CONGRATULATIONS!!!

What are you willing to lose, holding on to what isn't yours?

When we read about or listen to sermons on how Moses freed the Israelites from Pharaoh, it's common to see ourselves as the former and not the latter. It's so much easier to say, "I'm Moses." We think of our Christian walk in the light of spreading the Word of God and helping those around us reach spiritual freedom.

As I read Exodus for myself, I saw the opposite identifier for my own life.

I'm much more Pharaoh, and far from being Moses.

Let's rewind a bit. Before Moses was the main character, there was a king who was paranoid about the Israelite population in Egypt. The Bible says after Joseph died, the children of Israel "grew mighty" as they multiplied. (Exodus 1:6). This king got so paranoid and the number of these people that he said they needed to be "dealt with" before they joined his enemies "in the event of war" and fought against him. This thought is what lead to the killing of the male Israelite children.

All of this started over a paranoid king. I read and re-read chapter 1 and its amazing to me how he assumed all of this negativity from a people of peace. Were there a lot of them? Yes. But the Bible says they were "mighty," not "violent." The obsession grew as the king saw himself in a war with the children of Israel. Not just that, but he saw the possibility of them joining forces with their enemies.

He created an entire scenario in his head, and acted on a hypothesis. One that had no merit or foundation to stand on.

Have you ever argued with someone in your head? You witnessed or did something in reality and just pictured it going completely left. Maybe you accidentally cut someone off in traffic and had your finger of choice ready, in case they were going to honk at you. Or you see a crowd of people and imagine nobody keeping their six feet from you, so you just have an attitude as you walk by.

Maybe you're in a relationship and one of you didn't come through on a commitment as promised and you envision all hell breaking loose in your house, and you carry on with a chip on your shoulder just in case it hits the fan.

You do all of this mental preparation in your mind for a battle that isn't even coming.

Exodus 1-5 will walk you through the story of Moses, as his life is spared by the midwife who delivered him all the way to the burning bush - where God met with him and gave him a mission to free the Hebrews from Pharaoh. Moses was told on Holy Ground his mission would not be easy. In fact, he would be met with much push back.

This is the part of the story where many of us would opt out of the mission. If it ain't easy, it can't really be God, right....? But that's a story for another day. :)

Let's introduce the fact that the Hebrews who were working for Pharaoh were not doing so from the kindness of their hearts. They were slaves. Moses started an arduous exchange demanding Pharaoh let them go. These people belonged to God, not him.

While we are most likely not holding people captive as slaves, we are probably holding on to individuals and/or things God did not intend for us to have in our lives - or things He gave us that we are misusing. (Starting to hit home, yet?)

Something I need to be very clear about are the plagues themselves and the situation that brought them about. It's easy to detach from being Pharaoh when we compare our lives and see the two as "apples to oranges."

(Which by the way, are both fruit.... I can't stand when people use that phrase... But I digress.)

Back to the plagues.... Moses (through God) cast three plagues on Egypt before the first time Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go. The staff was turned into a snake. The Nile was transformed into blood. Frogs came out of no where by the thousands.

Then more plagues came after Moses continued to demand for God's people. Lice, swarms of flies, skin breakouts (and I'm not talking acne, fam - lesions all over the skin), then hail and fire. All of these, back to back, after "no" after "no." After the hail hit Egypt, God sent locusts before the worst of them all. All of the first born male children in Egypt, whose families did not participate in Passover, were killed.

It wasn't until Pharaoh's son died, that he let the Hebrews leave with Moses.

This is the part I want us to sit on for a second. There were a few times between the other plagues when Pharaoh actually agreed to let the Hebrews go, but he changed his mind. To be completely honest, if I were Pharaoh and I lost my first born son, I'd have nothing left to lose. I would have kept the Hebrews after that. But losing his son, put him in such a position of grief that he finally gave into God.

When he lost his son.

Y'all... For anyone who has ever hit rock bottom before giving our will in exchange for God's... This is us. We are willing to hold on to sooo much until we are in the spiritual fetal position. That's when we want to surrender to God. Pharaoh could have let the plagues stop at the frogs. This was the first time he said "yes" before he took back letting the Hebrews go. He would have spared Egypt lice, lesions, and locusts. He could have saved his country from all the dead cattle from the sixth plague. He could have stopped at the hail and fire and still had his son. He let his pride get in the way, and lost what was most valuable to him.

I want to be careful and cognizant about one thing. God does not take pleasure in the trials and tribulations we go through. I also want to call attention to the fact that everything we go through is not always "God" but are the result of the fallen world we live in. With that being said, all of our actions have consequences. Christians and non-Christians alike believe that.

The tenth plague is hard to correlate for me personally. I've lost a child before. It was super early in the pregnancy before many other women would have even noticed they were pregnant. I grieved hard over that loss. I cannot even imagine the feeling of grief for any parent who's gone through the loss of a child (farther along in pregnancy or postpartum at any age). In fact, if you are reading this, and have experienced the loss of a child, please know I am not waving around the tenth plague as a condemnation or correlation that losing a child means you did something out of the will of God. He hurts for you, and I claim right now that He will be with you during your entire journey of healing.

As I highlight the tenth plague, I also want to be direct in the fact that Pharaoh had so many chances to do what was right, and he played with Moses and he toyed with God. He thought he as untouchable, until he was touched.

I don't want any of you to lose on a level of no turning back, before you loose the things and/or people in your life that God is telling you to remove. I also want us to be aware of the voices in our lives, that we chose to listen to over God's direction.

Pharaoh had a squad (the magicians) who would try to replicate some of the plagues to minimize them, as mere coincidences and not acts of God. This was super interesting to me, considering this Pharaoh was also at a time Moses' brother. Someone he'd grown up with, and someone he'd probably known longer than the magicians. But how many of us can relate to not wanting to hear the truth from a valued source, because it was easier to do what we wanted with people who didn't want to hold us accountable for our actions?

I'll go deeper in to that later... Maybe even in another post :) (stay tuned)

Looking at my own life, I see times where I have been the crusader and even in moments like these - where I am sharing Words of encouragement and telling the devil "let God's people go." But to be honest, those times are far outnumbered by the times I told God, "no." Be it because I felt alone and wanted the company of someone I knew wasn't good for me. Or times when a drink was more favorable than reading the Bible. When running out of town as easier than running to good counsel. I'm sure each of us has our own "rather than" story.

In my rear view of life, I also see the times that what I chose over God caused me to lose somethings that would have drawn me closer to Him. Or at least away from some of the consequences experienced as a result of those choices.

Let's look at our present - our right now. What is God trying to have you release from your life? What are you overlooking, out of pride, that you could lose if you don't let go?

Are you willing to lose it?