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“Who Is The Lord That I Should Obey His Voice?” – Exodus 5:2

by Micky Galloway

This question was Pharaoh’s answer to the request of Moses and Aaron to let Israel go into the wilderness to hold a feast (Exodus 5:1-2). Pharaoh expressed no obligation to obey Jehovah. He obviously spoke under the common persuasion that every place and people had their own guardian deity. Israel was a despised and oppressed people. Pharaoh made the assumption that the God of Israel was no better than His people among the nations. Pharaoh’s ignorance, contempt and pride were about to bring him face to face with the works of the true God who would not be mocked with Pharaoh’s compromises and broken promises. Pharaoh is about to learn that Jehovah is the only true and living God. He is not a powerless, heathen god. “Who is the Lord?” Pharaoh's sneering question was soon to be thoroughly and terribly answered. The apostle Paul answered this question again when he declared to the Athenians, “The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands…” (Acts 17:24). As “Lord” he exercises authority over his creation. The idea that one God created and rules over everything was completely foreign to the thinking of Pharaoh.

God claims to be Almighty. That is, He claims to have the power to do all things. This is evidenced by the creation. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The Bible begins with God. He is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalms 90:2). The evolutionist must begin with non-living matter and graduate to life. It is much more reasonable to begin with a living, all-powerful, self-existent God. “Let all the earth fear Jehovah: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalms 33:8-9). All of the glories of nature, the mysterious wonder of life itself is enough to show us the might and power of the one who created the “heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” The might of God is one of the many reasons why Pharaoh should have desired to obey God’s command to “let my people go.”

God is all-knowing. In Job 37:16 we are instructed that God is perfect in knowledge! God has perfect knowledge of man and all other things. Pharaoh could not out smart God. Psalms 139:1-6 says, “O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known (me). Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me. (Such) knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” How could Pharaoh play games with God? Yes, the Lord knows even the things which we think that are not pleasing to Him (cf. Romans 2:16).

He is all wise. Paul said, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him (be) the glory for ever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36). It was not possible that Pharaoh could match wits with such wisdom that so exceeds the wisdom of the world. Paul declares that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (I Corinthians 1:25). Isaiah also declared, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55 :8-9).

He is omnipresent. The Psalmist asks, “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall overwhelm me, and the light about me shall be night; Even the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike (to thee)” (Psalms 139:7-12). Pharaoh was about to learn there was no place to run to escape his responsibility to God.

He is a Spirit. In John 4:24 we read that God is a Spirit, which shows us that He is not bound by the limits of a body of flesh. Pharaoh had to learn the folly of thinking of God as a man. “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself: (but) I will reprove thee, and set (them) in order before thine eyes” (Psalms 50:21). God cannot be understood by presuming to judge Him by human standards.

He is a God of truth and justice. The injustices wrought against Israel incurred the wrath of God. He is just in every way; so extremely just that He punishes those who fail to obey His commandments, even though He desires that all be saved. He is so just that it was necessary for His Son to die on the cross to reconcile man back to Him when man could not do it himself. God is just in that He gives the promised reward to the righteous, but also just in that He gives the promised punishment to the unrighteous. The apostle Paul said, “Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:22). Pharaoh would be punished for his wicked deeds.

“Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” Pharaoh asked. He certainly was about to find out. God is eternal, not being limited by time; He is perfect in knowledge, knowing all things; He is almighty, having power to do anything He desires; He is supreme in wisdom, being able to use all of His other qualities in the ways that Pharaoh could not comprehend. He is always present everywhere so that there is no way to escape His discerning judgment and wrath; and He is a Spirit, which makes Him free from the bondage of flesh and blood. God is a Being of such superlative qualities and attributes of character that Pharaoh saw Egypt and all its glory, along with its heathen gods, confounded and rendered helpless by the ten plagues (Exodus 7-11) resulting from his defiance. Indeed, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” “for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 10:31; 12:29).


“What Are You Doing Here?” – I Kings 19:9

by Chris Simmons

We read in I Kings 16:30ff that Ahab, King of Israel, influenced by his notoriously wicked wife Jezebel, “did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him…and went to serve Baal and worshiped him.” In the midst of this rampant idolatry and wickedness, the prophet Elijah stood steadfastly for that which God had revealed to him. Because Elijah spoke only the truth from God, Ahab referred to him as the “troubler of Israel.” After God responded to Elijah’s prayer to consume the offering (after Ahab had vainly tried to call upon Baal to do the same) in I Kings 18:36-38, Elijah directed that the 450 prophets of Baal be seized and “Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there” (verse 40). When Ahab told Jezebel how Elijah had all the prophets of Baal killed, Jezebel vowed that Elijah would be killed within a day for what he had done (I Kings 19:1-2). When Elijah heard of this threat, he became afraid and fled into the wilderness by himself to sit alone by a tree in despair (I Kings 19:3-4). From there, he journeyed to Horeb, “the mountain of God,” and found a cave to lodge in. As Elijah sat and pondered his dismal future in the loneliness of the cave, God came to him and simply asked of him, what are you doing here?” After all that God had done for Elijah and after all of the victories that God had blessed him with, why was he now so far away, hiding in a deserted cave out of fear of Jezebel’s threat? Elijah was not where he should have been. Often times, where we are has a lot to say about our relationship to God.

For example, we read in Genesis 3:8-10 that after Adam and Eve sinned, they went and “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord” and God then, for their sake, asked, “where are you?” Where they were said a great deal about their relationship with God.

Also consider Jonah, who was told by God to go and preach to Nineveh. Yet, due to his contempt for the Ninevites, Jonah went the other direction and attempted to flee “from the presence of the Lord.” We read in Jonah 1:4 that “the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea” and while all the other passengers on the boat were in fear for their life, Jonah slept in the hold of the ship. Question, what was he doing there? After the other men learned that Jonah was the cause of this calamity, Jonah directed the men of the ship to throw him into the sea, and we read in Jonah 1:17 that “the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.” What was Jonah doing there? Where Jonah was said a lot about his relationship with God.

We also read in Proverbs 7:6ff, of a man who is described as a “young man lacking sense.” We then read how that “in the middle of the night”, he went for a walk on the street where he knew a harlot resided. Where the opportunity would be for the harlot to entice and seduce him with “flattering lips.” The result is that he “follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter…so he does not know that it will cost him his life.” Question, what was that young man doing there? Where he was speaks of his relationship to God.

There are as many opportunities today as there have ever been to go places we know where Satan will tempt us with the lusts of the flesh. We must not be so naïve to think or ever say, “it doesn’t bother me.” Paul said in Romans 13:13-14, “Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” We are never to knowingly give occasion and be where the lusts of the flesh can take hold and lead us into sin. Whether a beach, a movie theater, the abode of another person we have no business being with, or “such like,” we must never be where Satan would have us to be. For example, Satan would have us to be where there is the opportunity to “look on the wine…when it sparkles in the cup” (Proverbs 23:31). To one who is where the alcoholic beverages flow, God would ask, “what are you doing here?”

But even if we are not where we provide for the lust of the flesh, we can still be where we ought not to be. Simply by being with the wrong company, we can be where we shouldn’t. We read in Psalms 1:1-3, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.”

Finally, we can also be in the wrong place when we are simply sitting in our easy chair at home. When the saints are assembling together to study and worship God, and we are at home, God is asking such a one, “what are you doing here?” We are commanded in Hebrews 10:24-25, “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.” When Jesus healed 10 leprous men in Luke chapter 17, only one of them returned to give glory and honor to Jesus, and Jesus then said of the rest, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine – where are they?” We have a wonderful opportunity to worship God this week and grow in our faith in this series of gospel meetings. Will we choose to be where we ought to be? Or will God be asking, “what are you doing here?” when we are not there? Where we will be next week speaks of our relationship with God.

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