Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: SMEAR (03/10/16)
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TITLE: Obedience - even when you don't understand | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lisa Enqvist
03/14/16 -
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“Jehovah told me I must go to meet Moses in the wilderness.”
Aaron disappeared before I was able to ask for an explanation.
Moses? He has been gone now for forty years. How can Aaron find him in the vast wilderness? What is going on?
I remember as if it was yesterday, the fear I had for my baby brother’s life. Mother was confident that God would keep him alive. She wove a basket and smeared pitch carefully on the bottom of it so that not a drop of water would leak inside. She placed my little brother in the basket and hid it among the reeds. By Pharaoh's edict thousands of baby boys were thrown to the crocodiles in that same river.
It seemed at first that Mother was right. Our tormentor's daughter saved my brother's life.
...
I remember the stories mother told us while she was nursing Moses for his adoptive mother.
"Our ancestor Abraham obeyed God’s call to a land his descendants would inherit. God foretold, 'Your descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and at the end, they will come away with great wealth. After four generations they will return here to this land.'” Genesis 15
Mother often said, “I think God has a plan for my son. He is the only baby boy that survived Pharaoh’s orders during those terrible years. And to think, God placed him under the same roof as the man who wanted him dead. Maybe my son will fulfil God’s plan to release us from slavery. It will soon be 400 years since our people became slaves. The Egyptians have forgotten their history. They have forgotten Joseph, Abraham’s great-grandson, who saved the country and its neighbors from a terrible famine.”
...
Aaron brought Moses home. Moses explained everything God had told him. Soon they were on their way to tell Pharaoh to free the Israelites so they could worship Him.
...
The plagues hit Egypt time after time
Pharaoh hardened his heart
The river Nile turned to blood.
Pharaoh said, “No”.
The frogs filled the land.
Pharaoh said, “No”.
Gnats spread out everywhere.
Pharaoh said “No”.
Flies buzzed all around.
Pharaoh said, “No”.
Cattle belonging to the Egyptians died.
Pharaoh said, “No”.
Every man, woman, and child were covered in boils.
Pharaoh said, “No”.
A hail storm destroyed trees, men and beasts.
Yet Pharaoh said, “No”.
Locusts came and devoured all green leaves.
Yet Pharaoh said, “No”.
Darkness covered the land of Egypt.
Yet Pharaoh said, ”No”.
...
Throughout these nine plagues we Israelites were safe because of our identity.
I knew that the final plague was coming. With each destructive plague that fell over Egypt, the power of their gods was broken. The Egyptians saw the power of the God of Israel. They gave abundant and valuable gifts to all of us Israelites.
God gave explicit instructions through Moses. Each family had to choose whether they would obey or not. Obedience meant life. Disobedience would bring death. Every doorpost and lintel had to be smeared with the blood of a lamb. I visited as many neighbors as I could, urging them to listen to Moses. I knew that his life was saved when my mother smeared pitch all over that small basket.
Now God wanted every family father to do the same to save the life of their first-born children. This time, the smearing was to be done with the blood of a lamb.
I did not fully understand the meaning of that smear, but I did know for sure, God must be obeyed.
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Loved it...
Blessings~