Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. I had an interesting deep dive the other day in my own time of devotion that I want to share with you right now. I was reading through Exodus, or part of Exodus, when Moses is going to Pharaoh and saying, "Let my people go. We want to go into the the wilderness three days and worship our God, make sacrifices to our God." And Pharaoh continues to harden his heart.

And what struck me interestingly this time, going through the stories of the plagues, was that Pharaoh kept coming back to Moses and trying to compromise. Moses came to him saying that God says, "let my people go". And with the intention that they are going to go and worship Yahweh. And Pharaoh, of course, says, no.

And then as the plagues begin to be rolled out and Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron to come to his presence and talk with them, he will say, "okay, you can go, but just you and the men." And Moses says, "no, we're going. The men and our wives and children." And then Pharaoh, Pharaoh says, absolutely not. He hardens his heart and a plague comes down.

And these sort of happenings continue to happen.

And I want to read where this really began to start sticking in my brain is in the tenth chapter, where they're experiencing the plague of darkness. And in verse 24 it says, "Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, go worship the Lord. Only your flocks and your herds shall remain behind. Even your children may go with you." And so the Pharaoh is being generous in his own mind here, and he's still trying to compromise with Moses, thereby trying to compromise with God.

And Moses said, "you must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings to sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also must go with us. Not a hoof shall be left behind." So what's interesting is that Moses stood firm. He was uncompromising.

In the day and age in which we live, and throughout all ages, truly there are temptations and there are forces that pressure, or attempt to pressure, a compromise, a compromise with our faith, a compromise in our worship of the Lord, and a compromise in upholding the holy righteousness and the full truth of God. And the truth is that God is uncompromising. He doesn't give at all. He cannot give in compromise of his holiness, because he is holy and completely holy and righteous and perfect. He can't compromise with his own being.

And so regardless of how many outside forces, how many Pharaohs we have in our life, we are called to stand like Moses and stand in the firmness, the uncompromising truth of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the faith that he has called us into, the faith that he has blessed us with. So I don't have an answer for you, and I don't even know that I've posed a question for you. But you know, how many times have we read through the plagues and the time of the Israelites being called forth out of Egypt? We're familiar. We know these stories.

And yet, in his grace, God continues to open his word to us. And I'm so grateful that he has begun to lead me in a path of seeing the compromising forces or the attempt to compromise. And yet having that faithful witness of Moses, that our faith and our reliance upon our Lord is. Is uncompromising, that there are matters in which we cannot compromise. And the truth of God and the truth of His Word is one of those matters that is absolutely steadfast and cannot be compromised.

So I encourage you this week and as you go forth, to have your eyes opened, looking for those places where the outside world is trying to push you into a compromise of your faith. And I pray that you will be strengthened in the spirit to remain uncompromising and to remain steadfast in. In faith, as God remains steadfast in his faithfulness to you. 

Heavenly Lord, we thank you so much. We thank you for your Word. Your Word is truth. We thank you that in your Word it is revealed to us that you are God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. Lord, help us to bring the good news of salvation through Christ to those around us. Help us to be strengthened in our own faith to which you have called us. Strengthen to stand uncompromisingly in the truth of your Word and to share it with love with those around us. Lord, keep us steadfast in worship of you. Keep us steadfast in love of you. And keep us steadfast in serving you as our Lord and Savior.

Lord, we praise you for this day. We praise you for being the God that you are. And we praise you that we do not walk alone, but we walk always with young strengthening us and keeping us in your spirit. Lord, we lift all of this to you, trusting in the holy name that saves the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have an amazing rest of your week, and I will look forward to worshipping our true God, the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the God of you and me, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit God.

God bless! 

Pastor Malinak