Revelation 21, John writes, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. So why is this important? Why does it matter that we know what happens in the plagues of Exodus?

Well, it matters because it helps us relate and identify where we are spiritually and mentally and emotionally in God's true story. When we understand what it means that God is sovereign, we begin to see more clearly. Surrender replaces denial and peace and contentment come into our lives in a way that make us so much more effective for God's kingdom. him. A few years ago, I was talking with one of my pastors, and I told him I was thinking about going back to school to be a counselor because I saw such a great need in our community. And he looked at me, head turned a bit, and said, is that something you really want to do? Well, why would he ask me that? It made me uncomfortable. Well, probably because the answer was no. But since I was wrestling and tried to figure out who I was and what was next, I thought it was a good plan. And he said to me,

If you're a teacher, teach. Why would you want to be something else? See, when we understand who God is, we can stop fighting and striving against what we aren't. We can find our contentedness and our purpose in doing our job and playing our part in God's story. Yeah, Pharaoh was the king of the Egyptians, but he wanted to be the king of God's people, the Israelites as well,

God's firstborn son. And that wasn't what God intended. When we resist the way God made it, and the people he put around us and the place he has us, we sound like Pharaoh, when Moses first approached him about the plagues back in Exodus 5, when Pharaoh responded, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? How have you been fighting against God? Consider circumstances in your life that feel disappointing, as well as people or places where you tend to struggle with comparison. Now, how have you witnessed God having you right where you should be in the past?

This might be a time you thought would look different, but in hindsight, you realize why God placed you there. Ask God to give you peace in His sovereignty. You could memorize or pray the words of Jeremiah 29 verses 11 to 13. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.