A Journey Through the Bible: Exodus 7 and 8

Exodus 7:5—”And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them." The Egyptians might have learned that Jehovah was God, but they didn’t remember it for very long. They had a very complex religion which included just about everything from totem poles to theology, and influenced literature, government, art—all aspects of society except perhaps morality. In the beginning was the sky; that and the Nile River were the chief divinities. Constellations and stars might be gods, too. Sahu and Sopdit (Orion and Sirius) were tremendous deities. Sahu ate gods three times a day regularly. Sometimes he ate the moon, but only for a moment; prayers of men and the anger of other gods forced him to vomit it up. The moon was a god, too, but the greatest god of all was the sun, Amon-re, or sometimes called Horus. Nearly everything, at some point in Egyptian history, was worshipped—the bull, crocodile, hawk, cow, goose, goat, ram, cat, dog, chicken, swallow, jackal, serpent—and they allowed some of them to roam as freely as the cow in India today. Sometimes women were offered to certain of these animals as sexual mates; the bull in particular received that honor (the bull was the incarnation of the god, Orisis, who was god of the dead). What it all pointed to was immortality. To the Egyptian, the body was inhabited by a small replica of itself, the “ka,” and also by a soul—all three, body, ka, and soul survived the appearance of death. When an Egyptian died, he made his appearance before Osiris. If he was clean from sin, he would be permitted to live forever in the “Happy Field of Food,” those heavenly gardens where there would always be abundance and security. These nice fields, however, could only be reached with the aid of a ferryman, and this old gentleman would receive into his boat only such men and women as had done no evil in their lives. Osiris would question the dead, weighing each candidate’s heart in the scale against a feather to test his truthfulness. Those who failed this final examination were condemned to live forever in their tombs, hungering and thirsting, fed upon by hideous crocodiles, and never coming forth to see the sun.

One last point about Egyptian religion, of which I only touched the merest hem of the garment: Pharaoh was a god-king, and it was his association with the gods that was the source of his power and authority. We read of no police force in ancient Egypt; since they had a supreme “god” on earth—Pharaoh—that was sufficient for social control. Of course, crime happened, but for the Egyptian, Pharaoh’s divinity was enough to ensure proper living. It would be nice to see religion have that kind of effect in America today. As James Madison said, if all men were angels, we wouldn’t need government.

Exodus 8:19—“Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said.” Up until this plague (the lice), the Egyptian magicians had been able to, at least to some degree, duplicate what Moses and Aaron had done. These conjurers probably believed that the two Hebrews were tricksters like themselves. Frankly, magicians of today have little over the magicians of the ancient world. They knew ruses that would stump the ablest of modern conjurers. But, with the plague of lice, the power of Jehovah exceeded the Egyptians’ best efforts and they were honest enough to recognize and admit the limitations to their abilities. Unfortunately, it would take several more such exercises of true divine power before Pharaoh would be convinced of the superiority of the Hebrew God and allow His people to leave Egypt. And even then, he had a change of mind (see Exodus 14).

A Journey Through the Bible: Mark 6

Mark 6:12—“So they went out and preached that people should repent.” Jesus sent His apostles out two by two to gain some experience. I find it interesting that their message wasn’t the love and/or grace of God, but “repent.” I suspect they probably mentioned God’s mercy, but there is much more to the plan of salvation than that. People need to understand that God’s blessings—including salvation—are conditional, and they always have been. Read Leviticus 26 for just one example among the hundreds that could be brought forth. “Repent” is not as pleasing a message as “love,” which is why a lot of preachers preach much of the latter and not much of the former. But, folks, Jesus wasn’t crucified because He preached “love;” He was killed because He told people what they had to do to be right with God and they didn’t like it. Nobody likes to be told to “repent.” The very concept of “repentance” implies that we are doing something wrong and must change, and if we are doing what we want to do, we don’t want to change. It is much easier—or at least, more palatable for us—to shut the messenger up than it is to reform our lives to put them in harmony with the strict teachings of the Bible. But, after teaching God’s part in the scheme of redemption—His love and grace—we must teach man his responsibilities and duties, which can be summed up in the word “repentance.” The word “repentance” is a translation of the Greek word metanoia, which literally means “change of mind.” That “change of mind” implicitly requires a reformation of life; one doesn’t truly change their mind unless there is a concomitant change of life. But again, that’s the message that gets preachers in trouble—convicting sinners of sin which unreservedly means making amendments to one’s behavior. And it was that message Jesus sent His apostles out to preach.

It is also the message Jesus preached. Mark’s first recording of Jesus preaching has the Master saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Indeed, the Bible never once records Jesus using the word “grace.”

A Journey Through the Bible: Mark 4 and 5

Mark 4:23-24—“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then He said to them, ‘Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.’” Jesus makes this statement, “if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear” twice in this chapter, and He says it to all seven of the churches of Asia in Revelation 2 and 3. “Do you have ears?”—and everyone does, of course (theoretically), “Then listen to what I’m saying.” In other words, pay attention to what the Lord teaches. “Hear ye Him” (Mt. 17:5). It is His word that will judge us on the last day (John 12:48). Listen—but also obey.

But it’s interesting that Jesus says not only to take heed how you hear but also “take heed what you hear.” “Many false prophets have gone out into the world” (I John 4:1). Knowing this will make us rightfully cautious. We owe the Lord Jesus, Who has done so much for us, faithful, devoted service—according to His will, not the will of man. By doing so, and serving others according to His dictates (“with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you”), we will be effective in His kingdom and be given the privilege of even greater service—“and to you who hear, more will be given”—which, concomitantly, leads to greater blessings. We cannot outgive the Lord.

Mark 5:13—“And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.” Demon possession, as it occurred in the time of Christ, does not take place today. And we read no instances of it in the Old Testament. Thus, it was allowed by God for only a short period of time, during the age of miracles that accompanied the ministry of Christ and His apostles. Why did it happen? Jesus, of course, was God in the flesh. To prove that, He needed to demonstrate His power and authority over all aspects of creation. In Mark 4, nature submitted to Him when He calmed the storm and the seas. A little later on in this chapter, He is going to cure a sick woman (healing the sick was something He did frequently, of course), but He is also going to raise a dead girl to exhibit His authority over death. So, the natural world, the physical world, even death are conquered by Jesus. But how about the “spirit” world, i.e., demonic forces? By casting out demons, His absolute dominion over all aspects of existence is firmly established. There is nothing that is not subject to His rule, which is exactly what one would expect of God in the flesh. Without demon possession and Jesus’ evicting of these malevolent spirits, someone could perhaps have asked, “Well, does He have power over the spirit world?” But now there can be no doubt of Who He is. That fact being established and confirmed, there is no longer any need to plague mankind or torture humans by allowing demonic forces to inhabit them. Christ’s authority, once and for all—and over all—has been verified.