Exodus 7:3-5 - Homiletics

The fierceness of man turns to God's praise.

The most signal triumphs of Divine power are those in which the resistance to it is the most determined. The greatest of all victories was probably that which was gained when—after "war in heaven"—Satan was seen, like lightning, falling from heaven to earth. Since then, great triumphs, tending to God's praise, occur whenever the right and the truth succeed against seemingly insuperable opposition. When the boy shepherd with his sling and stone smites to the earth the gigantic Philistine—when the proud Sennacherib after all his boasts has to leave Jerusalem unhurt and fly to Nineveh—when Epiphanes is defied and baffled by a handful of Jewish mountaineers—when victory is finally gained by "Athanasius contra mundum," God's might is seen and recognised, as it would not have been, unless overwhelming strength had seemed to be arrayed against comparative weakness. When the "heathen rage," and the "kings of the earth and rulers" are on their side, and the cry of defiance goes forth: "Let us break God's bands asunder, and cast away his cords from us"—then God is most apt to show his might—to "refrain the spirit of princes," and make it manifest that he "is wonderful among the kings of the earth." The longer and fiercer the opposition, the more conspicuously is God's praise shown forth. Blow follows blow until the opposing power is shattered, smitten to the ground, laid prostrate. Then is the time for the song of triumph: "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed arc all they that put their trust in him!" ( Psalms 51:10-12 ).