Ding Dong!

 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20).”

Murray K was a famous disc jockey in the 1950s.  He bet Bobby Darin that he couldn’t write a song that began with the words “Splish Splash, I was takin’ a bath”.

Darin took him up on his bet, and ended up with a big hit. Here are some of the lyrics:

“Splish splash, I was taking a bath
Long about a Saturday night
A rub dub, just relaxing in the tub
Thinking everything was alright

Well, I stepped out the tub, put my feet on the floor
I wrapped the towel around me
And I opened the door, and then
Splish, splash! I jumped back in the bath
Well how was I to know there was a party going on..”

Pharoah must have felt like Bobby Darin when the plagues started.  Moses told him they were coming, but Pharoah had a hard heart and didn’t believe him. 

I gave myself a challenge similar to the one Murray the K gave Bobby Darin, except the song had to start with “Ding Dong, boy I was wrong”.

Here’s my attempt:

“Ding dong, boy I was wrong
thinkin’ about Moses and the plagues
A jib jab, I was really mad
When I sat down to eat my eggs.

Well, I put down my fork and I started to puke
I jumped up on a chair
And I danced a juke, and then
Ding Dong! It  was Aaron at the door
Well how was I to know they could really bring it off.”

(Back to Darrin’s lyrics) They was a-splishing and a-splashing, reelin’ with the feelin’
Moving and a-grooving, rocking and a-rolling, yeah.”

The frogs Moses had promised had shown up at Pharoah’s breakfast. As a result of this first plague, Pharoah gave in to Moses’s request to allow Israel to leave town and hold a worship service to the Lord. Moses prayed and the frogs all died.

However, after Pharoah saw that the frogs had been removed, he changed his mind and stopped listening to Moses and Aaron. In effect, he also stopped listening to God (Exodus 8:1-12).

The Bible describes Pharoah as a person who generally had a hard heart (Exodus 7:3; 8:14).  What causes this heart condition?

Daryl R. Coats says a hard heart comes from a chain reaction cause and effect which begins with unbelief.  This leads to sin.  The person then refuses to repent of the sin, and is then affected with a destuctive pride.

Coats’ analysis sure applies to Pharoah.  He had already told Moses he didn’t believe in his God (Exodus 5:2).

Pharaoh also was committing grievous sin, killing innocent Hebrew children and oppressing the Israelites (Exodus 1:15,16; 6:4-18).  His ongoing refusal to heed God and Moses revealed that he was unrepentant and prideful.

With the beginning of the plagues, Pharoah could no longer claim ignorance. He couldn’t say in relation to the planned Israelite festival in the desert, “How was I to know there was a party going on?”. God was ringing Pharoah’s chimes and telling him he would suffer grave consequences and if he did not listen to Moses’ plea to let His people go.

Some things we can plead ignorance about. For example, a friend told me he was chastized by a doctor for bringing his wife to the hospital almost too late.  She almost died. He couldn’t have known her condition was that serious.

When it comes to obeying God, though, many things are pretty clear in the Bible.  For example, we know we aren’t to lie, steal, murder, commit adultery, covet other people’s stuff and worship other gods (Exodus 20:1-17).

The Ten Commandments are just the basics.  The Scriptures are loaded with spiritual food for believers to grow in their faith.

We don’t have to live in unbelief.  When Jesus rings the doorbell, we can listen, open the door and fellowship with Him over breakfast. We’ll save ourselves a lot of plagues in this life if we do.

Breakfast with Jesus sure beats breakfast with a bunch of frogs.

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Listen to God in the fog

“We live by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7).”

Yesterday my wife wanted to show me the area behind our house because she said there is a wonderful view there. I said that it was a rainy day and that there not be much of a view, but we went anyway.  As I drove into the neighborhood my wife exclaimed,”You can’t see a thing!”.  She was right. Supposedly there were mountains out there, but all you could see was fog.

Today I took the same drive by myself.  It is a beautiful, warm winter day with blue skies.  I could see mountains in every direction. It was beautiful. The fog was a distant memory.

God used a cloud to lead Israel during the daytime when they escaped from Egypt.  It is called in Exodus a “pillar of cloud” (Exodus 13:21).  At night, they were led by a pillar of fire.  Exodus says that because of these pillars, Israel could travel 24/7. 

That must have been some cloud.  A pillar can be a column, but it can also be a mass.  I am wondering if it was the latter.  If it was, then the Israelites would not have been able to see very far. 

But they didn’t need to see; they just needed to listen. God was present in the cloud.  He spoke to Moses out of it (Exodus 33:11).  So God could tell them where to go even if they couldn’t see very much ahead of them.

After leaving Egypt Israel neglected to listen to God.  At times they were in a fog themselves, and disobeyed Him. He was silent and He left them to their devices.  But when things got bad they ran back to Him  and He helped them.  From their perspective it was as if God Himself woke up in His fog (Psalm 78:65).

It’s interesting how God is associated with the elements.  He not only used clouds and fire to communicate with Israel.  He rained down meat to Israel and provided bread with the dew.  God used the wind in this process, too. (Psalm 78:23-27).

We His people are described as a wind, also — a very short one, a breeze (Psalm 78:39).  Not only does God see our lives on this earth as a short puff of wind, but also as a vanishing mist (James 4:14).  Since we have such a short time here, we ought to do  a better job of listening to God and doing what He tells us to do.

Fog has unjustly received a bad reputation.  It is seen as something that blocks our view and our progress.  With God, though, putting fog in our path is His way of nudging us to listen to Him and go His way.  If we had sunshine all the time we could very well choose a beautiful path, but one that would lead to our destruction.

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