HIS PROTECTING POWER

The book of Exodus (chapters 3-11) chronicles God’s miracles for the nation of Israel who were in desperate need of salvation from their oppressors. Moses (on the run) encounters God in a fiery bush in the wilderness where God commissions him to return to Egypt to set His people free. Moses returns and faces Pharaoh’s hardened heart at the seemingly ridiculous notion of letting his livelihood, his labor force, his servants just walk out of Egypt. Oh no!  That would prove to take some serious convincing. We see God begin to punish Pharoah and the Egyptians for holding Israel hostage and wanting to keep them in bondage. God begins to send a series of plagues (blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock affliction, festering boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally death of every firstborn).  I want you to think about how unpleasant each of those plagues must’ve been. I can’t stand bugs so the very thought of dealing with so many in the atmosphere would've driven me bananas 🤪🤪🫨. Scriptures tell us even Pharaoh's subjects were pleading with him to LET ISRAEL GO! But here’s what I want us to consider. The Israelites lived in the same place that the Egyptians lived in...the same area, the same general location. Let’s just say they were in the same village, city or even borough.  And the Bible lets us know that none of the plagues affected them!  NOT ONE! How can flies, gnats, locusts be everywhere yet not afflict those in the same area??  How can darkness fall over the entire land, but Israel continues to get light?? I’ll tell you how…because GOD IS MORE THAN ABLE TO PROTECT HIS PEOPLE FROM WHATEVER COMES! Even though they saw it happening and experienced it to a degree Israel was supernaturally preserved and provided for when the plagues struck the region. What does that say to us? When everyone else around us is being afflicted by one thing or another we will be safe!  We will be shielded! This miraculous demonstration speaks to the protecting power of our mighty God!  Every livestock was afflicted but not those of the Israelites. Frogs jumped up out of the waters and overwhelmed the land but Israel was still provided for! And death passed over every Israelite, who obeyed God's directive, because our God is mighty to save and to protect. As the Psalmist declares in Psalm 91, 

“For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭91‬:‭3‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

That’s what He did for Israel and that’s what He’ll do for you and me!  Same God!  Yesterday, today, forever!  

No matter what is going on in the WORLD, (famine, pestilence, earthquakes, fires, shortages, accidents and incidents) HE IS ELOHIM SHOMRI, the Lord my protector, my guardian, my shade!  He will protect us from the scorches of life. May you rest in that truth today. 

~Dania Roberts