Psalm 105:29-37

It is best not to mess with God’s people. God had a plan for the Israelites and Pharaoh stubbornly stood in His way - not without warning, either. God asked politely at first and Pharaoh refused. Then the plagues came.

God does this in our lives as well. I have heard it said that it is always best to do what God says the first time He asks us, as He also provides the grace to accomplish what He is asking. Maybe it is a habit He wants you to break or it is a direction He wants to go, but like Jonah, you run the other way. Whatever it is, it is always best to respond, “Yes Lord!” As otherwise, the road ahead is going to get more difficult until you do.

Pharaoh’s pride and stubbornness cost him, his family, and all the Egyptian families great harm and loss in the end; so much so that the Egyptians practically ran the Israelites out of Egypt and let them take whatever they needed for their journey.

You may not want to walk with God but you certainly don’t want to stand in His way and actively oppose Him. Many do without realizing it because they don’t recognize His voice or His hand in matters. It doesn’t dawn on them that if God is for someone, no one can stand against them, as Paul states in Romans 8:31.

Yet God shows no favoritism for even the Israelites suffered casualties when they chose not to follow the Lord. As Paul records in his letter to the Corinthians…..

“Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.10.9-11.NLT

We must learn from history so we don’t tragically repeat it. God is formidable, mighty, and all powerful, and yet He is also longsuffering and patient with us in the hopes that we will turn to Him. Just as when Jesus confronted Saul, in His mercy, who was causing great harm to Jesus’ followers in Acts 9:5-6:

“And he (Saul) fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me [harassing, troubling, and molesting Me]? And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance]. Trembling and astonished he asked, Lord, what do You desire me to do? The Lord said to him, But arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭9‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭AMPC‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/8/act.9.4-6.AMPC

Thank God that Saul obeyed and later became the Apostle Paul who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament. Notice that Jesus told him,

“It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance].”

The same is true for us ?

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