{"id":2082,"date":"2013-07-30T10:10:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T14:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:55:17","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:55:17","slug":"interpreting-life-rather-than-creating-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/07\/interpreting-life-rather-than-creating-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Interpreting life rather than creating life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Exodus 9 tells part of the story where Moses asked Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go. Pharaoh wasn\u2019t too keen on losing his slaves, so Moses had to give him an incentive. With Moses came a slew of plagues to induce Pharaoh to finally release the Israelites.<\/p>\n<p>I was struck by verse 16, where Moses thought God said, \u201cBut indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared I all the earth.\u201d (NKJV)<\/p>\n<p>What is this power of God? Is God declared in plagues?<\/p>\n<p>It seems Moses used God&#8217;s power to impose plagues on Pharaoh\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>I tried to see it from Pharaoh\u2019s perspective, who required a lot of convincing. Plagues are a normal part of life. So be it. Humans survive. There is nothing wrong with having slaves, the Israelites can serve their God while they are working for him.<\/p>\n<p>But, my God is only capable of manifesting goodness and had nothing to do with the plagues.<\/p>\n<p>It was all a matter of interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>If God sends anything, it is moral courage, humility, and spirituality.<\/p>\n<p>A human mind bent on fear, arrogance, and materiality is naturally going to interpret the goodness as something to fit its own agenda or something terrible.<\/p>\n<p>The presence of courage exists and Moses interpreted it as alive and useful. Pharaoh interpreted moral courage as rebellion and unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve concluded the power of God is good and can be interpreted as good.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of thinking I need to create my future, I can correctly interpret the future God has manifest, one of goodness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exodus 9 tells part of the story where Moses asked Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go. Pharaoh wasn\u2019t too keen on losing his slaves, so Moses had to give him an incentive. With Moses came a slew of plagues to induce Pharaoh to finally release the Israelites. I was struck by verse 16,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[24,1056,1058,1057,770],"class_list":["post-2082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","tag-christian-science-2","tag-escping-salvery","tag-michalangelo","tag-power-of-god","tag-what-is-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Interpreting life rather than creating life - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/07\/interpreting-life-rather-than-creating-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interpreting life rather than creating life - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Exodus 9 tells part of the story where Moses asked Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go. Pharaoh wasn\u2019t too keen on losing his slaves, so Moses had to give him an incentive. With Moses came a slew of plagues to induce Pharaoh to finally release the Israelites. I was struck by verse 16,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/07\/interpreting-life-rather-than-creating-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-30T14:10:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-19T12:55:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Interpreting life rather than creating life - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/07\/interpreting-life-rather-than-creating-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Interpreting life rather than creating life - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"Exodus 9 tells part of the story where Moses asked Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go. 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