So I've skipped out on devotionals for two days straight because 1. I don't like reading about Leviticus-like passages and 2. Having a lot of things going through my head that distract me from what I should be really focusing on. And if you're reading this, please pray for me that I may keep God at the center because He is the ONLY unchanging and solid foundation on which I can put trust and faith in wholeheartedly.
I think this passage as a lot of small details we can miss out because a lot of people, like me, already know what happens. It's been portrayed in the movies as this fantastic battle between God and pharaoh, but if we really focus in on it we can see something important about us and how we respond to God.
Why does God either bring about (or allow) the threat of danger/trouble to come into our lives and shake our faith? In this passage, it seems to imply that it comes because God wants us to see more of Him and to validate where our faith should truly lie We can go to Exodus 14 where the Israelites just escaped from Egypt. With specific emphasis on verse 8, we can see what would make God so adamant to have to show His glory even after the ten plagues: the Israelites have grown bold, or in the ESV they have grown defiant. If we look at our own lives, whenever we just escaped something that we thought was so bad, we feel invincible. We reach a point where we feel that we can accomplish anything, and the important thing here is we do so apart from God because there is no humility in basking in glory for ourselves. And so God puts us in a situation that we otherwise couldn't get out ourselves to bring us to a point that we can see Him again. He shakes the faith that we have put either in ourselves, in others, or in a future, and none of that is a faith in God. The Israelites were bold in their faith, but I think it's in the future promised to them, not the God that brought them out of Egypt.
How do we usually respond to this catastrophe? We want nothing to do with God. This can take two forms: either directly yelling at God and complaining like the Egyptians did, or denying God's involvement in the situation and turning to ourselves. Both have the same goal in that we try to blind ourselves from all that God has done. Notice the order at which God and the Israelites establish their relationship: the Israelites cry to God, God responds and saves them, the Israelites escape boldly, God hardens Pharaoh's heart to chase after them, the Israelites deny ever wanting to escape from Egypt, and God saves them again. We do this because why would a self-centered people want to worship a God that wants to display His power and His majesty for His glory and not for the self-centered people?
How does God respond to our cry? Verse 15 onward points to God's response to the Israelites. He tells them to move on or go forward while He takes care of the details. His response to our defiance and our boldness is a demonstration of His glory and power in all its forms. God through natural phenomena brought about fear in the Egyptians and brings awe to the Israelites. And through natural circumstances in our life God puts us in a situation where we will cry out to Him and deny the faith we had in ourselves or things that are not of God. However, the extent with which we don't want to see God is so great that He even sent Jesus. The parable of the vineyard and the workers is a commentary on Israel, but it's also applicable to our own rebellion against God. And His response is so that He can be glorified, through our escape, through our lives, and through the cross.
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