How Close Can You Get to the Dark and Still Walk Away? | Day 63

Good morning. Good morning, all. It's good to have you today. All right. You want it? Here it is. There's a kind of darkness that isn't about the lights being off. It's the kind where you've said no to the same truth so many times. You genuinely can't even see it anymore. You're not it's not that you you won't see it. But you can't. Pharaoh got there. Exodus ten ends with darkness so thick you could spoon it up with ice cream scoop. So thick that the text says you can feel it. Three days. Nobody could see anybody else, not even across the room, couldn't see your hand in front of your face. And in that same Egypt, under that same sky, Israel had light where they live. Same land, same storm. How many mornings does it take before chosen blindness becomes permanent? Shalom. Good morning and welcome to True Word Faith for Life. I'm Dr. Sean. True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. Make sense. This is day 63. Exodus 10. My book, True Word, Faith for Life, is available now. Link is in the show description. Get a copy for somebody who's standing closer to the door than they realize. Today's question. How many times? If you're gonna get up this early. Some of you get up at 4 a.m. Some of you in order to watch this live. Some of you are on a drive to work right now. Some of you have just packed your kids' lunches. And it's you're bleary-eyed. And maybe your mind is a little foggy, but this is one where you gotta dial in. I have my green cup of Java. I should say my greener cup. Today's question is how close can you get to the dark and still walk away? You ready? Let's go on. Locust first. God tells Moses plainly why he's hardened Pharaoh's heart through all of this. So that Moses can tell his children and grandchildren what God did in Egypt. And so Egypt will know who the Lord is. This isn't just about Pharaoh anymore. It's about every generation watching. That's what we have to learn about God. That's why the ancient Near Eastern language culture and context is so important. Good morning. Good morning, Tammy. Good morning, Susan. Good morning, Linda. Good morning, Joe and Nicole and many others. The other day we had 400 plus people listening live. That's wild. Blows my mind. Welcome to you all. And wherever, however you're listening. Look, people skip over. Not just Genesis and Exodus, but the whole Old Testament. They skip over it. See, I like to be in the New Testament. I'm a New Testament Christian. Well, you can't be an effective Christian if you don't know where we came from and how. And really understand it. This isn't just about flannograph things or whiteboard illustrations or you know, some story in a book or a little video. Oh, that was horrible. My goodness. It's not about all that. You know, there's a little saying, if you know, you know. And if you don't know, you don't know. And if you don't know this, you don't know. It's not about Pharaoh anymore. It's about every generation watching after that, including ours. Moses warns Pharaoh. Locust tomorrow, covering everything green left standing, filling every house in Egypt like nothing anyone has ever seen. Pharaoh's own officials break first. They break. They say to him directly, How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go. Don't you understand? Egypt is already destroyed. His own men see it, Pharaoh's own men see it. He still won't move. He calls Moses back almost. Almost. One more negotiation. Go. But who exactly is going? When Moses says everyone, every person, every animal, Pharaoh throws them out. Well, then the locusts come. They stripped if you've ever seen a locust at work. And then imagine hundreds of millions of them. All in once. They strip Egypt completely bare. Every plant, every tree, nothing green left anywhere in the land. Then darkness comes. Total physical darkness. Three full days. Nobody moves. Nobody can see their own hand. They're frozen in place almost. The darkness is that thick. Couldn't eat. Imagine that. Imagine what you can't do for three days when you can't see anything. And yet, where Israel lives, in that same Egypt, light, capital L. Pharaoh calls, hey Lynette. Pharaoh calls Moses one final time in this chapter. He says, Go. He says, but leave your flocks and herds behind. This Pharaoh. Man, oh man, he's got some arrogance. Better not throw stones too hard at him for his arrogance against God. One final time. One final time in this chapter, he calls Moses and he tells him to go, but leave your flocks and herds behind. And Moses? He said what God told him to say, not one hoof stays. And Pharaoh throws him out again. And this time the threat is final. Don't show your face here again. Wait a second, I only came here because you called me. I went to you in good faith and told you what God said, let my people go, and you bowed up against it. Look, there's three things in this chapter, theologically speaking, there's three things in this chapter that carry the weight far past Egypt and into us. Good morning, Miss Colleen. First, the locusts and the darkness are a direct strike at Ra, the sun god, little G. It's the highest deity in the entire Egyptian pantheon. Now, I want you to understand, this is ancient Near Eastern language culture and context. I could break the words down and Hebrew and the culture down, and but suffice it to say this. Good morning, Linda. God bless you. God bless you all. Man, oh man, I love how y'all are just so faithful. You have to understand, Ra, the sun god, this is this is this is their. I get a bunch of gods, but this is little G's. Um this is the top. This is the highest one. In the entire Egyptian pantheon, this is the highest one. The one Pharaoh himself considered an incarnation. He considered it Ra, this incarnation of himself. He thought he was an incarnation of Ra on earth. Dude was. They said it out loud to his face, in front of his court. Don't you understand? Egypt is already destroyed. Good morning, Robbie. Listen, that's mind blowing. By the way, tomorrow, if you're listening live, tomorrow is Friday, of course. Uh tomorrow's will blow your mind. Tomorrow's message will blow your mind. And then Sunday, yes, I understand it's the day after July 4th, 250th. I'm super pumped about it. Um, I love my country. I served it, I paid a huge price for it. Um, but that's okay. It was worth it. You were worth it. And even though there's lots of people out there that'll tell you that we're the worst thing on earth, same as they'll tell you about Israel, that they're terrible, um, they're not right. Have we been perfect? No. But man, as a place to live, wow. Raise your family, start a business, good lands. I've been to a whole bunch of other countries, and I can tell you, they're nice. Some of them aren't so nice, to be honest. But I love America. But on Sunday, hopefully you'll be recovered enough. And uh maybe, maybe you'll join us. 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We'll summarize this whole week. We'll set you up proper for next week. Listen, his own official thinking think about the bravery involved there. Pharaoh kills people. Oh, you don't agree?

Boop.

You gone. He doesn't even have any second thought. Oh, I hated killing that Puritan. You know, they made a good omelet. Oh, no. He didn't give another thought. So when they rise up and say, Don't you understand? They were in front of his entire royal court. Don't you understand? Egypt is already destroyed. That took courage. Most of us don't give those officials credit for when you just breeze past it. Oh, I gotta, I gotta hurry up and read this because I'm reading the Bible. And I used to tell people all the time, I've read through the Bible 38 times. Um, I know it sounds crazy. I'm a little a lot weird. Reading through scripture to tick off boxes because you want to be finished in a year, and then say, I read through the Bible in a year. Well, it's it, you know, it's better than I don't know, there's lots of things that it's better than. But you miss it, you miss this. Look, Pharaoh's hardened, he his heart was hardened, his his mind was hardened. It didn't just cost him, it cost everybody under his authority. Everybody that thank you, Miss Colleen. Miss Colleen says the sound is good. I forgot to ask that again. It says everyone under his authority who could see clearly and still couldn't move him. No matter how plainly they said it, they said gently, then they said firmly, then they said loudly in front of the whole court, he wouldn't listen. Third, this is the center of the whole chapter. The same land held both deepest darkness and the deepest, darkest, I mean spoon thick darkness that Egypt had ever seen in all of their history. It was even darker than nighttime, darker than a totally blacked-out room. The same land that they held was totally dark, untouched light, and at the exact same time, under the exact same sky, the darkness wasn't a measure of how dark the world had become around Pharaoh. It was a measure of how far one man, how far that one man chose to walk from a light that had it had been available to him the whole time. The whole three days, the whole nine plagues before that. That's what chosen blindness, that is exactly what chosen blindness actually is. It's not an absence of light, it's a refusal of it. Repeated long enough that the refusal starts to feel like inability until the person doing the refusing genuinely believes they can't see anymore. When the truth is, they simply won't. You've watched somebody do this. Maybe you've done it yourself. Maybe you've been a bit of a pharaoh of sorts. And maybe you're doing it right now without quite admitting that's what it is. By the way, please consider subscribing to True Word of Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. Click on subscribe and the little bell and uh for all notifications. I'd love that. I'm on all the socials, so you find me there. Yeah. And I will tell you this: I lost a hundred and something subscribers in two days. And I lost them because of some things that I said. The things that I said are true. Sometimes you say stuff people don't like, but it's the truth, and you gotta hear the truth. Every warning sign was there. You you might be a somewhat pharaoh in your own world. Every warning sign was there for you, too. For me. People who loved you, they said it so plainly. They didn't dress it up, they said, hey man, hey lady, hey friend, hey fam. Maybe they said it the same way that Pharaoh's officials did, straight to your face. They didn't soften it, they didn't fluff it up. And something in you kept finding one more reason to wait, one more negotiation with God to try, one more version of mostly obeying instead of fully obeying. And telling yourself that mostly was close enough. Close enough. Nobody wakes up one morning suddenly blind to God. It happens one decline warning at a time. One small refusal stacked on top of the last one. Till eventually, the warnings stop registering at all. And you genuinely believe you never saw the devastation coming. Well, and it's now undeniably here. Here. Here. Here's the mercy hiding inside this very difficult chapter. And it's worth slowing down a little bit. The light is still real. Even in your darkest season, the light is still real. It's not far away. It's not used up. It didn't burn out. No matter how many warnings you've already declined, it's available the same way. The same way Goshen was, the Goshen's light was available that whole three days. In Goshen, where they were, the light never went out. The light over Israel, the people of God never went out. Right there in the same Egypt that Pharaoh was groping through blindness, darkness, self-imposed. Distance from the light is never once meant that the light moved. The light never moved. It's always meant that the choosing moved. Instead. Now take a deep breath, you're gonna need it. Three hours of darkness fell again. Centuries later, at noon, on a Friday, over Yushalaim, Jerusalem, while Yeshua, Jesus, hung on the cross. The sun failed again. Creation groaned again. And the moment that looked like the worst thing that had ever happened. The light of the world himself dying in the dark was the moment God was finishing something not ending it. Think about the parallel carefully. I want you to, if you're not driving, close your eyes and just think about this parallel. Egypt's darkness was judgment falling on the people who'd refused to see. The darkness at the cross was judgment falling on. Yeshua. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He never could commit one sin. He never refused anything. He saw clearer than anyone who had ever lived and ever will. And he chose the darkness on him anyway. He chose the pain. He chose the torture. He did it on purpose. So the judgment that we have earned by our own chosen blindness could land on him instead of us. He called himself the light of the world. Every place he's present, darkness doesn't get the final word. No matter how deep it's been pressed in, no matter how many warnings have already been declined before this one. A darkness that you're walking through right now. It isn't proof that God left. The cross proves he walks into the darkest hour on purpose and comes out on the other side of it. Goshen wasn't lucky. Wasn't some environmental anomaly. The topography in Goshen wasn't somehow or another so different that it that the light still shone because God is unrestricted. He's unrestrained. He do whatever he wants. Goshen wasn't lucky. Where the Israelites were, they weren't lucky. It was covenant. And that covenant has your name on it too. Listen, you've got to stop telling yourself you can't see and actually stand where the light, capital L is right now. You say, I want a I want a way that I can be in obedience. Here it is. First, name the warning you've declined the most times. I know what mine are. Do you know what yours are? Be specific. What has God or somebody who loves you told you plainly that you've negotiated around instead of obeyed more than once, and maybe more than ten times, I don't know. Maybe for years. I don't know your life. You know it. Second, stop negotiating the terms. Pharaoh kept trying to keep something back. The flocks, the herds, anything he could hold on to. I gotta win. It's happening in Iran right now. Persia. They are defeated. The IRGC is defeated. They're horrific people. The Iranian people, the Persian people are amazing people, but they are prisoners to nut jobs. It's the same you talk about, you know, uh the West Bank and Gaza. They are they have chosen to be imprisoned. They chose Hamas. They chose it. They kept choosing it. And and many of the people, these people say, oh, it's genocide. Keep flinging rockets, keep setting off bombs, keep flying drones. Instead of helping your own people. I don't know. Doesn't sound like genocide to me. Well, they killed so many more than were killed on October 7th. Listen, it doesn't work that way. Warfare doesn't work that way. They did what they needed to do. It had to be done. And actually, on Israeli National Radio, when I was interviewed, hey Chris, on Israeli National Radio, I I they asked me in my expertise what needs to be done. I said, bomb them to glass. Bomb them to glass. I'm sorry to say that if if they don't get rid of their own corrupt leadership, their own corrupt ideology, well, they've made their choice. They've made their choice. Same in Aon. I know it's hard to do. We're celebrating our 250th anniversary in the United States, in America, 250. We're a baby country. Sometimes you gotta make your choices, and they're hard choices. Pharaoh, you know, he tried to keep something back. Well, you know, just like modern Iran. Well, we want to be able to make nuclear. They're gonna do it anyway. They're gonna try. You gotta under you understand. One of these days I'll do I'll do an episode just on what Islam actually is and why the different places Iran is is inarguably the worst. But uh places that have this final caliphate mindset and and what they mean to do and what they do. Hate me if you want. I'm not trying to win some prize for most like guy on YouTube. I'll never be that guy. But I do I do want to tell you always the truth. Oh, we we want to be able to charge on the street of four moose, we want to be able to charge fees, passage fees. That's ransom, that's piracy. It's banning international law. Sorry, no. They keep pushing President Trump, he's gonna push back. But if you think what's been done over there now is devastation, you have no idea what we're capable of. They're still holding on to something to the detriment of their own people. Pharaoh was still holding on to something, trying to hold on to something. He wanted to see how close he could get and still get away. What about you? What are you holding on to? Don't leave one hoof in Egypt. Whatever it is for you, all of it goes, not most of it, not some of it. Number three, go stand in the light that's already available to you. It hasn't been far off, it never has been. Go find the light today on purpose in a real conversation or a real decision instead of waiting for the darkness to lift on its own. Because it won't. What warning have you heard and quietly decline more than once? Write it down. How close to the darkness have you allowed yourself, have you chosen for yourself to get? Telling yourself, I can still see fine. Meanwhile, you got bruises and busted up nose from bumping into things. Busted up life from bumping into things. What would it take for you to admit you stopped seeing something on purpose rather than calling it an accident? Rather than calling it an accident, you stop seeing it on purpose. Here's the choice. The choice is keep negotiating the terms of your obedience until the the warnings stop coming altogether. And then the judgment comes. Or walk toward the light that's been standing right in front of your own Egypt the whole time. Pray with me. Father, in the name of Yeshua, your son, our Redeemer and King. Thank you that your light doesn't ever run out, even in the deepest darkness anyone has ever walked through. Thank you that you walked into that darkest hour yourself on purpose and you came out on the other side for us. For everyone, I'm praying for everyone who's been declining the same warning for too long. Break through it today. For everyone standing closer to the dark than they realized. Show them that the light is closer still. In Yeshua's name. Amen. Maybe, maybe you felt that darkness pressing in, and you've called it just a bad season. I'm just going through a tough time. When it's actually distance from God Himself, the light hasn't moved. You can walk toward it right now. Don't put it off one more moment. Here's your chance. Pray this with me. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose again from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Forgive me. Fill me. Lead me. I'm yours. In your matchless name. Amen. If you just prayed that, welcome to the family. Go to true wordfaithforlife.com slash contact. I'm not gonna. It's free. Nobody harvests anything, sells anything. And you just contact me. I I will help you. You feel like you you don't have help, I'll help you. I'll help connect you with a local church, a good church, not perfect, there is no perfect one. Because we're in it. I'll help you know what to do next. Next steps. No reason to fear. By the way, if this is your first time with us, we've been walking through scripture chronologically since Genesis. True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N. You go to that, click on subscribe, click on the little bell for all notifications, and then go back to day one. You can listen, you know, to all of them. They're all there. If you want audio only on Truewordfaithforlife.com, under the episodes, they're all there. It's just audio only. If if your thing is Spotify or or Apple Podcasts or any of those things, we're on all those things. By the way, we're number four in Norway. I know. Hello to Norway. Start a day one and walk with us. Walk this journey, the story of God from the beginning. You can listen to that and listen to this. You can listen as many as you want the free. Three days of darkness. So thick it could be felt. And in the same land, under the same sky, light where God's people stood. Pharaoh chose the dark again and again and again until choosing it stopped feeling like a choice at all. You haven't got there yet, maybe. Not yet.

Maybe.

The light is still standing exactly where it has always stood. Walk toward it today. Today. Don't wait to do it. Today. If somebody you know has been standing closer to the dark than they realize, send them this episode. Tell them the light hasn't moved. It's closer than the darkness feels. Tomorrow is Friday. Shabbat is tomorrow if you do, if you observe the original Sabbath. We're going to be on at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. We'll be right here. It's one you don't want to miss. Now, I want you to receive this heavenly blessing in Yeshua's heavenly name. I'm nothing special. I'm just praying a prayer that's been prayed for centuries upon centuries. Are you ready? I'm going to pray it first in Hebrew. And no, I'm not speaking in tongues. And then I'm going to read it to you and say it to you and pray it over you in English. You ready? Deep breath. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Shalom Bishem Yeshua. Shalom Shalom.