Negotiations

 Message: In Exodus 8 Moses continues to confront Pharaoh to let Israel go and some patterns begin to change a bit. The magicians and sorcerers were able to reproduce the frogs but when Moses asked Pharaoh when he wanted the frogs to come to an end and he said “tomorrow”. Which is odd, but it was done and instead of making the frogs disappear, they all died and piled up with a nasty stench that they still had to clean up. This really seemed relatable to some of our issues that have overtaken our lives, but yet we’re not quite willing to deal with them so we postpone it for later, but we still have to deal with the aftermath of it in our lives. The next plague was the gnats and for the first time the magicians and sorcerers were not able to reproduce this. Why the gnats? I don’t know and I don’t know if it matters, but what was important here is that the magicians and sorcerers themselves recognized “this is the finger of God!”. Interesting enough, Pharaoh was not convinced and he remained hardened so enter flies! Flies swarmed everywhere EXCEPT in the land of Goshen where Israel lived because God was making a distinction between Egypt and the people of Israel. This is where the negotiation started. Pharaoh told them to go worship the Lord BUT he wanted them to do it there in Egypt. Moses disputed this, and Pharaoh agreed to let them go worship BUT he told them “but don’t go very far -and make an appeal for ME”.

Command: Don’t try to negotiate to hang onto things that God has clearly told us to release!!

Promise: God will deliver us when we are willing to do it his way.

Warning: As long as we are still trying to negotiate, we will never be free. We can’t decide our own terms for something that God has called for our obedience. When we negotiate the terms or try to do this gradually or partially we are not walking in obedience and if we think we are we deceive ourselves.

Application: This is a perfect picture of what the hold of sin looks like in our lives. We suffer the tormenting consequences but we aren’t ready to let go of it so we try negotiating terms.  We hope that we can live with our issue and still maintain peace. Then we try to put a little bit of distance on it, but we don’t want it to go too far in case the absence is too much to bear and we want to reach for it again. We even deceive ourselves into believing we are in obedience, but we are really not at all. Lord Jesus, help me to walk in obedience and release the things that you have commanded me to release. Deliver me from my own self deception when I try to hang onto

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