You Want Another Night?

If you’ve ever attended a Baptist revival meeting, you’ve seen an invitation where the preacher calls for “Just one more verse,” in prayer that someone on the edge of coming forward will do so while singing that one verse.  Some do.

Others put it off for another night.  They are following an example from the Bible, but it’s the wrong example.

We’re all familiar with Moses’ request to pharaoh to allow the children of Israel to go and worship their God – and his continued refusal to do so. Remember the frog part of the plagues?  Aaron stretched forth his rod and frogs came out of the river and covered the land:

Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat 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 do sacrifice unto the LORD.

Sounds straight forward, doesn’t it?  Sounds as though pharaoh was willing to comply and wanted the frogs gone, until we read the next part:

And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?

Even knowing that God was speaking through Moses, as explained in Exodus 4:12, I still wonder why Moses asked that, and wonder even more why pharaoh replied:

And he said, To morrow.

Yet God explained that in Exodus 4:5, and in Moses’ next words to pharaoh:

And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God. (Exodus 8:8-10 KJV)

“To morrow" looks a bit odd as two separate words. Pharaoh had just admitted that he thought Moses’ God could get rid of the frogs, otherwise he would not have agreed.  Could have done it right then, clearing them off the land, but he said “to morrow.”

That same answer is echoed in Scarlett O’Hara Butler’s movie line: "I won't think about that now, I'll think about that tomorrow."

The real problem for anything thinking that way is – the problem will still be there tomorrow, though the choices before us may change. Since pharaoh did not comply with his end of the bargain, the next plague was lice. Ignoring God’s plan for our lives may bring another set of problems, too.

How difficult is it, really, to read God’s word in a prayerful attitude, so that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God?