Daily Devotions
Who Is the LORD That I Should Obey His Voice?
Reading for January 22nd: Exodus 13-15
"Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?"
Exodus 15:11
The book of Exodus begins with a question from Pharaoh: "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?"
It seems that the rest of the book is an answer to that question. Seventeen times God proclaims "I am the LORD," and nine of those times God says something like, "Then you (or the Egyptians) shall know that I am the LORD."
God brought crippling plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians so that they might know that He is the LORD. He demonstrated His power over all the gods of Egypt (the sun, the Nile river, cattle, etc.) to show their inability to help (Exodus 12:12).
Sometimes we act like Pharaoh. We don't want God telling us what to do. We have established a comfortable life for ourselves and have lots of little gods to serve us (money, career, relationships, things, etc.). We like our gods. They make us happy and don't tell us what to do.
When God calls us to obey him, we reply, "Who is the LORD, that we should obey His voice?"
But if history teaches us anything, this is a dangerous challenge to make. Don't be surprised if God doesn't disrupt things to get our attention: we experience an economic crisis, our career takes a nosedive, we fail at school, the relationship we coveted turns sour, our home goes into foreclosure, etc. God does this to prove a point: the puny little gods we worship are worthless! They are nothing! They are no better than the gods Pharaoh served. God wants us to see how useless they are.
Maybe then we'll fall on our face and confess, "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!"
Father God, our Redeemer, our Sustainer, our Rock, and our Fortress, may we never forget who you are and how helpless we are without you. We invite you to discipline us when we lose sight of who you are.
