Romans 8:38-39
Neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers,
nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
Isaiah 5:20
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Isn't this what our modern culture does all the time? Calls good evil, and evil good. Celebrates darkness and despises the truth? What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
Do not add to the word,
nor take from it,
that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God...
Luke 15:32
But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.
Rembrandt’s Prodigal Son.
Christ is the firstfruit of the risen (1 Corinthians 15:20).
In Leviticus 23:10 God tells Israel that they are to bring the firstfruits of their first Harvest of the promised land to Him. No grain was sown in the desert and the manna stopped with the firstfruits.
Christ rose from the dead on the day of the Festival of Firstfruits. By His death and resurrection, by His substitutionary sacrifice, He took away our reproach.
1 Timothy 6:6-9
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
Exodus 3.
What would you rather have, God’s blessings without His presence, or God’s presence without His blessings?
Exodus 7:21-22
How were Pharaoh's Magicians able to perform signs and wonders? Well they could only manage for the first three. On the first, their serpents were eaten by that of Moses. On the second and third they made things worse. More blood, more frogs! And no undoing Moses curses.
Hardly a resounding demonstration of their skills, though it served to allow Pharaoh that false-sense of superiority that his men could conjure just as well as Aaron and Moses. By the fourth occurrence though even they conceded defeat admitting that 'this is the finger of God'.
While the magicians recognised God's authority however, Pharaoh wouldn't. For the next three trials he would face ludicrously small foes of gnats, flies, and a pathogen too small to see at all. An interesting episode for sure.