Bibledoorajar: Costly Storms

We, along with the children of Egypt, are getting the idea that God may be slow to anger but that He will not leave the guilty unpunished. This is an important lesson that God is getting across. It will be the basis of the creed by which all His future people(s) will live. Redemption and God's power to deliver said redemption will always be necessary in order to live freely with God. Though they may not yet be fully liberated, the Israelites were learning more and more about their God and why He desired a certain relationship with them. They were seeing the wisdom of believing and obeying, even if, and maybe because, Egypt and its' Pharoah was not. The Israelite's God, the One who demanded no other gods before Him, was very effective in "enemy territory". He could and would move across all of creation and no one could stop Him. Whoa! Pharoah might one day forget the worst nightmare of his reign, but Israel would not, and they began to proclaim the power and might of their God. But old stubborn Pharoah, like the ole man river, he just kept rolling along with his lies and conniving.

Moses told Pharoah that hail was coming in such proportions that the only way his people and their livestock could survive would be for everyone and everything to take shelter. Not only would their present be affected but so would their future because the hail would devastate their crops. To those who believed and took shelter for themselves and their livestock there was salvation. For those who did not believe and took no shelter there was devastation and loss.

My maternal grandfather, an uneducated man, reared nine children during the Great Depression. He often fished the Cahaba River nearby his home in Alabama to supplement food for his table. According to my mother, he was often warned by my grandmother as he left to watch out for storms that might arise. And he would always say, "Why Ollie, I will be home before the storm comes." It was a reassurance based on wisdom. Jesus gave His followers a similar reassurance based on wisdom. If caught in the storm, He could calm the sea. He, after all, like His Father could move all across creation.

"The Lord’s our Rock, in Him we hide.
A shelter in the time of storm;
Secure whatever ill betide,
A shelter in the time of storm."

Words by Vernon Charlesworth and music Ira Sankley

Sung by my Grandfather who is now fully liberated and living with His God and Savior.