The Nightmare Begins

    Nightmares are horrible scenes enacted in your mind, usually when you are asleep.  What makes them so bad is that they feel real.  If you have a graphic imagination they can be heart racing.  I have awoken from dreams not knowing if I was still asleep or awake because my dreams are so vivid and feel so real.  I have awoken to my heart pounding like I was running for my life because in my dream I was.  However, when you realize you are safe you go back to sleep or at least calm down.  What do you do when your nightmare becomes reality?   What happens when your reality becomes worse than your nightmare?

    Moses and Aaron had a job to do.  They went to Pharaoh knowing that he would not listen.  They knew what would happen when he refused to allow God's people to go worship Him.  It must have been such a hard job to do and stay positive, but they went.  They told the Pharaoh that God would pass judgment on Egypt through mighty acts if he would not listen.  He was not afraid, but he would be in a short time.  Instead he just stubbornly refused because it would affect the economics of his kingdom.  Plus he had his own gods, why should he fear the God of the Hebrews?

    Moses was 80.  He had grew up there, then had another life of peace, but here he was again in this nightmare.  Aaron was 83 and this is all he had ever known.  Yet, both of them still had so much to learn and see.  They knew what would happen, but they couldn't actually fathom it.  We never stop changing to fit our circumstances.  We can chose to follow the path that they took which is obedience and reliance on God's strength.  Or we could chose to try to do things on our own and make a huge mess of things.

    The first mighty act came (the first plague).  God turned all the water of the Nile into blood.  This was no small thing.  The Nile was their drinking water and source of fish for food and economy.  Within minutes all the fish in the Nile were dead.  Can you imagine the smell of fish cooking in the sun while soaking in thick bloody water.  Not one or two fish, but hundreds.  This went on for miles.  When the breeze came the smell could be carried a great distance.   That was uncomfortable situation for humans and animals alike.  It must have felt like they were living in a nightmare, but this was only the beginning.  This last seven days before God gave the Pharaoh another chance.

Exodus 7