June 14, 2005
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Pastor Don wants me to teach a Bible study, so this week I was praying about what to do a word search on. I started out with the concept of shame and guilt, but then a thought came to me, that people said, I have sinned. Not all people who say this are repentent, and I was curious about who in the Bible said, “I have sinned.”
Here is the list I came across, If you know of any others who have said, “I have sinned” please let me know.
These four realized that they sinned, but did not repent or change direction after they made that confession.
Pharoah
Balaam
Judas
King Saul
These three have said, “I have sinned” and repented, even the repenting did not prevent them from facing the consequences of their actions, but they did make a heart change. Job did not say “I have sinned” in those exact words, but his words implied that he did.
David
Job
Aiken
Pharoah sat through several plagues that God gave the land of Egypt because Pharoah refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt. These plagues were very pointed, and two things I noticed were that they were directly related to the various gods that the Egyptians worshipped, and told Pharoah who believed he was like a god, that God was the all powerful one. But if you look at what the plagues are and read Revelation, you will see that they mirror the plagues that occur after the scroll, trumpets and bowls are used.
Exodus 9:27-34 Pharoah says I have sinned. The truth is, he had sinned all along, and all he wanted to do was stop the destruction of the crops. Moses knew that Pharoah was not really repentent and said as much in verse 30, “But as for you and your servants, I knw that you will not yet fear the Lord God.” Yet Moses went out, and spread his hands, and God made the hail stop.
The scary verse in this passage is Exodus 9:35 So the heart of Pharoah WAS HARD. Up until then, Pharoah hardened his heart, by the time of this 7th plague, his heart was Hard, and from that time on, God hardened Pharoah’s heart, because that was what Pharoah wished. He had no desire to repent or turn around, even after his heart was broken at the death of his first born son. There was no repentence in Pharoah.
It is important to realize that the 7th plague dealt with the first crop of growing cycle in Egypt. God spared the wheat and the spelt, the second crop of the growing cycle.
God was merciful to the Egyptians. But they did not repent of their treatment of the Israelites. In Revelation there are two hailstorms, the first one comes after the first trumpet sounds when hail and fire mixed with blood is thrown to the earth destroying a third of the trees, and all the green grass. Rev. 8:7.
I will add on to this study later today, but Jim need computer now for work.
Heather
Comments (11)
Fascinating. That’s going to be a great study.
A nice contrast is the difference between David’s repentance and Saul’s (compare to Peter and Judas). When you look at their sins, we tend to see David’s as far worse than Saul’s and yet God rips the kingdom from Saul and says David is a man after his own heart.
I think the Egyptian people did have compassion over the Israelite people because of the harsh treatement they received at Pharaoh’s hand. I think that’s part of the reason they gave them so much of their personal wealth when they left.
Good stuff.
RYC – Yeah, I thought of the aspect of children giving gifts. I was thinking more along the lines of kids giving their parents gifts purchased with money the parents had given them. I think God is pleased when we offer up what we have as a gift, I just wanted to bring out how arrogant we can sometimes be when we think we’re giving God something he needs or something that we’ve developed on our own.
Wow, sis, that’s a good bible study you got going on there!!!
Have a blessed and wonderful day!!!!
Wow, I really like that. I cannot wait to see more of the Bible study!
God Bless!
Rebekah
((hugs))
Thank you.
&& no worries.
xo
Hey! I’m glad he asked you to teach!!! I think you should do it more often…
This is wonderful.
Glad you like the archives. The second one was a goof because of something my brother-in-law said. Not my brightest shining moments, but it was fun to make.
Now thats one that you don’t hear taught much on these days…gosh I wish I was going to be around for it but the nice thing about Xanga is you can go back and read past posts!…
I will be praying for all my Xanga friends while we are gone….
You will be awesome at teaching….!
Thanks for leaving the comment – ditto and likewise for yours. Looking forward to hearing more about this one.
Hehe, for sure.
“If I focus too much on myself, I find that I just sink deeper and deeper into the mire, and there are days when I do sink, and there are days when depression gets the better of me.”
True. But it’s a balance. It wouldn’t be good to focus too much NOT on yourself (like me) either. Heh. Two extremes.
…thank yah!
xo
That sounds like a great study. Good contrast.