Multiplication

01.23.12

Exodus 5.3-4 3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. 4 When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. NASB

Math is different with God: He multiplies rather than adds. Surely He could have said, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may add My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt…” And surely God could have – but He didn’t: He multiplied; the judgments got logarithmically bigger. The difference between a byte and a megabyte is a thousand. God multiplied the woes on Egypt because one king tried to stand in the way of God and His will.

God’s judgments are designed to get men’s attention but men are often stubborn and slow to learn. Pharaoh is just one in a long line of the stubborn and slow. Each judgment got worse than the previous but Pharaoh didn’t want to learn; he only wanted the judgments to stop. But most folks don’t get it that when God is judging and we only give Him lip-service or pretend repentance, the judgments only escalate to the level that they get our attention. God knows just what it takes.

We will read that the judgments finally get to the point that Pharaoh caves and relents and lets Moses take the people out. But even then, he tries to go after them to destroy them in the wilderness. His problem was he saw himself as a god and couldn’t stand the competition from Israel’s God. The difficulty was he only thought he was a god and couldn’t compete with the Real Deal. Men are such fools at times.

When we find ourselves in difficult and trying times it is sometimes hard to accept that our difficulties might be coming from the hand of the Lord. We might have to swallow really hard to admit that God is judging us. The safe bet is that whatever is going on around us is from the hand of the Lord and we can rest assured that if it’s from Him, it is served in love. We tend to want to think that because we are God’s children that we are somehow exempt from His discipline… we couldn’t be more wrong. To His own God multiplies judgment and discipline because of what He’s doing in us and through us. His goal and desire is that we seek Him with all of our hearts. His judgments in our lives cause us to seek hard after Him… or when we refuse to learn, whine hard over ourselves…

Whatever the case, God multiplies His love and His judgments because He is seeking from us more than we believe is there. And what is there, is what He’s put there; and He desires that what He’s put there is to come out for the benefit of the world around us. Such is the magnitude of the work of God in our lives.

Today, I submit myself to Him and His ways because in them I will find His multiplied grace to see me through. I accept that just as he worked in Pharaoh of old to get his attention, He is working in me to get mine. My hope is that I sit up and pay attention in class today and that His way and will in me is there for His glory to be displayed…