Gone for Good!

I watched as a woman emptied her vehicle of several black garbage bags. She was loading them into one of those big metal boxes for clothing donations, the ones that usually sit at the end of a shopping center parking lot. I've often wondered who has the unsavory task of emptying those bins. I mean, there's got to be all sorts of really disgusting things in there. I'm sure people drop trash in there, maybe some filthy old shoes, cigarette butts --maybe even clothes used in the commission of a crime! Too much? Okay. But what about roaches? There have to be roaches! And I just can't! Those critters can survive just about anything! And just because you got rid of them doesn't mean they stay gone. 

Maybe this, too, is a little much, but our sin is like an infestation of roaches. We stop one bad habit by merely exchanging it for another. We realize we are being plagued by wrongful anger, so we pray and fast and do studies on anger and how to live a life worthy of the calling; we lean into the Lord that we might be free. And we are! But two years later, out comes a sarcastic remark. Where did that come from? Unrighteous anger is threatening our character once again. We have forgotten we don't need to be that way; we have forgotten that we now walk in freedom. It's a reinfestation. But how?

In Exodus 12:12 God explains the final step He is going to take to compel Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go out of Egypt. He tells Moses and Aaron, I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.

Did you catch that? God is dealing with the gods of Egypt. God's actions weren't simply for Israel's benefit and Pharaoh's detriment; they were designed to deal with the false deities of Egypt. Some of the animals in Egypt were regarded as incarnations of gods; their death would have been incomprehensible. Other animals simply represented objects of worship, as they were symbols of certain gods or were "owned" by gods. Recall the images of gods like Horus with a falcon head, Pasht's catlike head, or Anubis with a jackal's head. A sudden extermination of "sacred" firstborn animals would have been regarded as a strike against those deities. Some sources point out that each of the plagues prior to the Angel of Death crushed the power and authority of some of Egypt's gods over the land. Hapi, god of the Nile was thrown down by the turning of the river's waters to blood. Geb, god of the earth was supplanted when the dust became gnats at God's command. Ra, the sun god was defeated when God darkened all of Egypt, literally overshadowing Ra's sovereignty.  

Then there was Pharaoh himself, a "divinely" installed and sanctioned ruler, a mediator between gods and men who, upon his death, would himself become divine. His son would inherit the throne. According to Egyptian lore, Osiris and Isis were gods that protected the Pharaoh and his wife; Horus was the god that ensured the rightful heir, son of the Pharaoh, would take the throne. The death of the heir would have thwarted the intended, legitimate transition of power and affected the perpetuation of the royal lineage. This blow would have usurped the powers of all the gods "protecting" the royal family. Osiris, who had additional authority over life, death, and resurrection would have been proved to be particularly impotent. God, over the course of ten plagues (depending on how you count them) executed judgment not only on Pharaoh, but on the very deities the people of Egypt worshiped and depended upon to care for them.

So back to the sin (and the roaches). The power of Jesus' blood shed on the cross puts an end to bondage and demonstrates the impotency of the gods on which we rely. When we run to alcohol in hopes of emboldening us, or food to pacify us, or gossip to make us feel better about ourselves, or angry outbursts to make us more comfortable --when we run to these things, they don't help! They never did! They are impotent, defeated. That was proven at the cross! Their power lasts only as long as the dopamine rush and solves nothing. By chasing after those behaviors, we are clutching at false gods offered by the ruler of this world. The gods worshipped by Egypt were powerless; they never had provided for or protected the Egyptians. God proved that via plagues. But it was the belief of the people that gave false gods their power. Just like those sins we allow to revisit and reinfest. If we are not vigilant, we once again, as we did before we became free in Christ, give them power. 

I need some liquid courage. 

I'm eating my feelings.

But that's not the truth. Jesus is our confidence, our peace, our identity, our rest. And all of those false deities are nothing but insidiously disgusting roaches that Christ has made gone --for good. He has been proving it since the beginning of time, disarming and disabling the things that challenge His place in the lives of His people. Let us remain close to Him, worshipping only the One True God, and prevent a reinfestation.