Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Entreat the LORD that He may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go that they may sacrifice to the LORD.”     Exodus 8:8 NKJV

When God called Moses to go to Egypt and take the Israelites out of there, he warned him that Pharaoh’s heart would be hardened, and he would not listen. Pharaoh had found himself in a very uncomfortable situation. The land of Egypt was literally crawling with frogs. They were everywhere. We are told in chapter 8, verses 3 and 4 that frogs were in their houses, on them, in their beds, in their bowls and in their ovens, yuck! Pharaoh needed these frogs gone.

So, he told Moses and Aaron that he would let the Israelites go if they would just appeal to God to get rid of these frogs. They did and God removed the frogs, but Pharaoh didn’t not keep his end of the bargain. He never intended to keep his end of the bargain, he simply wanted relief for him and his people.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever promised God that if He would do something for you, you would do something for Him. Maybe you promised to give up some sin that you had been clinging to. Maybe you promised to start going to church. Maybe you promised to curse less and praise Him more. How did that work out for you?

I’ve done this myself. I can tell you it didn’t work out so well. God doesn’t want us to use Him as our 911. Think about it, we call 911 when we are facing difficult times and need help. But we don’t have a lasting relationship with 911. The dispatcher sends first responders who handle the emergency, and we move on.

Our relationship with God should be just that- a relationship. We shouldn’t have to bargain to do better, we should just want to do better. We typically go back to our old ways once God resolves our problem, or at least that’s what I did.

There finally came a time in my life when I could no longer bargain. I had made such a mess I needed a long-term solution. I needed to rededicate my life to God and trust Him with the mess I made. As soon as I did this, He got right to work helping me clean it up. I’ll admit that process was a little painful, but once it was done, I felt much better. Sometimes we have to go through some pain to heal properly, kind of like a broken bone being set back in place.

Pharaoh tried several times to bargain with God but each time he fell right back into his old prideful, sinful ways. And in chapter 14 of Exodus, it caused not only his demise, but it destroyed his entire army.

We can’t really bargain with God because we have nothing to bargain with other than what He has given us. He has given us life. He has given us all we have or the ability to acquire all we have. He doesn’t want half-hearted efforts, He wants us to love Him and serve Him with all our hearts (Matthew 22:37-39).

God has given us His son on the cross to save us from our sins. He has offered the best He has to offer. Our trying to stay in the world and compromise isn’t going to work. We have to give Him our best as well. We have to put Him first in our lives.

Bargaining with God usually entails offering him a little bit of ourselves for a limited amount of time. When he comes through, we usually figure we can stop holding up our end. Things get better so we go back to our old ways.

This is a dangerous way to live. It destroyed Pharaoh and his army. Think about that for a minute.

Have a great day!