Surviving The Plagues-Part 1

"There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven." Jesus (the) Christ
 
Last week we did our little family service and looked at the plagues that hit Egypt as God fought Pharaoh to release His chosen people.

My wife as usual was worship leader and my daughter the backup soloist. My son played the guitar.
I declared myself the highest and mightiest apostle-prophet-pastor all rolled into one! (I am told there is another in Kenya with more titles than me?) Thereafter I demanded a cup of herbal tea but no one seemed to pay any attention so I went on with the sermon.

Jesus predicted a time when among other things, global pestilences will stalk humanity.
I don't think the Covid-19 meets the criteria of pandemics that Jesus was talking about. He was probably referring to a time much closer to the end and to something much worse than this.

The plagues of Egypt recorded in Exodus 7-12 are an especially relevant study at this time. They can give us a picture of the dynamics at play and therefore enable us to react appropriately.

We divided the plagues described in Exodus 7-12 into three categories and made attempts at relating the situation in ancient Egypt to our present circumstances which turned to be;

1. We can't play outside with our friends
2. We can't travel to visit Babu and Nyanya( Nairobians, nyanya is not a reference to tomatoes).
3. We can't go out to eat pizza
4. No April church camp
5. Can't go to the supermarket (my daughter)
6. Etc etc

My kids are 8 and 9 years old and so I had plenty of interjections that took the form of:
- animated additions into the sermon,
- questions (some bordering on the bizarre) and,
- even estate jokes that I had to cleverly swipe aside.
My wife kept looking at her Bible and then suspiciously at me as if she didn't believe a word of what I said but what the heck? I was the super apostle-prophet-bishop-Dr.-pastor!
I kept on.

In the first category were the plagues that seemed indiscriminate. As there is no indication that God protected His people, the implication is that both the Egyptians and the Israelites suffered- possibly in varying degrees.
These were the first three plagues:
-the waters turned into blood
-the invasion of the frogs
-the plague of gnats
The obvious question here is; why is there no clear indication that God protected His people?
Quite simply we don't know why.

However it looks very similar to the situation we now find ourselves in. C-19 is indiscriminate.
It has struck both the faithful and those who care little for matters of faith. Why?

We don't know. And to say that this is quite unsettling would be an understatement (Ok. I didn't use the terms 'unsettling or understatement')

However there are things we can infer from the preceding verses.
Exodus 6:1
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”

And

Exodus 7:2,5
You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

And

Exodus 6:3
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.
Exodus 6:6,9
“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.

We can infer from these conversations that these negative miracles were;
-to convince Moses of God's power
-to convince the Egyptians that YAHWEH was supreme over all.
-for God to reintroduce Himself to Israel as YAHWEH.

In other words God was revealing His mighty power afresh. What was the expected response?
-that Moses would know Him as God most powerful
-that the Egyptians would fear Him
-that the Jews would know Him and worship Him as their deliverer.

So then, is it possible that God has, by causing or allowing

C-19 to happen, called the world to attention?
Are you as a child of God retreating to re-evaluate the course of your relationship with Him through the sure-fire disciplines of personal prayer and bible study?