I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Anything or anyone.

A person, a habit, a goal, money, all are potential gods blocking the pathway to worship the Lord your God.

It’s the first rule of being a Christ follower and the last word in living a fulfilled life.

Competition for your worship is fierce and the field of battle is cluttered with adversaries clamoring to derail you from the singularity of your truest love.

“I am the Lord your God” is a statement of fact for us all.

Clear a path. Eliminate distractions. Make way for God to rule your destiny. He will make your path straight.

Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them.

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭18‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Family meetings were once a place to pass on historic accounts of God’s mercies. Thankfulness was a way of life taught generation to generation.

Thanksgiving was an everyday celebration.

Today, the family has become a shallow navigation to circumvent differences and preserve peace at all costs, at least for the duration of a shared meal.

What was once a safe harbor of shared beliefs is now a smoldering set of competing ideas too easily raked into a raging fire capable of destroying the very essence of community.

And it took all of two or three generations to do.

The enemy strikes where it hurts most.

Pray for a return to safe harbors and common foundations of shared beliefs based on the one true God who unites us for his glory.

Pray for families, yours, mine, and ours, and a return to the thankfulness of unity.

Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭11‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The leader of a nation who does not fear God brings consequences upon its people.

In a democratic government, who you elect to lead can pronounce either your life or your death.

History has demonstrated this truth and still does today.

Pharaoh’s continued resistance even in the midst of God’s many demonstrations of power took out an entire generation and crippled Egypt until Pharaoh finally acquiesced. The collateral damage of his hardened heart was devastating.

Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭12‬:‭40‬-‭41‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Let my people go” was never meant as a suggestion but a command. And after all the horrible plagues, this one, with human consequences including a personal loss for Pharaoh, finally made him obedient though still reluctant.

When God speaks as directly and clearly as he did with Pharaoh throughout most of the book of Exodus as he had up to this point, he means business, never to be trivialized as just good advice.

Consequences of continued disbelief are deadly.

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭8‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Lord just get me through this situation and I promise to follow you forever. Amen.”

We’ve all prayed that prayer of desperation before, then reneged on our promise.

Hardened hearts find no place in God’s mercy and empty promises on repeat only take us further and further from redemption.

There’s a little Pharaoh in all of us that cries out to God for relief and rescue—exchanging nothing in return in the end.

It’s a dangerous game, and Pharaoh was masterful at it up until the point he was not.

It’s better to never make a vow than to make one and not keep it.

God is patient and long suffering not for his own sake but for ours. He is always focused on his end game, our salvation and redemption.

And he always wins.

Let that sink in.

This matter of eternity is no game.

Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.””

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭5‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Stubborn would be an understatement.

Those of us who’ve watched Charlton Heston in ‘The 10 Commandments’ from the passenger seats of our living rooms witnessed 2nd hand what followed in awe.

As the miracle of plagues waged on, Pharaoh laughed in the face of God, soon to discover that God always wins.

Not unlike present day deniers among us in increasing numbers who have misplaced themselves as pharaohs and kings of this world, they all will eventually fall and kneel to the God of the universe.

“Who is the Lord that I should obey him?” asks Pharaoh.

FAFO.

Meanwhile at the burning bush…

Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said,

Pardon your servant, Lord.

Please send someone else.

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God can answer prayer in every possible way from here to Hawaii and still you don’t want his solution.

Even after hearing his voice audibly and witnessing his miracles firsthand, Moses resisted.

This really hits home for me and probably for you.

My God, literally what will it take for you to proceed in faith when God offers an answer to your prayer?

Seriously, sometimes we need to pause praying long enough to hear God speaking.

Resistance is futile.

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭50‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

They say all’s well that ends well.

After the long and protracted drama of Joseph and his brothers, the story ends with a perspective keen in hindsight, forgiveness, and reunification of the entire family.

But it’s not every story that has a happy ending.

In fact, for so many of us at this time of year, our prayers continue to seek and find those loved ones who may be left behind at the Lord’s return.

Do not abandon your hopes and desires. Set a place at your table readied for the return of the prodigals and the lost who still don’t understand that they need Jesus.

Be ready for a miracle.

Successful at everything…

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭39‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

And handsome, too.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭39‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Some guys have it all. Fortune, fame, women…the perfect man.

The envy of every guy, Joseph had mad skills in everything he did, the trust of his boss, and sex appeal to boot.

And to top it off, incomparable virtue and morals.

I’ve encountered a few of these incredible men in my life. And I mean incredible literally in that it’s hard to believe one man can have the whole package the rest of us only aspire to piecemeal.

Tempering my envy is a truth and conviction that despite what it may seem, no man has it all. No man is perfect except Jesus.

Being enamored with the traits of another isn’t a bad thing except when you misplace your personal standards within them.

Someone out there right now mistakenly views you as the perfect person. It may be hard to believe but it’s true.

The standards we hold and ascribe to are relative and even more importantly, they are reflective of our own shortcomings.

Our standard is to be more like Jesus in every way. One perfect man, one perfect life.

Don’t ever lose sight of this. Your value lies in who you are on your journey right now.

So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭37‬:‭28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jealousy drives people to do crazy stuff to vanquish what they view as competition.

Ironically, jealousy says more about you than the object of your jealousy itself.

To admire and wish obsessively for something merely underscores your own nature of greed and discontent.

When not reigned in, jealousy starts bitter wars all based on the conviction you deserve something more or something better.

Humility is its opposite.

In fact, as sinners we deserve nothing but to be thankful for the generosity of God and his salvation.

But we are competitive by nature. The very nature we are to have abandoned as followers of Christ.

This week of Thanksgiving, let us not frustrate ourselves over who we aren’t or what we don’t have.

Be thankful of WHOSE we are and for what we possess as a result.

All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised. Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭34‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

No good deed goes unpunished.

Kick ‘em when they’re down.

Haters are gonna hate.

Call it what you will but life isn’t fair and avengers are always at the door.

In this story, Dinah’s brothers successfully avenge the rape of their sister. It was an easy rout. A deceitful plan, but an effective one.

Standing up against evil is rarely this easy.

The takeaway?

There are no rules in war. It’s entirely about finding your advantage against your foe and exploiting it to your victory.

There will be times when being a Christian is less about being loving and more about being smarter than a fifth grader.