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Pastor's Blog February 23, 2023
"Thus Says the Lord VIII"
There is a temptation among Christians to believe that God only delights in speaking and intimately relating with those who follow Jesus. God cares about unbelievers, the theory goes, but he ultimately doesn't have deep and meaningful relationships with them. For some reason, this kind of temptation is something all adherents of the three Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - struggle with. But according to Exodus 9:13, God delights in sharing his words and speaking with everyone, including those who don't follow him: "Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh, and say to him, "Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: 'Let My people go, that they may serve Me"'" (NKJV). We've seen this sentence before; God said almost the exact same thing to Moses in Exodus 8:20. But this time, God provides the reasons why it would be a good idea for Pharaoh to let Israel go.
First, God will send "all My plagues to your very heart" in order to show Pharaoh "that there is none like Me in all the earth" (Exodus 9:14, NKJV). Second, God could have wiped out Pharaoh and all of Egypt with one blow, but God isn't like that - he wants to raise up Pharaoh and his people (Exodus 9:15-16). Third, God wants to "show My power in you" so that "My name may be declared in all the earth" - an ancient Hebrew way of indicating that God doesn't want to embarrass Pharaoh, he wants to honor him (Exodus 9:16, NKJV). And finally, as puzzling as Pharaoh's decision is to "exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go" (Exodus 9:17, NKJV), God still warns him and the Egyptians to take their animals inside so they won't die from the coming plague (Exodus 9:18-19). Instead of being a punishment, God's "thus says the Lord" in Exodus 9:13 turns out to be the introduction to a very intimate relationship God had established with a powerful and disobedient unbeliever.
Friends, God is interested in having relationships with everyone, regardless of their level of belief, because "thus says the Lord." God bless.
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
