The Throw Down in the Desert

Today I’m reading about “The “Throw Down in the Desert,” my previous readings of this story, prior to this year, focused on the conflict between Pharaoh and Moses or between God and Pharaoh, but now I’m seeing this is the conflict between those who believe in a God other than the one in the Bible and God  Himself.   I’m making a distinction between two types of believers of God, the ones who make up their image of God based on what they want him to be and those who spend time searching the scriptures and finding and discovering the character, personality and true power of God.

Each of the 10 plagues that Aaron and Moses participate in bringing against Egypt, are all myth shattering confrontations against the gods we “worship” other than the true God.  This battle will continue until the end of this age.  As the gods we hold dear are eviscerated by the actions of the One True God, we must choose which one we will serve. A listing of the gods worshiped in Egypt.)  If you look closely to their gods you can see what belief and what deity, God was striking down.

In truth, the Egyptians were meeting the true God in His works and power. They also saw how the people He gave the cloak of Favor to had fared throughout the entire ordeal, but most refused to switch from their “false” gods to the true one.  So it is today. 

This passage from Romans just became clearer to me on how people exchange the truth they have seen and know, for a lie:

Rom 1:20-32 NLT  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  (21)  Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship Him as God or even give Him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.  (22)  Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.  (23)  And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.  (24)  So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies.  (25)  They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.  (26)  That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.  (27)  And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.  (28)  Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.  (29)  Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.  (30)  They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.  (31)  They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.  (32)  They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

 I think they, the Egyptians, let the past they thought they knew about the Israelites, their slavery, color their thinking about the God of an enslaved people, color their reasoning of who this God really was.  The knowledge they had about the nation of Israel was faulty because a Pharaoh had come to power who knew nothing about Joseph.