Our scripture for the Daily Devotional today is taken from Exodus 8:20-24. Yet again Pharaoh had gone back on his word. He was stubborn and it was as if he wouldn’t give in and admit his defeat to a being superior to himself.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. 21 If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies; even the ground will be covered with them.
22 “‘But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. 23 I will make a distinction[b] between my people and your people. This sign will occur tomorrow.’”
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24 And the Lord did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of his officials; throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.”
The stench of walking dead
Flies tend to hang out in 1 of 2 places. Firstly in a place that they can get moisture and food, or they hand out around carcasses. We have all recently experienced an epidemic. There has been a taste of mass infection and fear that has crippled the global communities in 2020. Living in Eqypt at this stage would have been even worse!
The Egyptians have just experienced the loss of their water supply, have dead frogs lying around and bugs all over the place. Egypt is smelling like a war zone with dead bodies piling up. It this was not bad enough, the flies have now started and are taking over. To make matters worse, the Israelites are not experiencing the hardship and trauma of the Egyptians.
It is like a plastic screen that has been draped over the Israelites. The flies, gnats, and horror escape them, as though they were a special and chosen group. Imagine a group of people walking around town with no masks, and not infected by COVID-19 and the risk of death. The Egyptians must have been starting to despise the Israelites!
Let’s Pray
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you, God, for providing us the example of how Jesus’ blood would cover and protect us. The blood of Jesus separates us and protects us from all that this world has to endure and see. Help me to be a beacon of love for those impacted by the world and its pain.
In Jesus Name,
Amen