Not so! You that are men, [without your families] go and serve the Lord, for that is what you want. And [Moses and Aaron] were driven from Pharaoh’s presence. – Exodus 10:11, Amplified Bible

The reason God had to pelt Egypt with gradually increasing plagues was that Pharaoh was stubborn, proud, and set on having his own way. Under threat of the plague of locusts, Pharaoh’s hard shell began to crack, and he was open to the idea of letting some of the Israelites – the men only – leave Egypt to worship. But partial obedience is disobedience in God’s eyes, and since God would accept nothing less than all of Israel leaving Egypt, He sent the plague of locusts as threatened. After the plague of darkness, Pharaoh bent a little more, this time being willing to let the Israelites take their families, just not their flocks and herds. But Pharaoh was in no position to dictate terms to the Creator, and his partial obedience was met with even stiffer penalties. Finally, after the plague of the firstborn, Pharaoh obeyed completely, and the pain he had caused his people ceased until his pride and anger prompted him to chase Israel into the Red Sea.

We get trapped in Pharaoh’s world all of the time, rarely (if ever) realizing that our incomplete obedience is the cause of many of our troubles. We, like Pharaoh, are in no position to dictate to God the extent of our obedience, but we do it all of the time. God tells us to do one thing, but we only partially comply, or we don’t comply at all. Then, we wonder why trouble floods our lives, not grasping the fact that our disobedience has brought the trouble upon us.

Doing God’s will means doing ALL of God’s will, not part of it. Incomplete compliance is non-compliance, and God will continually express His disfavor with us until we get one thing through our thick skulls: God sets the rules, we don’t. The sooner we learn that, the smoother life will be. This doesn’t mean our lives will be trouble-free when we completely obey The Lord. It does mean that we will be God’s friend rather than His enemy, and when God is our Friend, trouble is a whole lot easier to navigate.

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