May God guides us, not men

STUDY: # 678-Church in the Houses From: April 5-11, 2011 TOPIC: "May God guides us, not men" Exodus 8:25-28

There was a plague of flies upon pharaoh, upon the Egyptian town. It says in the Bible that the Egyptians faced all types of annoying flies. They already had other plagues, plagues of louse, of frogs, plagues of blood, but in spite of all this, pharaoh always wanted to do what he desired. He did it because of his pride, by his pride and by the mere desire to establish his own judgment and to tell God what to do. It is very natural for men to think they are wise and want to tell God what should be done. In John 11 we read that Martha, Lazarus sister said to Jesus: "Lord if you had been here my brother would have not died." For Martha, Jesus delayed in coming, as those who say: "Jesus, do things according to my needs." But, God moves as only He knows how to move. We intend to direct and do in our own way. We want to move according to our thoughts or by the way we feel. We think that one must do this or that when and how we want. This is how defiance and anger arrive to men; we think that we can direct and take charge what God governs. We must not entangle ourselves in defiance as pharaoh did, it is God who directs each moment, each hour, day and year. You see, when we are informed of something we go crazy and want to resolve it as it happened to Martha with her brother. God had been looking out for Lazarus illness and death. He is the Creator, then why are we not capable to stand still and do what He wants and when He wants? We must not try to resolve things rapidly as if we were the ones who can do things better than God Himself. Pharaoh intended for them to make the sacrifice to God in Egypt and not in the desert as God had ordered. For many it is easy to yield and do what the world wants. But not Moses, he would never yield to what pharaoh wanted. Jesus is our Lord and from Him we should always learn to move in the way which God wants and not in which we want or others want. The world wants us to be as rag dolls moved by the will of others. You see, each person speaks or wants this or that according to what is in their hearts and there is always much selfishness. If we pay attention to them we would be going from one place to another. Pharaoh would be happy if the sacrifice was in Egypt, therefore it would be under his comfort and benefit. The people of God would sacrifice to Jehovah and Egypt would also do the same thing, but their sacrifices would be done by the magicians and the wise impious of that idolatrous country. They would do sacrifices as Israel; all would seem so nice, but totally out of everything that is holy and pure of God. Moses would not accept in any way such conditions; he had to continue fighting for the truth therefore the powerful hand of God was with him. God was on his side. It would be a three day walk to come out of Egypt toward the desert to make sacrifice to God. (Exodus 8:27) Those were the rules God had given them, it was not pharaoh who would set the rules, and it didn’t even come from Moses or Aaron. A person who wants to offer an acceptable sacrifice to God must walk away from all the filth and distractions of this world. In the service that we give to God we must observe the exclusive mandates of God, not the pharaoh’s or any other man who speaks from inside of their hearts. In men there is wickedness, and that is the way they speak, in them there is hatred, envy and disputes. The Devil guides them in all this. If we pay attention to it, then we would be seized to its wickedness and to its evil practice. (wrong doing). Pharaoh set the condition that the Israelites would not go far away. Moses totally resisted him. Although pharaoh had his internal fight in to doing or not what Moses told him on God’s behalf, his corruption was stronger. This happens with all those who are opposed to the divine things. They see God but their corruption is greater. In pharaoh, his conviction said: "let them go." But his corruption added: "But not very far away." This is how men are, they say: "It is good to serve God, but… why must we exaggerate?… if I do exactly as God wants me to do I would have to give too much of myself." Pharaoh’s corruption dominated him more than

his conviction that God is the all-powerful. Pharaoh’s great problem was that he carried a complete ruin for him and his people. In Exodus 10:9-11 we read that his counselors, his ministers tried to convince pharaoh that it was good for him to come to an agreement. The people of Israel had become a problem for the Egyptians, but the matter was that God was working in order to take them out of there and make them His people. No one in this world should get into such great danger by becoming an obstacle by getting in the way of what God wants to do. Moses was going to take them all to the desert as God had told him to do; he had to continue fighting until he complied with God’s will. Pharaoh kept on looking for excuses and now he wanted to keep the children as hostages, because according to him they only had asked for the adults and this was not true. If Moses would have accepted this then the adults would go to offer sacrifices but they would have had to return for their small children. There is where all conversation broke and darkness arrived to Egypt and immediately the death of the first born came to them. In verses 24-26 we see the terrible things that came upon them by God’s hand with the locust and the darkness. Pharaoh refused and said: “the children may go also, but not the sheep or the cows." Again pharaoh wanted to impose his will and it was not going to be that way. “Everything” had to come out of Egypt, even the animals. They needed to make sacrifices. Pharaoh didn’t give up; he wanted to leave them without the animals so that they wouldn’t be able to make their sacrifices to God. This is how the enemy and our enemies want to do with us, so that we will not be able to give Jehovah the praise that he deserves. The sacrifices were the reason for the people of God to go to the desert. Moses did not return to pharaoh, he was who called Moses after suffering from a destroyed country and the death of their first born children. Yet he remained attached to his corruption although he was convinced who God was. If you let the Pharaohs of this world guide you because of your lack of courage, you will see how they will win and you will be destroyed with them, but if you fight seeking to comply with moving away from those three days of distance from Egypt which represents defiance, you will reach God’s promises for your life. Let God guide you, and no other. Amen