Tomorrow! Tomorrow! It’s Only a Day Away!
February 2, 2021
Tomorrow is only a day away and depending on the situation, that can be a delightful or dreadful day away! As a little kid, knowing Christmas or my birthday was tomorrow was so exciting. However, as a kindergartener, on the night before getting my tonsils out, I dreaded tomorrow! “Only a day away” is either a delight or a dread!
I would think that the account of the second plague of frogs, in Exodus 8, would be a case of dreading tomorrow if frogs were in the forecast. God told Moses to approach Pharaoh, who had a hardened heart, with the request to let the Israelites go to worship the LORD (“let my people go”) and to warn Pharaoh if he denied the request, then God would plague the whole country with frogs. Exodus 8: 3-4 tells us the Nile would swarm with frogs and they would come into Pharaoh’s house, bedroom, and bed, and then into the houses of Pharaoh’s servants and people, and into their ovens and kneading bowls. EW! Are you shivering at the thought?
God delivered on His promise when Pharaoh refused to allow Moses’ people to go. Frogs decorated the landscape and entered houses and even jumped upon the people. However, it seems as though Pharaoh had a change of heart in Exodus 8: 8:
Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.” 9 Moses said to Pharaoh, “Be pleased to command me when I am to plead for you and for your servants and for your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.”
Pharaoh was up to his eyeballs in frog legs and asked Moses and Aaron to plead with the LORD to remove them. Notice that Moses complied and in essence said, “Okay! Just tell me when!” Pharaoh’s next reply intrigues me every time I read it:
10 And he said, “Tomorrow.”
Tomorrow? Why tomorrow? Why not today? Even though it’s only a day away, if I had been type-casted into the role of Pharaoh, I would have said, “Today. Right now!” I would not have wanted to spend one more night with the frogs. Or would I?
It is interesting to note that the word “tomorrow” is used 6 times in relation to the 10 plagues of Egypt. While I cannot wrap my mind around waiting until tomorrow to have the plague removed, I realize that I put many “frogs” off until tomorrow. I wait until tomorrow to do many things I know I should do today—making a phone call to a distant, dear friend, sending a card to a shut-in, eating healthier, getting up earlier to pray, or waiting until tomorrow to say I’m sorry.
I put off my “frogs” until tomorrow and I am guessing I am in good company. Many people put off many things until tomorrow and some even wait on the most important decision in life—coming to Christ and receiving Him as Savior and Lord.
The Bible says:
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6: 2
7bToday, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts…
Hebrews 3: 7b-8a
Tomorrow! Tomorrow! It’s only a day away, but why spend one more night with the frogs?