I’m reading about the plagues, Exodus chapters 7 – 12, and it’s interesting to note the cooperation between Moses and Aaron and the Lord. For example, here’s the first one:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water. Stand on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you, saying, “Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.” But so far, you have not obeyed. Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood. The fish in the Nile shall die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary of drinking water from the Nile.”’” And the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, their canals, and their ponds, and all their pools of water, so that they may become blood, and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’” (Exodus 7.14 – 19, ESV, emphases mine)

God could have just done what he wanted, but in some cases, like the one above, he asks Moses to stretch out his staff. In one case Moses threw dust into the air. In some cases, Moses prays to start and/or stop the plagues. In all cases, there is communication with Pharaoh. 

It’s a good lesson on co-laboring with God. God can do whatever he wants, but he prefers to work with and through people. Prayer is part of it. Communication is part of it. Symbolic gestures are part of it.

We see the same lesson in Jeremiah 29.7:

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (ESV)

Couldn’t God bless the city without their prayer? But he chooses to have us co-labor through prayer. I’ll continue this theme tomorrow.