God is God — where is my focus?

Exodus 11:1–12:20; Job 29; Luke 14; 1 Corinthians 15

After weeks, perhaps months, of experiencing plagues from the hand of God through Moses, Egyptian Pharaoh was ready to let God’s people go from his sight and their slavery. The Egyptian people also had enough. Their crops and livestock had been destroyed and their lives totally disrupted. For all this, these verses are astonishing:

The Lord said to Moses, “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people, that they ask, every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor, for silver and gold jewelry.” And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. (Exodus 11:1–3)

Sociologists try to figure out why this should happen. Most of them forget that God can intervene. He can turn the hearts and minds of people. This happened in Egypt and has happened in other parts of the world when massive revival transforms hundreds of people. It is happening right now in the state of Tennessee. One Christian news channel quotes a pastor who said, "People were getting serious about dealing with personal sin and people were coming to Christ for salvation. 30-year feuds were made right, relationships have been restored, and many masks have been removed. People made public confessions of sin, bitterness, and laziness about their involvement in God's kingdom activity."

One of our pastors would say, “Only God” as he knows the reality of God’s power. However, many sociologists find such change in people inconceivable because they believe in closed systems where people have definable reasons for doing what they do and they don’t change very much. Yet God can graciously intervene. He can change people and make them “favorably disposed” to the preaching of the Gospel. I agree, for He did it to me.

There is a question about the power of God to change lives. Why isn’t everyone transformed? Why do many people say NO to God? Could it be that they realize that salvation may be freely available but there is a cost to following Jesus? Up front, that cost could be the reason that people whom God has drawn toward His Son begin to back away. Up front, to them that cost seems very high:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26–33)

At the time Jesus called me, I did not hear Him asking me to count the cost. I jumped right in only to later find out that being a Christian meant giving my entire life to Jesus. By then, I loved Him so much that it did not seem difficult.

Saying NO to God does not change the love of God or the power of God. It just means those who say it will miss out on experiencing the wonder of His grace and power.

APPLY: Disobedience on my part is a choice. It does not change the power of God; it only means I lose opportunities to see Him at work. He is alive and well, whether I focus on that or on the futility of my own life. Giving up that focus on Jesus is costly? I don’t think so!