Miracles and Plagues

I have been reading in the book of Exodus lately in my quiet time. I get truly excited when I come to this book because it is so powerful! As you will often hear a Christian say when referencing Bible-reading, "You can read it over and over and always learn something new!". It's true! I want to invite you into this precious detail of Exodus chapter 3 that stood out to me in an entirely new way a few weeks ago.

"I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles that I will perform in it. After that, he will let you go." Exodus 3:20

To briefly offer a little context, this is part of the "Moses and the Burning Bush" scene in the Old Testament. The Lord is making His first appearance to Moses and calling him to lead Israel out of Pharaoh's oppression. The Lord makes promise after promise of all the GOOD things that are ahead and, in the referenced scripture above, speaks of the miracles that He will perform. Are you excited yet?

Now as you continue reading in Exodus, we begin to see the famous plagues overtaking Egypt. From the water of the Nile becoming blood to insects to illness to death. We read now of what feels like tragedy. Plagues and tragedy? I thought we were anticipating miracles not battling plagues!

As I read this extraordinary book again, I keep coming back to the key word in the above verse: miracles. God is offering everything good to His people in His mission to deliver them. He is upfront with all of the people about what He requires and the consequence of not obeying the command. God is readily gracious and true to His word every single time. That is a grand miracle!

So what can we learn from this? Where are the miracles among these plagues? Where is there room to celebrate when tragedy sets in? Whether we focus on the miracle or the plague is a matter of where we stand with the Lord.

To answer my own questions, I'll just jot this list down from my own notes:

1. Believing in yourself as the world conditions us to do is far less important that believing in God. When we trust in Him we will believe in His ability to make us able to do whatever He says that we must do. That is a miracle!

2. God is readily gracious. That is a miracle!
   *Moses was so insecure about His speech impediment and unworthiness but God wanted him anyway. Even in God's anger with Moses asking for someone else to carry out the calling of delivering Israel (Exodus 4:13-17) He showed grace by allowing Aaron, Moses' brother, to help Moses.

3. God keeps His word. Whatever God said (or says) will happen is what we can expect to happen. He is trustworthy! I find that remarkably comforting. That is multi-level a miracle!

4. God was offering deliverance to His people and opportunity for the oppressors. He is the same through eternity. This is a miracle!

I could go on listing specific miracles from the Exodus story but it would make a very long blog post and wouldn't it be a fun adventure to seek out more for yourself? I hope that you will! We do not need to be reminded of difficult things because that is usually what is most obvious when humanity feels some sort of suffering or even mild discomfort. Be the one who finds the miracle and talks about it unceasingly! Draw attention to God's infinite goodness. It's the better thing!