Va-era
For the week of January 12, 2002 / 28 Tevet 5762
Torah: Shemot / Exodus 6:2 - 9:35
Haftarah: Ezekiel 28:25 - 29:21

Opposition

Speak to him and say: "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great monster lying among your streams. You say, "The Nile is mine; I made it for myself."'" (Ezekiel 29:3).

Maybe you believe in God; maybe you don’t. But either way could you imagine what it would be like if God (the biblical God – the one who created everything and did all those miracles) was against you?

Has anyone ever been against you? Have you ever been in a situation where someone for some reason was going to make life difficult for you? This sort of thing could happen for any number of reasons. Whatever the reason, being opposed is not nice - especially if the one opposed to you is effective in his opposition.

Now if God is who the Bible says he is, and he is in opposition to you, then that would really not be very nice at all.

According to the prophet Ezekiel, God opposed Pharaoh, King of Egypt. As a result life was going to get very difficult for both him and his people. The reason for this opposition is that Pharaoh had somehow thought that he was the center of the universe. He thought that the life of his nation revolved around him and that he himself was God.

It's not as if God is looking around his creation for someone to oppose, like a bully looking for someone to pick on. Pharaoh's own pride put himself in opposition to God. His false notions put him at odds with the Creator and the creation. He could not accept that life was not how he perceived it. As a result he was on the road to destruction.

There is a verse in the New Covenant scriptures that reads:

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).

Now maybe you and I don't look at ourselves with the kind of grandeur that Pharaoh did of himself. But do we take the time to think about how God feels about the way we do think and live? Even those of us who say we believe in God can easily take God for granted when it comes to how we hold on to our personal perceptions of life. We may be surprised to learn that our attitudes and actions either align us with the Creator or place us in opposition to him.

Is God opposing you? He doesn't really want to. He takes no delight in opposing us. The good news is that whenever we humble ourselves, the grace and favor of God is ours. He longs that we would walk together in a close loving relationship with him.

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