How to avoid frogs
August 23, 2020
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Listen to this daily worship
Exodus 1:8-22 & Psalm 124 (NIV)
EXODUS 1
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives fearedGod, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
PSALM 124
1 If the Lord had not been on our side—
let Israel say—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side
when people attacked us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger flared against us;
4 the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,
5 the raging waters
would have swept us away.6 Praise be to the Lord,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird
from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
The new King knows nothing about Joseph, so nothing of the love, protection and power of his God. In time through both ignorance of the past and inflicting injustice on the Israelites he will learn all about that the hard way — cue the frogs, boils and locusts et al.
We share with each other these biblical stories of Joseph, Pharaoh and Moses and the lessons they teach us. As a Christian family internationally, nationally and locally we also have a wealth of wonderful stories of past blessings and of faith in action. Stories which when shared, encourage, motivate and inspire others.
Some stories are never heard, which is such a loss. Why? Sometimes just because no one wants to listen.
Stories of the past are either unknown or simply discounted as being of little value. There is so much emphasis and importance placed on the new, the fresh, on modernisation and change that somehow the wisdom and experiences of previous generations and their stories, simply fade away.
Input based on what went before is dismissed as people clinging to what has “always been”. Sometimes that is absolutely correct and some folks do stick rigidly to what they know and won’t budge an inch towards even perfectly reasonable change; but then sometimes those pushing the change close their ears to valid input based on past experiences.
So listening to the stories of others is important for practical considerations but much more so from the perspective of knowing how God works in our lives, how he cares for, protects and supports his children even in difficult times. Hearing about the lived experience of other Christians adds so much. There will inevitably have been times of trouble but the raging waters have not swept us away and they never will.
So if someone does you the kindness of sharing their story really listen to them. You will probably learn something and you might just avoid the frogs.
PRAYER:
Lord teach us to listen and truly value the stories of everyone
Help us to listen with open hearts, not inflated egos
To gain strength, encouragement and wisdom in the listening
To freely share our own experiences of building your Kingdom
Witness to your profound influence in our lives, to all that that gives us
Amen.
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