BIBLE READING: Exodus 11-13
Have you ever gone to the mailbox and noticed a small postcard from the Power Company with the large print letters that say, “Final Notice”? Maybe you received a scolding from a parent that said, “You better stop hitting your brother, this is your FINAL WARNING!” The point of a final warning is to let you know, “This is your last chance, if you do not do what needs to be done there will be consequences.” In Exodus 11, God tells Moses that Pharaoh is going to get one final notice to release the children of Israel from bondage. Up until this point God has sent nine plagues that have devasted the land of Egypt, yet Pharaoh has been reluctant to free the Hebrews. God says to Pharaoh, “This is your final notice; one more plague and you will release the Jews”. I don’t want to even try to imagine the horror that the death of the firstborn brought upon the Egyptians because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness. There is a huge lesson in this for us today; God has already given us His final warning of the Judgement Day, although in the New Testament we read of the day that is coming when Christ will return to pronounce judgement upon the world. We cannot afford to be as stubborn as Pharaoh was in Egypt. We have received our final notice and if we do not live accordingly, we will have to suffer the consequences. The tenth plague might have been awful, but that will be a bed of roses compared to the horror of spending an eternity in hell. Church, make sure we take heed of the final notice.