How Or Is It Still The Central Duty of Man?

And the Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether. ² Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.” ³ And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.  Then Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt;and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.  But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’ And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.” Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger. But the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not heed you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land. - Exodus 11:1-10

If we were to keep reading and go all the way into Exodus 12 we would see that the writer, actually, God the Father, the author, had a singular point. The focus is on obedience. God spoke, some people heard and did what God said. As a result, God used them in His plan at that time in history.

If you read the whole of the story you see that God knew in advance what use silver and gold would be put to when the new nation arrived at Mount Sinai out in the desert. God already had something in mind. No one could have imagined it, the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting where the Israelites would meet in close proximity with the awesome holy God who had delivered them.

God, in this section is telling the people to gather silver and gold. At this point, God didn't tell them why they would need those precious metals. He just said, "Ask for them," and they did. It's called obedience. And, if we elongate the communication, from God to Moses and Aaron to the people we realize obedience takes faith.

This should encourage us! 

In the story, earlier, we read about Moses' bad day. The ex-shepherd was under the gun, snarled at by the Pharaoh and thoroughly hated by the Hebrew leadership. But now we read that he was "greatly esteemed" in Egypt by the Egyptians. From the court of Pharaoh on down to the man on the street, people were saying, "Now there's a great man."

Do you know why that was true? Because Moses stood, even when it was all alone, and trusted God (he obeyed). For this the Lord gave him favor in all their eyes. The Lord delights to do that. 

When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. - Proverbs 16:7 

We see that borne out yet again in this amazing development.

We have a grace problem today. We somehow believe that love and grace, covering a multitude of sin also means there is no consequence for a lack of obedience. The Apostle Paul, having to deal with this with the Roman Christians (Romans 6:1,2 in Wilson's vernacular)) asked, "Dudes! Should we sin because it allows grace to cover even MORE & BIGGER disobedience to God? Really? Seriously? Are you out of your minds? We have been resurrected from sins power! Don't be stupid!" 

We forget that last part...we've died to sin. We live and thrive and have a heaven's vision for the power of obedience to God. That is what there is to remember. We love Him so much we "get" that His love for us always provides massive, powerful, Holy Spirit energized results. Ya! Let's do that whole obedience thing!

Be obedient may be the very word you need from the Lord today. Perhaps at work you have come to an impasse; there's an issue of integrity at stake, and you've determined not to compromise. It might be an issue between you and a brother in Christ where love must win the day. Perhaps in your stand for Christ, you find that you are resented by someone close to you. Just know that if you handle your situation as an obedient son, God will see to it that in the eyes of those who are now your enemies, you will one day be esteemed. They will respect your stand because you are standing alone, doing what is right. Regardless of whether they do or do not in this life, you will have your reward and frankly a "God-sized" reward can't be matched!

I remain...

InHISGrip,
  ~J~