Not now!?

I was listening to some teaching and reading the story of Moses when he took the people of Israel out of slavery and off towards the promised land. 

To give a bit of background, the Jews are enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  They are building stuff for the Egyptians when God calls Moses to go and lead the Israelites out of slavery and into the land he has promised them.   Moses is to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let God's people go!    If Pharaoh refuses, then plagues will come upon the Egyptians.  Pharaoh doesn't let them go and so those plagues come.

First, they had the Nile turn to blood and then, the second plague; frogs, frogs and more frogs everywhere!!  In the oven, in the bed - EVERYWHERE.  Now I don't mind frogs, but in my bed or cereal box?  No thanks!

Frogs were worshipped in Egypt - you weren't supposed to kill them because they worship various deities that took on frog heads or bodies.  Heqet was their goddess of fertility and life for example.   I am sure God was saying "I am the only giver of life round here!"  Anyway...God sends these frogs, and the Egyptian magicians mimic the plague, bringing forth more frogs (not sure what they were thinking) but they could only add more frogs i.e. they could only make the problem worse! (Sound familiar?)

In the end, Pharaoh says to Moses, ok pray to your God and get rid of the frogs...

As I was considering this, a particular phrase jumped out at me:

Exodus 8:9-10 (GNT) Moses replied, “I will be glad to pray for you. Just set the time when I am to pray for you, your officers, and your people. Then you will be rid of the frogs, and there will be none left except in the Nile.” The king answered, “Pray for me tomorrow.”

Tomorrow!?  Why wait?  Why not now?  In effect, he's saying "We can put up with this for 24 hours more." yet, he had freedom to ask for whatever time frame he wanted.  I would have been like "get down on your knees and sort it now!"

These things are a shadow of the Gospel message.   God sent Jesus to deliver us, his people,  from slavery to the devil, but how many times do we put off deliverance from the things Jesus came to free us from?

I remember a young lady I met who was suffering terribly from hay fever.  I asked if she wanted me to pray for her healing and her reply "No thank you there are people who need your prayers more than me!"
That may be a true sentiment, but that's like saying 'I don't have as many frogs as so and so."  

Jesus has come to set us all completely free (the bible says it was for freedom Christ has set us free) from the things that hold us in bondage - sin, sickness, fear, anxiety, poverty!  Don't wait until tomorrow to begin the process of becoming free from those things.  You get to chose if you put up with them for one day more or not. 

Anything God promises in his word is available right here, right now!  So, don't tolerate the stuff that Jesus came to free you from, and don't rely on the wisdom of this world - it can only make things worse!  Instead tell those things they are done!  TODAY is the day of salvation! (2 Corinthians 6:2) It's for now.   

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