{"id":4178,"date":"2022-08-13T16:38:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T21:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4178"},"modified":"2022-08-13T16:38:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T21:38:44","slug":"devotional-on-exodus-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-exodus-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Exodus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-p2EG1wK6qH4\/XPnXDU3OLzI\/AAAAAAAA8Bg\/q79qhdEpsawwb46c5G_h8uO4kFDYZmKlQCKgBGAs\/s1600\/100_2555.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mesa Verde National Park, CO<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nGet out of jail free card<br \/>\nExodus 8: I\u2019ll make a sharp distinction between your people and mine.<br \/>\nThe first two plagues that fall on Egypt might be called \u201cequal opportunity plagues.\u201d That is, everyone, Egyptians and Hebrews alike, suffer from them.  From the third plague on though, the area inhabited by the slaves, Goshen, is a sanctuary from all the bad stuff that comes.  I can\u2019t help but wonder why it happens like this.  One thing that comes to mind is that from the third plague on the magicians of Egypt give up on duplicating the miracles.  In fact, they tell Pharaoh that this is \u201cGod\u2019s doing,\u201d suggesting that he needs to give in.  When the magicians drop out of the contest, the descendants of Abraham no longer experience the plagues.  Maybe there\u2019s a connection.  Another thing I note is that, at first, these people are hesitant to believe that Moses is being sent by God to rescue them.  Maybe the Lord allows them to experience the first two plagues to convince them that something beyond the ordinary is happening here.  I\u2019m sure there are other explanations but these two come to mind as I consider this passage today.  Beyond that, though, is a reminder that sometimes God\u2019s people go through the same hardships as everyone else.  Being a follower of the Lord is no \u201cget out of jail free\u201d card.  In fact, the unwelcome hardship might just be a part of God\u2019s plan for us.  The road to heaven isn\u2019t always a pleasant stroll.  Sometimes, there are portions of the route that we\u2019d just as soon never travel.<br \/>\nTake Away: The Lord never promised us an easy journey, but he did promise to be with us on that journey and to deliver us to himself at the end of the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Get out of jail free card Exodus 8: I\u2019ll make a sharp distinction between your people and mine. The first two plagues that fall on Egypt might be called \u201cequal opportunity plagues.\u201d That is, everyone, Egyptians and Hebrews alike, suffer from them. From the third plague on though, the area inhabited by the slaves, Goshen, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1493,7],"tags":[124,426,429,464,831],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13812,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions\/13812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}