In my Bible study this year, I’m diving deeply into Exodus, and
right now I’m studying the plagues. I told Ryan the other night I’m certain I
would not have survived them.
Water turned to
blood? No thank you. I’m a really big fan of water. Blood makes me queasy. A whole
river of blood? Scrape me up off the pavement.
Frogs? I can’t
even write about that one. Gnats? Disgusting. Flies? See gnats. Dead livestock
everywhere? I feel like this would just bring on more gnats and flies. Boils?
OUCH. Hail? What a mess! Locusts? Creepy. Darkness? Scared of it. And while I
haven’t gotten to the death of the firstborn yet, I wouldn’t welcome that one either.
But while I study
these plagues, I’m paying close attention to the life of Moses. I’ve studied
him before, but I am appreciating the new-to-me facets of his life I’m discovering
as I read right now.
One thing that
caught my attention for the first time on this study was back in Exodus 3, when
Moses saw the burning bush.
“Moses said, ‘I
will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ When the
Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.”
The first thing
I thought when I read those verses was what if he hadn’t paused to look?
What if he just
kept going about his day and didn’t stop? Think of what he would have missed!
Moses was
willing to pause his day to take note of what God put in his path, and because
he did, God called to him and changed the trajectory of his life.
It made me
wonder if I’m walking too quickly through my own life. Not that I think God has
an actual burning bush to show me, but He might have other things for me that I
absolutely don’t want to miss.
I pray many
things over my life, but right now, I’m praying extra that I will take time to
slow down and look around me. I want to “turn
aside to see this great sight” if God puts something in my path.
Don’t you?
4 comments:
Just last week we had a preteen retreat and it was titled Pause. It was teaching our children how to stop prayer and listen for God. It taught me that I need to really focus my time with God and be intentional about listening for him.
The Jewish commentaries on the plagues are SO graphic!!
Moses was such a complex human!!
Becky - I love that title! That would be a fantastic retreat theme for women, too! I'll have to remember it so I can suggest it!
Tamar - I was actually hunting around for a good study on JUST the plagues. I read commentary, which was helpful, but I've heard that there were specific reasons why those particular plagues were chosen - that they were tied to beliefs in Egypt. I would love to learn more!
I highly recommend Sam's Lego version of The Ten Plagues which he created when he was about ten! It was very intriguing to see how he interpreted them, given the seriousness and darkness of the plagues. It would likely not hold up to Biblical or historical accuracy but it gave me new insight.
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