Articles
Just Dot It
A host at a local restaurant is commenting on his prideful laziness to another employee saying, “Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow?” As the host says this, the boss happens to be walking by and comments, “Well my beguiling employee, yesterday’s work is today and today’s work is tomorrow.” The host stares blankly into the distance as he begin to realize the endless amount of work his approach to life has made for him. Let’s face it, many of us love a nice relaxing day full of procrastination—and sometimes taking a physical break like this is necessary—but, there can be a price for it. Physically it usually means making up some chores or work the next day. Spiritually however, the cost starts much greater.
In the beginning of Exodus eight[1], Moses was commanded by the Lord to ask Pharaoh to release the nation of Israel. Pharaoh refused to let his let his slaves go, therefore the Lord sent a plague of frogs upon Egypt. In Exodus 8:8 (ESV), Pharaoh then summons Moses and Aaron saying, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” Moses responds by telling Pharaoh to pick the time he wants them to intercede to the Lord on his behalf. Pharaoh said tomorrow. The time that Pharaoh designates is interesting because it causes us to ask, “Why would Pharaoh suffer the plague for an extra day when he could have ended it now?”
James 4:17 (ESV) states, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” As a leader to the Egyptian people, the right thing would be protecting his people from the plague. Spiritually for Pharaoh, the right thing would be to not enslave God’s chosen people and to take the path of humility in regards to the Lord’s discipline. Yet, the prideful Pharaoh chose to grit his teeth and harden his heart even further. The spiritual cost of Pharaoh’s sin is his eternal soul. The physical expense of his sin came to the continued suffering of himself and his people. Procrastinating till the next day could have easily contributed to Pharaoh’s temptation to harden his heart. Had Pharaoh decided to say, “ Right now I will release the Israelites and you will begin pleading on my behalf” then he would have had the ability to only do the right thing. However, deciding to wait gave Pharaoh the time to contemplate on his own desires and be tempted.
Imagine if while performing the miracles, Jesus said, “I am pretty tired guys, you can figure it out today, can’t you? I’m going to go back home and nap.” As God’s children our work is spreading God’s light into the world so that others can be saved from an eternal life of torture in Hell. Refusing to acknowledge the power of God led Pharaoh’s people to suffering from the plagues in this life and then eternally in the next due to idolatry. How wrapped up in unnecessary things must our souls be for us to potentially do the same to others. No one knows what tomorrow is going to bring for ourselves and others. If we die or Jesus comes today, we won’t be judged on what we were going to do tomorrow. All we are guaranteed is the present moment. How can you use your present moment for God?
[1] To give some background. God wanted Pharaoh to releases the Jewish slaves, so they could leave Egypt and worship God as a nation. Pharaoh obviously wanted to keep his slaves. At Moses and Aaron’s first meeting with Pharaoh they were asked to prove themselves and the Lord turned Aaron’s staff into a snake. Pharaoh had multiple of his sorcerers do the same to their staffs through their mystic arts. The Lord’s snake ate the rest. Then came the first plague, the water of the Nile turned to blood, and the fish died, polluting the river. The Bible says Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened as his sorcerers were able to do the same. Exodus starts with the second plague the Lord cast on Israel. The Bible says that Pharaoh’s sorcerers also made frogs come up, but notice that Pharaoh then turns to Moses and Aaron to remove the plague, not his sorcerers.
