Ex. 7-8
Throughout Genesis I have noticed and wondered about various foreign leaders who seemed to know and fear God (like when Abraham and Isaac told the leaders their wives were their sisters). But this Pharaoh most assuredly has no fear of God. Perhaps that is part of why God waited until now to free his people – because of the great hardness of this man’s heart? We are four plagues in and Pharaoh continues to harden his heart against God, even after a comment from his magicians that stands out to me. At the third plague, the gnats, which the magicians could not reproduce, they said in Exodus 8:19, “This is the finger of God.” Not the hand of God, but just the finger. It’s as if they somehow knew this was only the tip of the iceberg. And still Pharaoh would not listen. I see a picture of today’s “leaders” in this God-less man.
Matt. 25:1-30
Being ready…waiting and working for God…today’s passage is a continuation from yesterday, and it all seems to be pointing toward the importance of living your life intentionally for God. Those five virgins and that one servant – they were slack, going through the motions without really considering what they were doing or who they were doing it for. There is always a lot in Jesus’ parables and I am just trying to take the 30,000 foot view here, but I’m not sure if I’m expressing it quite right. I just see the shortsightedness of these characters and how they weren’t really thinking about what happens after the bridegroom or master comes, and this on the heels of Jesus’ saying “be ready.” We obviously need to live our lives in the here and now, but it seems important to consider the eternal consequences of our decisions and to be intentional about living our lives to please and serve God and not ourselves or any other ‘god’.