Lessons From a Frog

It's a rare day when a fellow poker player offers a suggestion for this blog.  So we thank a woman named Laura for telling us about a meditation she did recently -- not on poker, but on frogs.

"Frogs are small and pretty helpless," she explained.  They also spend a lot of time each day sitting on lily pads.  So she concluded the letters in "frog" can teach us all a lesson - to "Fully Rely On God."


Frogs actually are mentioned in the Bible a few times, and not in the nicest ways....

The the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.  If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.  The Nile will teem with frogs....'" - Exodus 8:1-3

Frogs?!  Why a plague of frogs?  Some Bible scholars say Egyptians worshiped a "frog god," believing it helped women during childbirth.  So the real God was making a point here....

He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.  They performed his miraculous signs among them.... Their land teemed with frogs, which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers. - Psalm 105:26-30

The Israelites' God showed He was true, by controlling the "frog god" which was false.  But believe it or not, that false god could make a comeback.

Then I saw three evil spirits which looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.  They are spirits of demons, performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. - Revelation 16:13-14

These "frogs" (or whatever they really are) apparently will be far from small and helpless.  They'll organize world leaders to gather at Armageddon (verse 16) -- but chapters 17-19 indicate Jesus will return to Earth and smite many of them.

Bottom line: yes, we recommend Laura's advice.  Fully rely on God - even when you're playing poker.  And have nothing to do with green hopping lookalikes.

First to Act

Let's head back to that pre-game discussion about God from the other night.  A man noted the challenge of attempting to believe in something you can't easily see.

"Besides," he added, "how do we know Buddha wasn't the first god?"

The answer to that can be found in history.  Researchers agree the ancient Buddha was alive and teaching about 2,500 years ago.  The roots of Judeo-Christian faith have been around much longer.  Take this example....

Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. - II Chronicles 12:2

When was Shishak on the throne?  Archeologists who research these things (and know much more about it than we do) believe he was in charge around 925 B.C.  Rehoboam was the successor to King Solomon (I Kings 11:41-43) -- a leader who had several personal encounters with God (I Kings 9:1-2).  So this is a God who predates Buddha by hundreds of years.

But beyond the historical record, there's that matter of faith.  Faith that says....

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. - Psalm 90:2

How could God be around before there was a world?  Many have asked that question through the centuries.  It's a mystery waiting to be revealed after God sends His Son back to Earth.

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. - Colossians 2:2-3

Isaiah 55:9 adds God's ways are "higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  Are you prepared to have faith to trust God to reveal Himself -- at the time and schedule He considers best?