Monday, July 3rd 2006
Read: Exodus 10
Here’s another aspect of God we don’t usually notice these days. How many sermons have you heard about the God who mocks?
The tables have obviously turned on the Egyptians as they get pummeled by one miracle after another, as they get hammered by one plague after another.
And we’re not finished. God reveals Himself as the mocking God. Yahweh said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh… that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your son’s son how I have made sport of the Egyptians… that you may know that I am the LORD” (Exodus 10:1-2).
This isn’t the only time. In the face of a summit conference of nations organizing to rebel against Him, “God in heaven merely laughs! He is amused by all their puny plans. And then in fierce fury He rebukes them and fills them with fear” (Psalm 2:4-5 LB). Let me introduce a nature of God you may never have thought about: the mocking God.
Check this verse out: God “stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets” (Col.1:15 Message).
Ha ha. He marches every demon in the universe, naked, with their tales between their legs, up and down the main streets. The mocking God.
There is much more (read Isaiah 40, for example). God is so much more powerful than any enemy. The very cool thing is that as great as He is, as dominant over every force in the universe, He “stoops down to make me great” (Psalm 18:35) and to make you great.
We’re not camping out on this to persuade you that He is mean-spirited. He is far from mean-spirited. He loves you with an everlasting love.
But He laughs at the enemy. He is not surprised by them. He isn’t off in some office trying to figure out what to do next. The Father isn’t plotting with the Spirit to come up with some effective response to Terrorism. Jesus isn’t out surveying Christian leaders for an appropriate strategy against abortion. God hasn’t convened a big assembly of the angels in heaven to develop a plan to defeat materialism. He isn’t asking the martyrs under the throne for a good idea to deal with pride in the West or corruption in the Rest.
He makes sport of the enemy. He demonstrates His power and mocks them.
Q: How does the revelation of a mocking God help you in the Jesus Revolution?
What specific enemy should you confront out loud, in Jesus’ name, with these texts?
Monday, July 3rd 2006 continued…
Read: Exodus 11
What would you give for total freedom? Maybe a few million dollars? Or how about the perfect career? What about your firstborn child? “What, are you crazy? Too much to ask!” But God’s already demanded it once (Abraham). Then He offered up His own later (Jesus).
“Then Yahweh said to Moses, ‘I will send just one more disaster on Pharaoh and his land, and after that he will let you go… about midnight I will pass through Egypt. And all the oldest sons shall die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest child of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the oldest child of his lowliest slave; and even the firstborn of the animals’” (c.f. 11:1, 5).
There is a price to freedom. And it isn’t cheap, either. Think of what freedom means to you. Some may say that it’s the ability to do whatever you want whenever you want. Others say that freedom is not worrying about the stresses of life, just living as you see fit. Others still, may say it is real life. Freedom is the ability to live as God commanded us to without hesitation or restriction. It’s the ability to respond in perfect love to His commands knowing that you’re doing the right thing.
When Yahweh demanded the Israelites freedom from Pharaoh, the price involved many things, not the least of which was the firstborn of every Egyptian household. It was this bloodshed that brought them freedom.
Jesus Christ is the same freedom for everyone…not just those in the pews on Sunday mornings. His freedom is for all who are captive, which is anyone who has ever sinned and fallen short of the glory of Yahweh. News flash— that’s all of us! “Yahweh sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as His very own children” (Galatians 4:5). We’re orphans, but our Heavenly Father stops at nothing to give good gifts to His children. One of those gifts is freedom—from pain, sorrow, addiction, loneliness, depression, and more. The price of freedom is blood. Just like in Egypt where first-born Egyptian blood bought freedom for Israel, so Yahweh’s Firstborn’s blood offers freedom to the world.
Without bloodshed, there can be no freedom. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that. He is the Firstborn of Yahweh, He is the perfect sacrifice. He is our salvation.
“For you have been called to live in freedom – not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:13).
“And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)
Q: Do you have freedom?
How has your freedom affected your family, friends, school, and city?
Youth Department