Exodus 20:17 -- Do not Covet

Exodus 20:17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Do not covet.  Do not become jealous of what your neighbor has.  If you do, it could lead you into more sin.  If you covet your neighbor's wife, you may want to commit adultery with her.  If you covet his slave or animals, you may want to steal them.  When you covet, your heart desires the things you cannot have and will eventually seek a way for you to obtain those things.

Joshua 7:20 Achan replied to Joshua, “It is true. I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I did: 21 When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, 200 silver shekels, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and took them. You can see for yourself. They are concealed in the ground inside my tent, with the money under the cloak.” 22 So Joshua sent messengers who ran to the tent, and there was the cloak, concealed in his tent, with the money underneath. 23 They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out in the Lord’s presence.
24 Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, and the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his ox, donkey, and sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Today the Lord will trouble you!” So all Israel stoned them to death. They burned their bodies, threw stones on them, 26 and raised over him a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from His burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.

The above story is about a man who coveted, and as a result he took things he should not have.  As a result of his disobedience, he and all his family and possessions were killed and destroyed.

Having desires and wants is not wrong in and of itself.  It is wanting those desires so much that you are putting them before God and you are willing to sin to get those desires.

Exodus 9:13-35 -- Hail Falls from the Sky

Exodus 9:13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and present yourself to Pharaoh. Tell him: This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews says: Let My people go, so that they may worship Me. 14 Otherwise, I am going to send all My plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like Me in all the earth.15 By now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth. 16 However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you My power and to make My name known in all the earth. 17 You are still acting arrogantly against My people by not letting them go. 18 Tomorrow at this time I will rain down the worst hail that has ever occurred in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19 Therefore give orders to bring your livestock and all that you have in the field into shelters. Every person and animal that is in the field and not brought inside will die when the hail falls on them.”

As I read this, I think of how Moses was being obedient to the Lord's commands.  Early on, he had a lot of objections to this plan, especially telling God he was not qualified to do the work, but now, Moses does everything the Lord tells him to.  Another thing that struck me was that the Lord gave them a way out of this plague.  He said if the bring their people and animals inside, then they would be spared.  He said that anything or anyone left outside would be destroyed,

Exodus 9:20 Those among Pharaoh’s officials who feared the word of the Lord made their servants and livestock flee to shelters, 21 but those who didn’t take the Lord’s word seriously left their servants and livestock in the field.

 After all that the Lord had shown the Egyptians through Moses and his plagues, there were some who still did not believe in the Lord's power.  They were obstinate and left their livestock and servants outside.

Exodus 9:22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven and let there be hail throughout the land of Egypt—on man and beast and every plant of the field in the land of Egypt.” 23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail. Lightning struck the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. 24 The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 Throughout the land of Egypt, the hail struck down everything in the field, both man and beast. The hail beat down every plant of the field and shattered every tree in the field. 26 The only place it didn’t hail was in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were.

God destroyed everything.  Man.  Beast.  Plants.  All the crops that had not been gathered was destroyed.  All the animals that had not been put to shelter were killed.  Every man who stayed outside lost their life.  The land of Israel was spared.

Exodus 9:27 Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron. “I have sinned this time,” he said to them. “Yahweh is the Righteous One, and I and my people are the guilty ones. 28 Make an appeal to Yahweh. There has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don’t need to stay any longer.”
29 Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will extend my hands to Yahweh. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know the earth belongs to Yahweh. 30 But as for you and your officials, I know that you still do not fear Yahweh our God.”

Moses knew that Pharaoh and the officials did not fear God.  They still held beliefs in their own gods even though our Lord showed his complete power over the gods of Egypt.

Exodus 9:31 The flax and the barley were destroyed because the barley was ripe and the flax was budding, 32 but the wheat and the spelt were not destroyed since they are later crops.

Here we see some mercy from the Lord in this plague.  Yes, the crops that were already planted and near to harvest were destroyed and the Egyptians had to suffer temporarily from lack of grains, they did have the harvest of wheat and spelt to look forward to.  It was not God's intent to utterly destroy the Egyptians, just to brake them enough to recognize his power and authority over all functions of the earth.

Exodus 9:33 Moses went out from Pharaoh and the city, and extended his hands to the Lord. Then the thunder and hail ceased, and rain no longer poured down on the land. 34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials. 35 So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.

I know Moses was not surprised at this reaction.  He knew that Pharaoh and his officials did not fear God properly. They wanted their comfort back.  They wanted to rebuild what was lost, but they did not want to acknowledge God and what he had done.   Once things were back to normal, Pharaoh and his officials recanted what had previously been said,

There are other times in the Bible when the Lord uses hail as a judgment on wicked and evil people.

Joshua 10:6 Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Don’t abandon your servants. Come quickly and save us! Help us, for all the Amorite kings living in the hill country have joined forces against us.” 7 So Joshua and his whole military force, including all the fighting men, came from Gilgal.
8 The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for I have handed them over to you. Not one of them will be able to stand against you.”
9 So Joshua caught them by surprise, after marching all night from Gilgal. 10 The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel. He defeated them in a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them through the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled before Israel, the Lord threw large hailstones on them from the sky along the descent of Beth-horon all the way to Azekah, and they died. More of them died from the hail than the Israelites killed with the sword.

Here, the Lord handed over the enemy of Joshua to his army.  They defeated them and as the defeated army fled, the Lord rained hail down on them, taking out more men that the Israelite army did.

Psalm 48:47 He killed their vines with hail
and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.
48 He handed over their livestock to hail
and their cattle to lightning bolts.

Here, Psalm is talking about the punishment God gave to Israel during their disobedience while they wandered through the desert.

Revelation 16:21 Enormous hailstones, each weighing about 100 pounds, fell from the sky on people, and they blasphemed God for the plague of hail because that plague was extremely severe.

At the end times, a hail storm will come and devastate everything.  People will curse God because of the hail instead of recognizing his power and authority.

As you see from these examples, hail is used as a judgment from God in the Bible.  God uses hail to show his power and might over many parts of nature.  Weather.  Life and Death.  Food.  Comfort.  And so much more.  God is all powerful and the righteous judge.  He brings the hail down on wicked people to they can see his power and might.  So they can know he is the one true, all powerful God.

Genesis 15 -- A Promised Land

Ok, I know there was no post yesterday.  That is because I spent most of my time researching about marriage in the Bible to share with friends on Facebook.  I hate to see how people want to twist what marriage means to make it suitable for everyone.  Marriage for the Christian is so important because it represents Christ's relationship with the church and if marriages work correctly, it can be a beautiful thing to hint at what it will be like when we, the church, are with Christ forever.  Anywho, on to chapter 15.

Genesis 15:1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield;
your reward will be very great.
2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”
4 Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.

God has just promised Abram that he would be a biological father to a son, who would be his heir.  Abram believed the Lord and what he said.  We too should believe the promises that the Lord has given to us!

Genesis 15:7 He also said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
8 But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?”
9 He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 So he brought all these to Him, split them down the middle, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut up the birds. 11 Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.
13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years.14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. 15 But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.16 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

Your offspring will be foreigners in a land, that is Egypt.  They will be enslaved and oppressed, which happened in the book of Exodus.  Though he will judge that nation with the 12 plagues.  Notice he also mentioned the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.  The Amorites as a whole were not followers of God.  Perhaps there were a few there who did, and God wanted to delay the destruction of the Amorites until there were no Godly left?  We do not know, of course, just a thought.

17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River: 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim,21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

And the Lord kept his promise to Abram.

Joshua 21:43 So the Lord gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their fathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The Lord gave them rest on every side according to all He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies were able to stand against them, for the Lord handed over all their enemies to them. 45 None of the good promises the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. Everything was fulfilled.