EXODUS 5-8: DAY 100 JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
April 10, 2023
EXODUS 5-8
DAY 100 JOURNEY THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
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Focus Verses For Today: Exodus 8:16-19
Today’s journey reveals the harsh treatment to which the Egyptians subjected the Israelites. It also reveals Pharaoh’s struggle with God. Today’s journey takes us to God preparing the Israelites for deliverance.
Take some time to ask the Lord to reveal His true meaning of today’s journey through Exodus. Read Exodus 5-8. Let’s journey!
Exodus 5-8: The Egyptians treated the Israelites harshly as their slaves, and the treatment of the Israelites worsened after Moses and Aaron asked Pharaoh for permission to allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness to make sacrifices to the God of Israel. The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron is recorded. The plagues that God brought on the people of Egypt because the Pharaoh would not let the Israelites leave Egypt begin. The first was Aaron’s staff becoming a snake. The Pharaoh’s magicians could duplicate that. Aaron, at Moses’ direction, turns the Nile River and other bodies of water to blood. The Pharaoh’s magicians could duplicate that. Frogs then swarmed all of Egypt. The Pharaoh’s magicians could duplicate that. Moses directs Aaron to hold his staff over dust and all the dust of Egypt became gnats. The Pharaoh’s magicians could not duplicate that, nor could they stop any plague once it started. See the focus verses to read what the magicians told Pharaoh. The final plague in our reading today is the plague of flies. This plague could not be duplicated by the Pharaoh’s magicians and it was the first plague that did not affect the Israelites. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, asking them to pray to the God of Israel to remove the plague of frogs, gnats, and flies. Pharaoh promised to let the Israelites leave Egypt to make sacrifices to the God of Israel once the plagues ceased. Moses prayed asking for the plagues to be removed and God removed the plagues. Pharaoh went back on his word and refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt to make sacrifices to the God of Israel. (Exodus 5:1-8:32)
Our focus verses for today:
16Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,’ and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats.” 17They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came on people and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. 18But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. Since the gnats were on people and animals everywhere, 19the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said.
(Exodus 8:16-19, NIV)
Pharaoh had to know he had a serious problem. The true God, the God of Israel, was revealed to him through the words and actions of Moses and Aaron (God working through them) and by the testimony of his magicians – the people he, the Pharaoh, trusted. He refused to acknowledge the true God, the God of Israel. He hardened his heart. He allowed his power, pomp, and circumstance to blind him to the truth. He did not acknowledge the truth even though it was all around him. His faith was in something that did not exist. Where do you place your faith? Don’t allow a stubborn spirit to harden your heart.
Godspeace!
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