Multiplication

At present I have taught three of my Crew to multiply. My youngest isn't quite old enough yet. The definition in my teacher's manual is that multiplication is a fast way to add the same number again and again.

I'm reading about the plagues in Exodus. For the first few plagues, the Egyptian magicians try to duplicate them. This struck me as rather ridiculous. God turns the Nile (which was their main water source) to blood, and the magicians say, "Well, we'll just turn MORE of the water to blood." (That is a bit of conjecture on my part. The Bible doesn't tell us what they were thinking, it only tells us what they did.) Then when God sends swarms of frogs to overrun their homes, the magicians bring in MORE frogs. And I thought, "Why in the world would they want to multiply their trouble?"

As I stewed on that, I realized that they were trying to prove that they were equal to this unknown-to-them god. If they could do what he did, they need not fear him. And in the beginning they did duplicate His work. They turned water to blood. They brought frogs up out of the Nile. And they multiplied their misery.

Then I realized that there are many ways in which I try to live as though I don't need God. Living as a sinner among other sinners in this fallen world is often miserable. There are good things, pleasant things, times of happiness. But there is just a whole lot of YUCK. There is still SO MUCH sin in my heart. And I don't like it. So I make my plans, and then I work hard to accomplish MY plan. Usually I end up frustrated because my plans just don't work out. There are too many variables over which I have no control. So I multiply my misery.

What I need is not to prove that I don't need God. Rather, I need to realize MORE how much I do NEED Him. And because of Christ's sacrifice in my place, and the work of the Spirit in my heart, that is what's happening. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:3-7